EX200 Deploy, configure, and maintain systems Practice Question
A system has a disk that may be failing. Which tool can be used to check the health of a SATA disk using SMART monitoring?
⚠ Common exam trap
Red Hat often tests the distinction between file system tools (fsck), block-level utilities (dd, badblocks), and hardware monitoring tools (smartctl), leading candidates to confuse disk surface testing with SMART health checks.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
smartctl
smartctl is the correct tool because it directly interfaces with the Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology (SMART) built into modern SATA and ATA drives. It can query the drive's internal health metrics, such as reallocated sector counts and temperature, to predict potential failure. The other options do not access SMART data.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
fsck
Why it's wrong here
fsck validates filesystem metadata and repairs structural inconsistencies, operating at the logical layer of partitions and inodes rather than querying the disk's internal self-monitoring hardware. It cannot access S.M.A.R.T. data and does not assess media reliability or predict mechanical/electronic failure, so a disk that passes fsck may still be physically failing. For health monitoring, you need a tool that communicates with the disk's firmware.
- ✗
dd
Why it's wrong here
dd is a raw data duplicator and converter that copies byte streams between devices or files, commonly used for disk imaging, cloning, or wiping. It does not query the disk's health status, has no command-line options to read S.M.A.R.T. attributes, and its successful execution merely indicates that the requested data transfer completed, not that the underlying medium is sound. Using dd as a health check would only reveal unreadable sectors if the copy fails, missing the predictive diagnostics provided by S.M.A.R.T.
- ✓
smartctl
Why this is correct
smartctl from the smartmontools package is the correct tool for assessing disk health because it queries the S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) subsystem built into the drive's firmware. It retrieves attribute values like reallocated-sector counts, raw read error rates, and temperature, and can invoke self-tests such as short or long tests to verify the media. By comparing current values against failure thresholds, smartctl provides early warning of impending disk failure, unlike filesystem or block-level tools.
- ✗
badblocks
Why it's wrong here
badblocks performs a low-level scan of the device by writing test patterns and reading them back, explicitly identifying bad sectors and marking them for the filesystem to avoid. It does not interact with S.M.A.R.T. and cannot access the disk's internal logs or predictive indicators, so it only detects already-manifested physical damage. Running badblocks on a failing disk can actually exacerbate degradation by forcing additional reads/writes, and it does not report the trend data that smartctl offers.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every EX200 question from scratch — 427 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This EX200 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Red Hat certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the EX200 exam.