Crystaldisk info explanation

[Marko Išek]

Hi everyone,

I had some problems with my laptop for the last 2 weeks. I had win 10 and one day when I turned my pc on it took 10 min for windows to boot, usually it takes 25 sec (thats what 360 security says). It was super slow, it took 2 minutes to open one folder on desktop. I then fomated my C disk ( i have C and D) and installed win 7. It worked fine for 2 days and then i started to work slow again. I tried to open word file and it blocked my pc.
Then i formated C and D disk, installed win 7 again with no files just to use office for college.

I then tried to extract files from one power iso file and it blocked my pc. Restarted it few times and tried again but it failed every time. The last time i hot error saying: "Toshiba HDD/SDD Alert. Unable to get disk information, can not use the alert feature."

Note that my pc is usually very hot. Idk if its hotter now because of hdd or some other issue.

I installed crystaldisk info. Set raw values to 10[DEC] and i got this:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskInfo 7.0.5 (C) 2008-2016 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

OS : Windows 7 Ultimate [6.1 Build 7600] (x64)
Date : 2017/07/07 13:20:22

-- Controller Map ----------------------------------------------------------
- ATA Channel 4 (4) [ATA]
+ Intel(R) 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller - 1E03 [ATA]
+ ATA Channel 0 (0)
- TOSHIBA MQ01ABD100 ATA Device
+ ATA Channel 2 (2)
- TSSTcorp CDDVDW SN-208AB ATA Device
- ATA Channel 3 (3)
- ATA Channel 4 (4)

-- Disk List ---------------------------------------------------------------
(1) TOSHIBA MQ01ABD100 : 1000,2 GB [0/0/0, pd1]

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1) TOSHIBA MQ01ABD100
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Model : TOSHIBA MQ01ABD100
Firmware : AX002M
Serial Number : 4232S2IVS
Disk Size : 1000,2 GB (8,4/137,4/1000,2/1000,2)
Buffer Size : 8192 KB
Queue Depth : 32
# of Sectors : 1953525168
Rotation Rate : 5400 RPM
Interface : Serial ATA
Major Version : ATA8-ACS
Minor Version : ----
Transfer Mode : SATA/300 | SATA/300
Power On Hours : 11900 hours
Power On Count : 5284 count
Temperature : 48 C (118 F)
Health Status : Caution
Features : S.M.A.R.T., APM, 48bit LBA, NCQ
APM Level : 0080h [ON]
AAM Level : ----
Drive Letter : C: D:

-- S.M.A.R.T. --------------------------------------------------------------
ID Cur Wor Thr RawValues(6) Attribute Name
01 100 _98 _50 000000000000 Read Error Rate
02 100 100 _50 000000000000 Throughput Performance
03 100 100 __1 00000000069D Spin-Up Time
04 100 100 __0 0000000014EC Start/Stop Count
05 100 100 _50 000000000080 Reallocated Sectors Count
07 100 100 _50 000000000000 Seek Error Rate
08 100 100 _50 000000000000 Seek Time Performance
09 _71 _71 __0 000000002E7C Power-On Hours
0A 206 100 _30 000000000000 Spin Retry Count
0C 100 100 __0 0000000014A4 Power Cycle Count
BF 100 100 __0 000000000237 G-Sense Error Rate
C0 100 100 __0 00000000004A Power-off Retract Count
C1 _96 _96 __0 00000000B716 Load/Unload Cycle Count
C2 100 100 __0 0034000D0030 Temperature
C4 100 100 __0 00000000000F Reallocation Event Count
C5 100 100 __0 0000000012F8 Current Pending Sector Count
C6 100 100 __0 000000000000 Uncorrectable Sector Count
C7 200 200 __0 000000000000 UltraDMA CRC Error Count
DC 100 100 __0 000000000000 Disk Shift
DE _79 _79 __0 0000000021CC Loaded Hours
DF 100 100 __0 000000000000 Load/Unload Retry Count
E0 100 100 __0 000000000000 Load Friction
E2 100 100 __0 000000000109 Load 'In'-time
F0 100 100 __1 000000000000 Head Flying Hours


Do I need new HDD? Should I take my laptop for repair? Is HDD the problem or something else?
Laptop is 4 years and 9 months old. Toshiba sattelite L850-131 is the model.

 

[mikeymikec]

"Reallocated sectors count" are the number of sectors found to be iffy by your HDD. These sectors likely once contained data that has since been recovered and moved to another sector (the original sector won't get used again). Assuming that I'm correct in reading the raw value here to be something higher than zero, your HDD has done what it's supposed to do when it found iffy sectors, however the sectors should not have been iffy in the first place. So it's a "best of a bad situation" scenario: If it hadn't found and reallocated those sectors, instability relating to the HDD not serving up data in a timely manner would have been probable.

"Current Pending Sector Count" relates to the number of sectors found to be iffy that have not yet been reallocated. Yours has some by the looks of it, which is a worse scenario than the one described in the previous paragraph.

IMO a drive that starts developing bad sectors is likely to go on doing so, so I advise customers that either:

1 - If their use of the computer is casual (ie. being without it for a say a week if not really a problem, while the drive gets replaced at an unexpected and potentially inopportune moment), then they may just want to make sure their data is backed up on a regular enough basis so that if the worst happens, they have a spare copy of their data, and wait for the (likely) inevitable.

2 - If their use of the computer is time-sensitive (ie. being without it at an unexpected moment for a matter of days or more is a problem), then they ought to get the drive replaced at the soonest convenient moment rather than running the risk of it failing at an inconvenient moment.

In any case, the situation could get worse than it currently is if for example a critical piece of data (such as the Windows registry) is stored in a sector that becomes iffy, then Windows might fail to start and requires a bit of technical TLC which may or may not temporarily resolve the issue. There is no cure for bad sectors; they can be disabled and a sector from the drive's reserve will be used, but that reserve is obviously finite in capacity.

PS - never format a computer that is acting strangely. A failing HDD's symptoms can be covered up for a short while by doing so. It's best to do some checks on the HDD first to make sure it's OK.

 

[PliotronX]

The pending sector count is the one that will produce sluggishness, bluescreens, freezing etc. and the drive has 4,856 of them. These have been marked by the drive as suspicious but it cannot reliably move the data contained on those sectors. When you reformat (uncheck quick format), usually the drive will successfully test those sectors and remap the truly bad ones (pumping up reallocated sector count) and relieve the ones that are still good. The drive is also at 128 reallocated sectors and to give you some perspective, normally users will replace drives when they enter double digits in reallocated sectors. I would use the opportunity to install a SSD; trust me, the time saved in waiting for programs to load will be greatly appreciated for schoolwork.

 

[Marko Išek]

Thank you very much for the useful information.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yeah, drive is toast. 4 years 9 months is a good lifespan for a laptop HDD that is subject to bumps 'n bruises. If the laptop is still a viable machine for what you want to do with it, then install a 2.5" SSD. They can be had for around $80-100 USD for a 240/250/256GB model.

I recommend an Adata SU800 Ultimate, or Crucial MX300. Samsung 850 EVO is decent too, but quite a bit more expensive.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Note that my pc is usually very hot. Idk if its hotter now because of hdd or some other issue.

Has the laptop ever been cleaned? Disassembled and cleaned? At that age, I would have a professional cleaning of the laptop, where they disassemble it, clean out the fans and vents, and re-apply thermal paste where needed in the cooling system.

If you (or a professional) take it apart to install the SSD, you can clean it at the same time.

It's not hard, but be aware when you're re-applying thermal paste, that sometimes they use a small, flat, "shim" on the CPU or GPU die, if they are varying heights, sandwiched in with the thermal paste.

I currently use MX-4, it's carbon-based. You might want to use something else. Would not recommend Arctic Silver 5.

The various Shin Etsu pastes might be good, but those can be harder to find.

 

[Marko Išek]

My brother gave my his old HDD that he had on his old laptop. I don't have any issues anymore but this HDD is also old. Crystaldiskinfo is not showing "caution" on any attributes so i will keep this HDD until I save some money for SSD.

Temperature is now lower. It was 49-53 C and now its 43 C.

PS my laptop was cleaned from the dust two years ago but when I was changing HDD I didn't see any dust inside (I opened only part of laptop where HDD is, not whole housing).I think that the reason for high temperature is my vent. It works very "lazy". Kinda works on top rpm and then slows down for 20 sec, than again it starts working very fast for 5 sec and then slow down etc. Idk why it is changing rpm when my laptop is constantly hot. Maybe I need new thermal paste and maybe put some lube on vent shaft to reduce friction.