Hard Drive health CAUTION in Crystal Disc

[Nessism]

How bad is this thing? It's more than 5 years old so should I just pull it now or wait?

 

[BoomerD]

Have you tried reformatting it?

 

[Mark R]

Those SMART statistics look pristine. Nothing, at all, to be worried about. They indicate that your drive is in perfect health.

The drive has, at some point, repaired a total of 7 bad sectors. However, it logs all repairs. And this is what Crystaldisk is whining about.

 

[razel]

It's has corrected a decent amount of bad sectors. I'd run the WD Diagnosis software, while that runs check it's warranty using it's serial # WD's website. Even if it's out of warranty you can get a VERY good discount on new WD drive.

It's been great right now. I'll be heading off to the beach in a bit. You're a little bit closer than I.

 

[Cr0nJ0b]

I would RMA it. If you are getting that many corrected sectors, I wouldn't trust it.

 

[Rubycon]

I would be a bit concerned on an older raptor that's growing defective sectors. If that's a system drive you may want to consider imaging to another disk.

 

[techs]

I would be a bit concerned on an older raptor that's growing defective sectors. If that's a system drive you may want to consider imaging to another disk.

this.

While it's important as to when the bad sectors occurred, the total of seven is usually too many for me to trust the drive.

 

[jjsbasmt]

15,000 hours plus dosen't worry me too much, but the over 5 years old and the number of reallocated sectors do. If it was me, I'd have that thing imaged already and be intently looking for a good deal on a new one. I may be wrong on this - but my thoughts have alway been "bad sectors means more to come and possibly soon".

 

[BoomerD]

Geez...only 15,000 hours? Slacker...

(that was new about 1/1/2007)

 

[Seven]

Geez...only 15,000 hours? Slacker...

(that was new about 1/1/2007)

Is that your main drive? Here is my old keeper..

 

[faxon]

Ooh man now I'm going to have to go and see what my oldest drive I have that's still in use/not dead is xD. I think I have a pair of 30gb Maxtor IDE drives somewhere which might set some records if they aren't bad

 

[bigboxes]

Geez...only 15,000 hours? Slacker...

(that was new about 1/1/2007)

26k hours? Pffft. By the way, you reboot way too often. Slacker...

 

[Seven]

26k hours? Pffft. By the way, you reboot way too often. Slacker...

Nice! That raptor must be a keeper.

 

[mrpete]

I'm with the "It will likely go bad" crowd. It might go bad in 1 - 6 months ... but then again, maybe not. It's mechanical and you never can tell. The Google disk study found that having 1 or more reallocated sectors multiplied the probability of disk death within 60 days by a factor of 14.

After you get the data off the drive one possible use you could put the disk to would be to put your pagefile.sys (Win) or swap (*nix) on the disk. If somehow you could find out what zone the reallocated sectors were in and then partition that zone into its own partition that could be interesting. If possible put the page/swap pretty near the beginning of the disk, but not right at the beginning. On Windows to be able to go with this pagefile.sys migration you really need to have another small scratch disk around that you could substitute in a pinch if/when the Raptor fails to help get the pagefile.sys back on your boot drive.

I've heard of some Win7 folks dumping their pagefile.sys via registry tweaks. If that's you then ...

Alternately, if you could somehow put your browser cache on the Raptor that could be another "scratch area" type use that would distribute I/O a bit.

Keep watching the reallocation count. If it goes up get more ready to dump the disk.

I kinda like razel's idea of a trade in for a good discount. Could we hear more about that razel? Where on the WD website could I go for that if/when I need it? What else could I buy? SSD? I've got a WD1500AHFD that I bought 2nd hand (it's doing great). Do I need a receipt for warranty work or discount?

 

[taltamir]

How bad is this thing? It's more than 5 years old so should I just pull it now or wait?

You have 7 bad sectors (RAW Value). This translates to a "normalized value" of 199 (0 bad sectors gives a normalized value of 200). threshold is 140, when you get enough bad sectors for the normalized value to drop to 140, the drive will begin reporting imminent failure. Which means there is a 2/3 chance that it will really fail imminently. conversely, it might fail without such warning or it might continue working well for years after it starts giving the imminent failure warning.

Caution is advised, watch the RAW value and see if it worsens, or the normalized value if you wish. Replacing the drive is not strictly necessary, yet. But if you continue to use it make sure you have backups.

It being more than 5 years old does add further reason for caution. And it being mere 80 gig... well, I would have said it would be cheap and easy to replace something that ancient... except its almost certainly an IDE drive to you will waste extra money.

 

[razel]

I kinda like razel's idea of a trade in for a good discount.

It's after you check your serial number's warranty on WD's site. Usually if it's out of warranty there is a link for you to upgrade to a newer one. I think if it's still within warranty you'll still get that link, but the deal is less.

I don't think you have to send in your old one. You don't even have to buy the same type. It's just their way of clearing old inventory and keeping your business. The deals vary, but the last time I checked the deals were worth it.

 

[taltamir]

It's after you check your serial number's warranty on WD's site. Usually if it's out of warranty there is a link for you to upgrade to a newer one. I think if it's still within warranty you'll still get that link, but the deal is less.

I don't think you have to send in your old one. You don't even have to buy the same type. It's just their way of clearing old inventory and keeping your business. The deals vary, but the last time I checked the deals were worth it.

i didn't know that they did that... sounds interesting, I better look it up.

 

[Nessism]

It's has corrected a decent amount of bad sectors. I'd run the WD Diagnosis software, while that runs check it's warranty using it's serial # WD's website. Even if it's out of warranty you can get a VERY good discount on new WD drive.

It's been great right now. I'll be heading off to the beach in a bit. You're a little bit closer than I.

Yea, it was an amazingly beautiful day here in So Calif.

So downloaded and ran the WD data lifeguard software and the drive passes. I don't understand what all the various attribute tests represent but apparently the drive isn't in a critical situation.

I'll back it up and go from there. It's my old XP image that rarely gets used so I'm not worried about loosing it other than some of the data files, which are mostly backed up already.

Thanks to everyone that offered help.

 

[BoomerD]

Is that your main drive? Here is my old keeper..

MAIN drive? It's my ONLY drive...at least in this computer.

26k hours? Pffft. By the way, you reboot way too often. Slacker...

Sweet...BTW, I turn my computer off every night...gotta save electricity y'know...

 

[memory]

I am having a similar issue with my WD 500gb Caviar Black. I just installed Windows 7 ultimate on it. This drive is not that old. This is on the build that is for my dad. Should I be worried about this?

[URL=http://img143.imageshack.us/i/50929431.png/] Uploaded with [/URL]ImageShack.us

 

[taltamir]

14D is hex for 333. You have had 333 bad sectors reallocated.
This dropped your normalized value from 200 to 158. When it drops all the way down to 140 the drive will report itself as about to fail. It might not fail even then though, or it might fail.

That being said, I would be concerned about that many bad sectors.

 

[memory]

Ok, is it possible that is a false reading?

I tried to boot from a WD Diagnostic cd and it said it didn't recognize any WD drives. Is that a bad sign?

I am running Seagate Seatools right now and so far it hasn't passed the smart check. I am currently running the long generic test(taking several hours) and it has passed the other tests.

I am thinking I should just RMA the drive since it is under warranty. I don't think I want to take the chance.

Do you think I should contact WD before doing an RMA?

 

[Binky]

Seven reallocated sectors doesn't sound so bad as long as it stays there and doesn't grow (these things tend to multiply). Just watch it like you would an ugly mole. If it changes and/or gets worse, see a doctor! If it stays the same, you should be ok.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I am having a similar issue with my WD 500gb Caviar Black. I just installed Windows 7 ultimate on it. This drive is not that old. This is on the build that is for my dad. Should I be worried about this?

That's pretty bad dude. Time to RMA that sucker!

 

[memory]

That is what I figured.

What is the best way to format this before I send it back?

Windows 7 Ultimate upgrade is installed on this drive which needs an existing Windows installed. I had Windows XP installed on it. When I go through the setup to install Windows 7, I chose the custom path and formatted the drive and Windows 7 installed and activated fine.

Now when I get the new drive, will I be able to install Windows 7 without having to install another Windows first? It seemed to work as the full version the first time. Any reason that Windows needs to be unactivated before formatting and sending the drive back? Is it possible to unactivate Windows?