Hard Drive diagnostics questions

[Samsonid]

There are two drives on this system. I query the S.M.A.R.T. data of the drives using
HD-Inspector, Lavalys Everest and SpeedFan.

Question 1
The first drive is a Quantum fireball AS, based on the SMART data the only problem I see is the UltraATA CRC Error rate at value=1, worst=1.

-->Is this possibly a cabling issue jacking the error rate? (I am using the CoolerMaster round cables) and I see the grounding wire is loose. Is this the culprint, or is the drive going bad ?

Question 2
The second drive is Raptor WD740GB.
SMART, reports a spinup time value at 63. All other values are spotless, perfect (not a hitch anywhere). This drive has been on 24/7 since Jun10 2004. This is 12000 hours while the MTBF is 1.2 million hours.

-->Is this drive really wearing down ? I suspect, that there must be some friction build-up for it to have slow spinup. Is the temperature too low and thus the liquid bearings too viscus during startup ?

Is this drive wearing out sooner than expected ?

 

[Lord Evermore]

1) You MUST have some other cables around that you could test with to see if the cable is the problem. However the error indicates only that it has an error rate of 1, and the worst it's ever gotten is 1. My own drive right now shows a rate of 200, I don't have any problems.

2) Since SMART considers that test as "always passing", don't be bothered too much by it. If it increases over time, that might be indicative of a problem, but if you don't know what it was originally, then you don't even know if it's changed. Unless the drive is spinning up and down continuously, you'd never even notice it. 63ms doesn't sound like a terrible spinup time, mine's at 70 and doesn't have to reach nearly the speeds of a Raptor.

If you're really concerned, run the diagnostics from the manufacturers. At least that way if there is a problem, you get the RMA codes.

Incidentally, why the hell do you have a Fireball AS as your primary drive?

 

[Samsonid]

Thank you for the repsonses 🙂

About the error rate: Yeah I do have cables to test. I am not sure if the SMART values would change upwards once they reached a low point, but I will try to see.

only that it has an error rate of 1, and the worst it's ever gotten is 1. My own drive right now shows a rate of 200, I don't have any problems.

Well, 1 means worst possible (the lower numers are bad... this is not the raw data value)
For example your drive is spotless ! Perfect score !

Since SMART considers that test as "always passing", don't be bothered too much by it. If it increases over time, that might be indicative of a problem

Good point. i keep an eye on it and see if there is a trend.

Incidentally, why the hell do you have a Fireball AS as your primary drive?

haha 🙂
The fireball is on the primary IDE channel but it is not the boot drive. Sorry for the confusion, I didn't mean to imply that the drive mentioned first was the bootable one.
The Raptor is the workhorse and has been spinning non-stop for a year. The fireball is just a backup drive.

 

[Lord Evermore]

"worst" means worst it's ever been, not worst possible. However it does appear that 1 is just about the worst possible as well. 🙂 However if there were actually so many errors that it hit the limit, you'd have to be noticing problems. That is an awfully old drive. You seriously ought to do a full disk scan with the Maxtor PowerMax tool.

 

[Samsonid]

Originally posted by: Lord Evermore
"worst" means worst it's ever been, not worst possible.

True, but 0 the threshold... so ... I am close. Also, HD-Inspector is issuing me an imminent failure warning, because of that.

On the other hand SpeedFan reports 75% healthy.... I am confused... 😕

 

[Samsonid]

Originally posted by: Lord Evermore
You seriously ought to do a full disk scan with the Maxtor PowerMax tool.

oops, we were posting at the same time.

Thank you for the hint. I will try this immediately 🙂

 

[Lord Evermore]

On the other hand SpeedFan reports 75% healthy

Maybe that means it considers that problem to be worth a 25% bad rating.

I think that these might be errors that have been corrected, which is why it's not necessarily considered a failed drive immediately. I'd consider a cable swap before taking the time to do a drive test.