Question Use a HD that throws "Caution" in Crystaldiskinfo?

[Muse]

I have need of an SATA internal HD in a new rig. It's got a 500+GB SSD in it. I don't want to use the SSD all the time for data storage/manipulation, figure it will impact it's longevity. Size isn't really an issue. Looking, I have only 1 SATA HD I'm willing to use for this, and I see it threw a Caution a couple years ago. It's a Samsung HD501LJ 500GB SATA HD. Would it be unwise to use this? My immediate reason is to rip DVDs using DVD Shrink and evidently the app doesn't support ripping to an external HD (I have a 3GB external on the machine via USB).

 

[EXCellR8]

If it's non-sensitive information you could just use it until it worsens, but if there is data that is of any value to you 500GB drives are pretty cheap and you'd likely have a bit more peace of mind. There's really no telling how the drive will do until all of a sudden you can't access data or it becomes unusable. Could be a month, could be a year, could be tomorrow...

Heck, I've got a few drives I'm not using that I'd probably send you for the price of shipping...

 

[Furious_Styles]

Agreed with Excell. Just use it until it bites the dust. I got a samsung 1tb that I've had a CD caution warning and is certainly slowly dying but have nothing important on it so don't care.

 

[mikeymikec]

For me, if a drive has been giving me problems *and* its SMART status is less than OK, that's a significant difference between that and a drive that only has iffy SMART stats.

A few years ago, my main PC's only HDD gave problems (Thunderbird once crashed and required a full chkdsk to sort it) before the SMART data went iffy, then after that it gave trouble coming out of hibernation once. As I use my PC for business and personal, I wasn't going to chance it any further than that.

On the other hand, I had a backup drive show up iffy SMART stats (and no other symptoms) and I immediately disposed of it. I figure that a backup drive's job is to potentially pull my data's ass out of the fire so I'm not going to trust an iffy drive not to let me down in the one circumstance that I'd be counting on it.

 

[VirtualLarry]

My experience, is that drives that don't fail SMART, often up and die anyways, out of the blue sometimes, but with mechanical drives like HDDs, there can be some pre-cursor signs, like noise, slowdowns, slow boots, etc.

But if a drive fails SMART? Toss immediately. (Well, back it up, if you haven't already.)

I was pleasantly surprised, when a neighbor's Windows 7 HDD (a factory 320GB WD), started throwing errors about "imminent HDD failure" all over the place, and how to initiate backup. I worked on that PC, and backed up the system, using Windows 7's built-in backup feature, to a portable external, and then swapped in a brand-new 1TB WD HDD, and restore the backup. It took a few hours, but it went pretty smoothly.

I was quite pleased on how Windows 7 dealt with "HDD old-age", triggering SMART, triggering in-OS warnings (That you couldn't really ignore), and prompting the user to use the image backup feature.

 

[EXCellR8]

I don't typically keep drives in rotation that fail a SMART test either and, in my experience, like Larry stated it isn't always a smooth cut and dry backup operation. Save yourself the headache and replace it if you need the data, otherwise let it run its course and consider the drive to be running on borrowed time.

 

[Muse]

I'll inspect its data. I have some missing data (video rips from a tape camcorder). Scoured my HDs that are in use, couldn't find them. I have some HDs lying around that I figure may have that data. So, I'm not going to toss anything until I find that data... if it's there. Otherwise, I'll have to try to rip that data again.

I used to use external HDs a lot, 2 or 3 TB drives. I had so many failures (mostly WD), I have found other ways to compute. I think I can likely remove a HD from an enclosure (2TB, likely) and use it as an internal HD in the machine, assuming it passes crystaldiskinfo's SMART testing.

 

[mikeymikec]

My experience, is that drives that don't fail SMART, often up and die anyways, out of the blue sometimes, but with mechanical drives like HDDs, there can be some pre-cursor signs, like noise, slowdowns, slow boots, etc.

But if a drive fails SMART? Toss immediately. (Well, back it up, if you haven't already.)

I was pleasantly surprised, when a neighbor's Windows 7 HDD (a factory 320GB WD), started throwing errors about "imminent HDD failure" all over the place, and how to initiate backup. I worked on that PC, and backed up the system, using Windows 7's built-in backup feature, to a portable external, and then swapped in a brand-new 1TB WD HDD, and restore the backup. It took a few hours, but it went pretty smoothly.

I was quite pleased on how Windows 7 dealt with "HDD old-age", triggering SMART, triggering in-OS warnings (That you couldn't really ignore), and prompting the user to use the image backup feature.

I've seen Vista do this once too. Out of what is probably a couple of hundred failing drives I've encountered, IIRC I've only seen two do "SMART STATUS BAD", and oddly neither of those drives outright failed

 

[Muse]

I probably wouldn't worry about it except that down the line I figure I may want to do some complex intensive video editing using the internal HD. A failure in the middle of that could be vexing if not downright depressing. Want to make sure at least crystaldiskinfo likes the drive. Gonna do an inventory of my external HDs and likely remove one from its enclosure and make it the internal on this rig.

 

[seagate_surfer]

Might be a good idea to grab our free diagnostic utility SeaTools and run a long generic scan on it to see if it's healthy.

 

[Muse]

Might be a good idea to grab our free diagnostic utility SeaTools and run a long generic scan on it to see if it's healthy.

On a presumably good drive or on the one that's throwing a caution with crystaldiskinfo?

I have 3 Seagate 3TB external HDs but I consider them my better externals, having suffered several failures with WD externals.

Just downloaded SeaToolsforWindowsSetup.exe.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Too bad that the current SeaTools for Windows doesn't recognize / work on SeaGate drives that are EOL, like my USB2.0 FreeAgent Desktop 500GB.

Not to mention, my SeaGate GoFlex Home single-drive SATA NAS unit, needed to be re-initialized. and apparently, just my luck, SeaGate SHUT DOWN the "Cloud Service" that the NAS DEPENDS ON, WITHOUT RELEASING A FIRMWARE UPDATE TO REMOVE SAID CLOUD SERVICE DEPENDENCY TO RE-INITIALIZE SAID UNIT, and thus, my NAS - IS NOW A HUNK OF JUNK. A SEAGATE HUNK OF JUNK (TM).

See attachment, for what a million GoFlex Home units, suddenly becoming silent, sounds like.

 

[hojnikb]

Too bad that the current SeaTools for Windows doesn't recognize / work on SeaGate drives that are EOL, like my USB2.0 FreeAgent Desktop 500GB.

Not to mention, my SeaGate GoFlex Home single-drive SATA NAS unit, needed to be re-initialized. and apparently, just my luck, SeaGate SHUT DOWN the "Cloud Service" that the NAS DEPENDS ON, WITHOUT RELEASING A FIRMWARE UPDATE TO REMOVE SAID CLOUD SERVICE DEPENDENCY TO RE-INITIALIZE SAID UNIT, and thus, my NAS - IS NOW A HUNK OF JUNK. A SEAGATE HUNK OF JUNK (TM).

See attachment, for what a million GoFlex Home units, suddenly becoming silent, sounds like.

Fear no more, because solution was right in front of you all these years

https://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv5/seagate-goflex-home

With this, it becomes a normal arm based pc, just like raspberry pis and alike.

 

[hojnikb]

Used it on my Dockstar (basically the same thing sans sata ports) for years before retiring it due to slow speeds (limited by usb2 bus). Worked flawlessly.

 

[Muse]

Used it on my Dockstar (basically the same thing sans sata ports) for years before retiring it due to slow speeds (limited by usb2 bus). Worked flawlessly.

My favorite kind of software.