Western Digital Blue HDD failing but SMART says otherthing.

[SkySpartan]

One day when using my PC I logged in Windows 10 Professional that I use, but it was slow as hell. The startup programs had a hard time starting, so I went to task manager and the hard disk was at 100% use. I waited many hours so it can finish any writing operations, but that never happened, still the 100% usage, so I programmed a deep long chkdsk scan before Windows starts with the /f parameter if I recall correctly.
The scan went for hours, but it didnt finished, it was like at 25% and then restarted and Windows started normally. After logging in again, same problem, all the system slow and HHD usage at 100%
So, I started to think the hard disk was going to fail or something, so I wanted to see the SMART values, and here they are, I used Hiren BootCD for this, smartctl to see the data.
This is the output of the SMART from smartctl:
https://onedrive.live.com/redir?res...2357&authkey=!AGs91g3-Zj3HZIs&ithint=file,txt
Short and extended SMART test they dont finish, the extended one they only take like 5 seconds after finishing with a read error, and it says those tests should last like two hours. It seems my hard disk is in bad shape. The current_pending_sector rose from 103 to 279 without even using the drive today, just reading the SMART info. Also, SMART says "Overall Health Self-Assessment Test: Passed".
According to this info, do you think it is going to fail in one of these days?, or that it should be replaced?. The drive is less than two years old, it is inside the warranty period, so I was thinking about doing RMA, but I've read that Western Digital is special with those requests, that they dont always accept requests, any thoughts about that?.

 

[VirtualLarry]

The current_pending_sector rose from 103 to 279 without even using the drive today, just reading the SMART info. Also, SMART says "Overall Health Self-Assessment Test: Passed".
According to this info, do you think it is going to fail in one of these days?

Yes. Having the current_pending sector count increase like that, means that the drive is dying, hard. Replace it immediately.

 

[Shmee]

Even one bad/pending/reallocated sector is bad news, it means the drive will likely get more soon and get worse over time.

 

[SkySpartan]

Yes. Having the current_pending sector count increase like that, means that the drive is dying, hard. Replace it immediately.

Even one bad/pending/reallocated sector is bad news, it means the drive will likely get more soon and get worse over time.

I thought the same thing, but the drive is in warranty still, so I can ask for an RMA from Western Digital?.

 

[SkySpartan]

I forgot to add that I used this article in hopes of fixing the drive:
https://www.linuxquestions.org/ques...artctl-read-failure;-is-my-hd-failing-920243/
but at that time the count of current_pending_sector was like 106 and managed to drive it down to 103 only
I did what the reply #8 said in that post from LinuxQuestions.

 

[Shmee]

I would ask for an RMA. I see no reason to not honor it.

 

[SkySpartan]

I would ask for an RMA. I see no reason to not honor it.

I thought my problem of the bad sectors was not worth for them to accept an RMA

 

[Captain_WD]

~snip~

Hey SkySpartan

I'm sorry to hear about the situation with the WD Blue. As the guys pointed out, bad sectors are indeed covered in our warranty. You can check it out here.

I would run WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostic simply to confirm the results and contact our Live Support in order to proceed with the RMA procedure.

Feel free to ask if there are any questions!

Captain_WD.

 

[Puffnstuff]

Ditto on running the WD drive tools and it's required for RMA as they'll ask what code it generated on the drive.

 

[SkySpartan]

Hey SkySpartan

I'm sorry to hear about the situation with the WD Blue. As the guys pointed out, bad sectors are indeed covered in our warranty. You can check it out here.

I would run WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostic simply to confirm the results and contact our Live Support in order to proceed with the RMA procedure.

Feel free to ask if there are any questions!

Captain_WD.

Ditto on running the WD drive tools and it's required for RMA as they'll ask what code it generated on the drive.

I cant access Windows because of the faulty drive, how can I run the tool without Windows?, is there a preOS version of the tool, or a LiveCD of it?. Thanks.

 

[eton975]

I cant access Windows because of the faulty drive, how can I run the tool without Windows?, is there a preOS version of the tool, or a LiveCD of it?. Thanks.

Only solution at the moment seems to be to download a floppy image and burn it with something like WinImage.

Captain, any other solutions mate?

 

[Elixer]

I cant access Windows because of the faulty drive, how can I run the tool without Windows?, is there a preOS version of the tool, or a LiveCD of it?. Thanks.

You can call them and explain, or, do it online. Either way, you do NOT have to run it for a RMA.

 

[SkySpartan]

I already sent an inquiry to them about what happened to my drive and they told me to create the rma ticket and send it to the nearest facility (Brazil) for a replacement

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[SkySpartan]

Another question, I want to securely erase my drive before sending them to WD. It is safe to do it after I requested the RMA and before sending the unit to them?. Because it can be damaged more, that's why I ask.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[Elixer]

Another question, I want to securely erase my drive before sending them to WD. It is safe to do it after I requested the RMA and before sending the unit to them?. Because it can be damaged more, that's why I ask.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Well, I suppose you can try, since you are already going to RMA it, BUT, if you do a format of the HD, then those bad sectors will be remapped most likely, and your SMART attributes will have changed.

 

[h9826790]

I am not a computer professional. However, I did ask some computer guy. Their general comment about SMART is...

HDD fail whatever SMART says;

If SMART says your HDD has trouble, you better chance it ASAP.

Therefore, SMART is reliable to confirm a HDD failure, but not a good indicator to confirm if the HDD is healthy.

If there is any other indication that your HDD is failing, you better replace it before it die regardless what SMART says.

 

[Puffnstuff]

Each time I've received a smart warning on a drive failure followed soon after. When my veloraptor crashed I had a smart warning several weeks earlier so I actually had a heads up. When I lost my old 12xx sanforce ssd's I had no warning at all.

 

[SkySpartan]

Well, I suppose you can try, since you are already going to RMA it, BUT, if you do a format of the HD, then those bad sectors will be remapped most likely, and your SMART attributes will have changed.

I asked WD support for this. I will wipe if they approve that the RMA or the replacement process won't change because of that.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[SkySpartan]

Each time I've received a smart warning on a drive failure followed soon after. When my veloraptor crashed I had a smart warning several weeks earlier so I actually had a heads up. When I lost my old 12xx sanforce ssd's I had no warning at all.

Yeah, I had the same feeling. But less than two years is so short lifespan, is normal this kind of things?. I always had Seagate drives, until one of them started having clicking noises, so I thought changing to Western Digital would be better, but all my Seagate's had a lifespan of at least four years!.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[Elixer]

Yeah, I had the same feeling. But less than two years is so short lifespan, is normal this kind of things?. I always had Seagate drives, until one of them started having clicking noises, so I thought changing to Western Digital would be better, but all my Seagate's had a lifespan of at least four years!.

Unfortunately, yes, this is pretty common these days, no matter who makes the drive.
With Segate and WD dropping their warranties from 5yr to 1 or 2 or 3yr shows you they don't trust their drives either.
WD Black & RE drives are 5yr warranty, Seagate has their enterprise drives with 5 yr, don't recall any 'consumer' version with more than 3.

 

[SkySpartan]

Unfortunately, yes, this is pretty common these days, no matter who makes the drive.
With Segate and WD dropping their warranties from 5yr to 1 or 2 or 3yr shows you they don't trust their drives either.
WD Black & RE drives are 5yr warranty, Seagate has their enterprise drives with 5 yr, don't recall any 'consumer' version with more than 3.

It is better to use as second drive then, and primary one an SSD :/

 

[bononos]

I think I read somewhere (Backblaze?) that SMART warnings only showed up in about 1/2 of disk failures.

My WD 4Tb went completely belly up almost a week after I found out a few reallocated sectors showed up and it was still working fine except when going over a few bad files/sectors.

 

[Elixer]

I think I read somewhere (Backblaze?) that SMART warnings only showed up in about 1/2 of disk failures.

If only it was that high.
It is a really, really low number where SMART actually caught the issue before it was a complete failure.
About the only thing we know for sure, if SMART finally does complain, then it is time to replace the HD or keep using it as a scratch HD.

 

[Captain_WD]

~snip~

Hey, sorry for the late answer, I was off for several days.

I believe this would be helpful
Formatting the drive isn't really needed but you are free to do it as it won't alter the condition of the drive and shouldn't void the warranty in any way.

Ask away if there are other questions!

Captain_WD.