Is my 2TB Hitachi 7K3000 drive failing?

[FAUguy]

Back in Jan 2012 I purchased two of these Hitachi 2TB 7K3000 drives, as the Seagate drivers I ordered first was pretty much DOA.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822145473

I haven't had any issues with the two Hitachi drives, and check their SMART status with Crystal Disk Info and HD Tune every few weeks.

This week I noticed that my 2nd drive (which isn't the OS drive) is showing SMART error with Current Pending Sectors.
I then ran a chkdsk /f /r and then a defrag.
After that, the SMART info changed to what is show below.
Since this drive (and all the partitions on it) is strictly data (no OS) should I be worried that the disk is failing and should be replaced?
It also has be worried since the OS drive is the same model, even through it's SMART info shows no errors...yet.
The drives say there is a 3 year manufacture warranty, so they should be covered by that, but not sure how Hitachi handles exchanges/repairs. If I have to send the drive in for them to send a replacement, meaning everything would have to be backed-up first. And then there's the chance I would get a "re-manufactured" drive that was someone else's problem.
I went to the Hitachi RMA site, and I guess they are having issues, as when I put in the drive serial number, it won't even accept it.

 

[IGemini]

Yeah, that drive is on its way out. Every storage drive has a number of backup sectors to allocate should one fail from corruption, end of write cycles, etc. That SMART readout says more sectors have failed than the drive can replace. I had a Samsung Green that did the same thing last year.

Be warned that some of the sectors may be so badly damaged that the drive won't let you backup all your files. Remanufactured drives aren't a bad thing, though. If they don't have the same model they'll give you a newer one.

 

[FAUguy]

In my old PC (that the motherboard went out) it was using WD RE3 drives for about 7 years without issue. When I build my new (current) PC, I got the WD RE4 drives, but could hear a high-pitch oscillating sound from the drive. I swapped the RE4 for the WB Black, but could still hear this high-pitch sound, which I think is the motor. I then tried the Seagate, and even though they were quiet, both drives failed within a week. So that's when I ended up buying these Hitachi 2TB Deskstar 7K3000 drives.

I can't believe that one is already failing after only 2 years of use, but with only 7700 on-hours, which comes to like 10 hours per day average.

I looked at the Hitachi warranty site (which seems to be having RMA submission issues), but the FAQ says that you have to get an RMA number, send them the damaged drive, and they send out a replacement. Now I have to see if I got enough room on some spare drive to back-up to before sending in the damaged drive. It would be so much easier if they would just send out a drive (get your credit card #), backup to the new drive, and then send in the damaged one.

 

[Charlie98]

WD owns Hitachi now, WD has a program where they will send out a drive first, and you have 30 days I believe to return the RMA unit (with a CC# to secure.)

Yes, that drive is going fast... get that data off there ASAP.

Not that I'm trying to spend all your money... but why not buy another 2TB drive and run dual independent (not RAID) backups? That's what I do... one internal, one external. That would give you some room to RMA the failing drive without having to juggle disk space.

 

[FAUguy]

WD owns Hitachi now, WD has a program where they will send out a drive first, and you have 30 days I believe to return the RMA unit (with a CC# to secure.)

Yes, that drive is going fast... get that data off there ASAP.

Not that I'm trying to spend all your money... but why not buy another 2TB drive and run dual independent (not RAID) backups? That's what I do... one internal, one external. That would give you some room to RMA the failing drive without having to juggle disk space.

I initially wanted 4 2TB drives set up as a RAID in case a drive failed, but HDD prices were expensive at that time, these were like $250 each Jan 2012. Now the newer Hitachi 2TB 7K4000 model that replaced the 7K3000 is about $150 and has a 5 year warranty instead of a 3 year.

 

[FAUguy]

I called Hitachi, and they said they could do an advanced replacement with a CC#. For both drives, they would be sent out tomorrow, and would have them next week. I then have 30 day to send the current drives back, or will be charged $125 each.
I asked about the like expectancy, since these drives are only 23 months old. He said that on the 7K3000 Deskstar, they will usually last 2-3 years before mechanical breakdown, so would recommend I get the Ultrastar (7K4000 or newer) for future drives, since they are made to last longer and have the 5 year warranty.

 

[FAUguy]

So from their E-Mail it looks like I should get the replacement drives here on Monday or Tuesday.
I wish that Hitachi had a drive clone program like WD does, as I've used the WD program years ago when I had an issue with one of their drives.
I guess I could still attach a WD drive to my PC, so that the program "sees" a WD drive, and will allow me to use it to clone my current Hitachi drives to the replacements being sent out.
Really don't want to have to pay $50 for a clone program like Acronis that I might not get much use out of.

What program would you guys I use to securely wipe clean my bad HDDs before sending them to Hitachi? I've head that full format and write 0s to disk is not really enough for rebuilding programs to get info off the disk.

 

[Charlie98]

If you hook a WD drive up, you can get the free Acronis '13 utility from WD... but you have to have the WD drive to even use it. I just hooked up my daughters old WD laptop drive...

Although it isn't full featured, it does have the cloning utility.

Good deal with Hitachi backing up their hardware. Yes, the Ultrastars are their version of the WD RE4 enterprise drive (or maybe it's the Blacks... ) I'm actually quite surprised they admitted their drives are only good for 2-3 years before problems...

 

[FAUguy]

Yeah, I have a few WD drives in my box of unused PC parts, so I could get one of them connected to use the WD Acronis software.
What's interesting is that some of these WD drives were in use for 5-8 years with no errors, yet these Hitachi drives are 23 months old and are failing.

Initially, when I build this new PC, I tried both the WB Black and RE3 and RE4, but all of those had a high-pitch oscillating sound coming from them (most likely the motor) which I could not stand (I have very good hearing). That's why I then tried the Seagate (which was super quiet) but died within a week. Then I ended up with these Hitachi Deskstar, and they were also quiet like the Seagate.

 

[Charlie98]

FWIW, I bought 3 Hitachi 500GB drives when I built my first desktop (2011) and they have all been solid, if not the most quiet drives. I have one in an external case that I use for backups and you can always hear it spool up.

In a quirk of fate, I now have 3 desktop Seagate drives in service and 2 Seagate portable drives... and they have all been solid 100% drives as well quiet; 2 of them are in my HTPC. I never considered myself a Seagate person... but here I am.

I have a WD Red, which I had to RMA in less than a year. I also have 2 ancient 80GB Blacks that are still soldiering on, and a 500GB Green, but they are all very noisy.

 

[FAUguy]

Today I received the "refurbished" drives, which are the same model (HDS723020BLA642), yet say "Made in China", but my original ones (that are failing) say Made in Thailand.

I don't like the fact that Hitachi send out refurbished drives. Also, even though the original ones were purchased in Jan 2012, their Manufacture date is Sept 2011, which it what the 3-year warranty goes by, meaning it end next year in Sept 2014. When I tried to check the warranty on-line of these refurbished drives, it just says N/A.
Now I'm wondering if I should use them, or maybe get new drives, such as the 2TB Ultrastar 7K4000 that has a 5 year warranty.

 

[Charlie98]

Meh... You got them, might as well use them. Just keep your eye on them with a disk utility...

 

[FAUguy]

I got the WD drive connected so I could used the WD Acronis clone program.
Took about 5 hours just to format the first (of two) refurbished Hitachi 2TB drives, and is about half way done cloning. Then have to do the 2nd drive.
I still find it interesting they only have 7000 hours on them and started to fail, yet I checked the WD 1TB RE3 drive, and its got 33000 hours on it and works fine!

 

[FAUguy]

It took most of the weekend, but got both of the Hitachi "refurbished" drives formatted and used the WD Acronis program to clone my two failing Hitachi drives. I then ran both of the refurbished drives through some tests, chkdsk, HD Tune surface scan, and they appear to be working fine. Also not getting the loud clicking sound from them.

I'll use them over the next two weeks to make sure everything is OK before I wipe the bad drives and send them in to Hitachi.