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S.M.A.R.T Status Bad, Backup and Replace

H

H0MEY

Senior member
I'm getting S.M.A.R.T Status Bad, Backup and Replace in the bios of my laptop. I was wondering if using fujitsu's utility to set the hard drive to all zeros will wipe the recovery partition I need to restore the os.
 
If SMART is telling you to backup and replace, you should do that. A format isnt going to help anything.
 
Originally posted by: H0MEY
i've heard that sometimes it can help if you do a low level format
Click to expand...

Yes... write Zeros to the drive. Additionally SMART predicts whether or not a HDD fail is imminent. Is the computer working ok?

-Kevin
 
HD failure can result from more than just bad sectors - the drive might be having trouble spinning up, or the head is not moving properly, or there's some other mechanical failure that's triggering the SMART to show an error. A format won't do anything for that.

Granted, sometimes bad sectors CAN be logical errors, but it's not always the case. It can be from physical damage to the platters which no software can repair.
 
Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
Originally posted by: H0MEY
i've heard that sometimes it can help if you do a low level format
Click to expand...

Yes... write Zeros to the drive. Additionally SMART predicts whether or not a HDD fail is imminent. Is the computer working ok?

-Kevin
Click to expand...


Yes, SMART is only for sh!ts n giggles, If your computer is still working, well then no worries my friend! Also, writeing zeros will do you nothing but waste your time. At the very least you better start backing up.
 
Zeros will not do nothing. Zeros format everything. They not only format it, they write over every file with a 0 then erase it. It completely wipes out the drive. Sometimes a low level format will help. Where is your experience in this, have you experienced it, or do you have anyclue what you are talking about, or are you just feeing off of everyone elses comments, aeternitas?

-Kevin
 
Originally posted by: H0MEY
I'm getting S.M.A.R.T Status Bad, Backup and Replace in the bios of my laptop.
Click to expand...
That simply means that one (or more) of the SMART reported attributes for the drive, has dropped below the "threshhold" value for that attribute. Depending on what that attribute may be, you may either be in serious jeopardy of losing your data, or it may simply be a significant annoyance during bootup. I would do the safe thing, and back-up your data just in case.

Originally posted by: H0MEY
I was wondering if using fujitsu's utility to set the hard drive to all zeros will wipe the recovery partition I need to restore the os.
Click to expand...
I have no specific experience with the Fujitsu diagnostic tools, but if they are like any of the other mfg's, then yes, they will wipe everything on the drive, all accessable sectors will be written with zeros.
 
Originally posted by: aeternitas

Yes, SMART is only for sh!ts n giggles, If your computer is still working, well then no worries my friend! Also, writeing zeros will do you nothing but waste your time. At the very least you better start backing up.
Click to expand...

Nobody ever said to ignore SMART, but it doesn't necessariliy mean the drive is done. Bad sectors pop up on drives sometimes without meaning the drive will fail any time soon.

How do you manage to be so stupid and so rude in every single post?
 
Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
Zeros will not do nothing. Zeros format everything. They not only format it, they write over every file with a 0 then erase it. It completely wipes out the drive. Sometimes a low level format will help. Where is your experience in this, have you experienced it, or do you have anyclue what you are talking about, or are you just feeing off of everyone elses comments, aeternitas?

-Kevin
Click to expand...

Ive been doing this kind of sh!t for well over a decade. Low Level formatting is used by OEMs to whipe drives before they install XP or whatever else. Its not going to fix anything. But if he wants to, he can learn the hard way by pretending his data is secure on a failing drive.
 
Originally posted by: Tostada
Originally posted by: aeternitas

Yes, SMART is only for sh!ts n giggles, If your computer is still working, well then no worries my friend! Also, writeing zeros will do you nothing but waste your time. At the very least you better start backing up.
Click to expand...

Nobody ever said to ignore SMART, but it doesn't necessariliy mean the drive is done. Bad sectors pop up on drives sometimes without meaning the drive will fail any time soon.

How do you manage to be so stupid and so rude in every single post?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure, I guess the part where SMART was telling him to backup and replace his drive got me all confused. So confused infact that it lead me to believe the drive is no longer reliable for important data. Silly me.
 
Anyway, if you have a 2.5" -> 3.5" converter it would be a good idea to try connecting the drive to your PC and make sure the SMART error persists. You should also see if the manufacturer has a diagnostic app to give you more specific info.

Is it the original drive your laptop came with? If it's under warranty, they will always replace the drive if it gives you the SMART error.

SMART has several parameters it's supposed to monitor, and I think the only thing the BIOS will ever give you is the "backup & replace" warning. It's certainly not the most useful feature, and it's not always accurate.

I assume you already backed up anything important which is obviously the first step to take.

You might want to try the free version of ActiveSMART:

http://www.ariolic.com/activesmart/

The reason it might be a good idea to low-level the drive is because sometimes SMART will tell you the drive is bad because of defect mapping on a drive that is just fine.
 
the smart error is there for a reason.

the drive is messed up in one way or another.

with the prices of hard drives being what they are, it'd probably be best to just replace it. if thats not an option there have been times where i've formatted a drive after smart error or other problem(clicking...) and been able to use it for sometime (i wouldn't trust it with anything valuable though).


.02
 
Originally posted by: aeternitas
I'm not sure, I guess the part where SMART was telling him to backup and replace his drive got me all confused. So confused infact that it lead me to believe the drive is no longer reliable for important data. Silly me.
Click to expand...
If you've really "been doing this for ten years", I would hope that you would understand how SMART works, and that its results are often not to be taken quite literally, but used as a diagnostic guideline. I agree, the drive *could* be toast, and proper backups are always a must, but then again, the SMART warnings might be a side-effect of some other problem in the system, perhaps a weak PSU or bad IDE cables. I'd suggest using a SMART-reporting tool that can break-down and list each attribute, and see which ones are crossing the alert threshhold, and proceed from there.
 
Originally posted by: aeternitas
Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
Zeros will not do nothing. Zeros format everything. They not only format it, they write over every file with a 0 then erase it. It completely wipes out the drive. Sometimes a low level format will help. Where is your experience in this, have you experienced it, or do you have anyclue what you are talking about, or are you just feeing off of everyone elses comments, aeternitas?

-Kevin
Click to expand...

Ive been doing this kind of sh!t for well over a decade. Low Level formatting is used by OEMs to whipe drives before they install XP or whatever else. Its not going to fix anything. But if he wants to, he can learn the hard way by pretending his data is secure on a failing drive.
Click to expand...

You know you could do us a favor and stop posting. You are helping no one and we are constantly proving you wrong. If you haven't noticed you have a thread in the FI forum trying to get you a vacation.

-Kevin
 
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