Weird S.M.A.R.T. message about my 74GB Raptor

[anindrew]

Hi all! I've noticed on my new i7 system, every time it boots up, it indicates that a S.M.A.R.T. message has been recorded about my 74GB Raptor. I used Speedfan to see what the details of the message are. Here is what it said: "Warning: Raw Read Error Rate reached, in the past, its threshold. Worst value is 34 and threshold is 51. This is an unusual situation because it looks like your hard disk, in the past, failed the S.M.A.R.T. status check, but now it appears not to be failing. You should double check it. A backup of your data is strongly suggested." The current "Raw Error Rate" is 200, which it says is very good.

I do find it a bit odd that Vista 64 rated the 74GB Raptor as 5.8 instead of 5.9. I can't complain since my system seems blazing fast to me.

Still, do you think I should be concerned about this drive? My other drive is a 150GB Raptor, which is working great. I was planning to get a 1TB WD Caviar Black eventually anyway since both drives are about 50% full, but I'd like to know if I need to do that sooner instead of later.

Thanks for your help!

 

[starfireone]

I would suggest you Backup everything ASAP. I would not take the chance if you are using your PC for important data that you can not afford to lose. Definely keep a close eye on the smart errors. I have had drives fail right out of the blue and did not receive any warning or error messages. But had good backups and was glad I took the time to do weekly backups.

 

[tcsenter]

Yep, SMART warning implications can range from "Your drive had some gas but its all better now after a little belch" to "You have three minutes to backup your data, 2:59...2:58...2:57...get moving, loser!"

 

[anindrew]

Thanks for the replies! I still have my data backed up from when I built this new system. That message does seem more like a "your drive had some gas, but it's all better now after a little belch." By the way, I rather enjoyed that analogy. Still, I'll consider getting the 1TB drive sooner rather than later. I suppose I'll create a thread in the FS section for the parts from my old system to help pay for a new hard drive.

 

[imported_wired247]

In my previous experience, I've never had a SMART error that turned out to be good news.

 

[QueBert]

Originally posted by: wired247
In my previous experience, I've never had a SMART error that turned out to be good news.

QTF, and on the flip side I've had plenty of drives go bad on me with no SMART messages. So if I see SMART warn me of something (which I have) I take as "replace the drive NOW!" even if it's a message I don't understand. SMART errors are never good and should always be viewed as critical.

 

[anindrew]

Thank you for all the advice. I'm going to keep my eyes open for a good deal on a WD 1TB Caviar Black. I'll have to check to see if my 74GB Raptor is still under warranty. I think when I bought it, it had a 5 year warranty, but I'm not 100% sure on that.

Are there any programs that actually work at making an exact copy of the data on one drive? I'd hate to have to reinstall everything, so I'd like to just be able to mirror it to the new drive and switch the SATA plugs from one HD to the other.

 

[CoinOperatedBoy]

Acronis TrueImage.

You may also consider a 640GB Caviar Black. Good price/GB and excellent performance. Go with the 1TB if you're sure you need the space.

 

[anindrew]

Acronis TrueImage! Thanks! I will have to give that program a try when I get my new drive.

Considering how cheap 1TB drives are these days, I figured I might as well get that much space. It's around 11 or 12 cents per gig. Plus, I believe I get a discount with Dell through my company. Oddly enough, when I searched, they had the cheapest price even before the discount. Newegg is currently out of stock, but their price is about $130.

How is the 640GB WD Caviar Black's performance compared to the 1TB? I'd imagine they're about the same. I've read that the 1TB Caviar Black can perform similarly to the 74GB and 150GB Raptors (but not the Velociraptors). That would be nice if that is the case!

 

[CoinOperatedBoy]

I don't have a link to benchmarks, but in passing I have read that the 640GB is faster. The 640GB is two-platter and the 1TB has three, but the 1TB has higher platter density, so theoretically I suppose the 1TB should have faster access times but I don't know if that's supported in real world usage. I have the 640GB drive and it's nice. 12ms-ish access times and an average transfer rate of about 95MB/sec. This is competitive with older Raptors. VelociRaptors have access times in the 7ms ballpark and average transfer speeds of 100-110MB/sec from what I've seen.