Hard Drive on its way out?

[NomNom]

So I was deleting files on my one hard drive and came across a file that would not delete. It would get to half way and just stop and explorer would lock up. I am also unable to copy said file, would get to half way and stop.



So is the hard drive on it's way out? Could I RMA it?

Also does anyone have an idea as to why one hard drive would show you S.M.A.R.T data but another one would not, given that they are exactly the same model and brand.

 

[Grant]

I had a (quite a few in fact) drives going to crap, and as a result I was hitting I/O errors when trying to copy certain files (usually larger ones like video).

I quite by mistake ran a synchronize program that had no problem copying the previously uncopyable (new word) files.
I thought it a bit odd, so I tried again to copy normally & hit the same I/O error message.
Then I tried a different synchronize program, and again it copied successfully.
Seems with normal copying, the file is copied as a "whole unit" and with the sync programs it is copied over in smaller increments (i am guessing here).
But I have done this a number of times with failing drives and had success where dedicated data recovery programs also have failed.

**this has been on Mac, never tried on windows

 

[Grant]

Also does anyone have an idea as to why one hard drive would show you S.M.A.R.T data but another one would not, given that they are exactly the same model and brand.

Could be different firmware, even though the brand & model are identical, different dates of manufacture will have slightly different firmware versions.

What drive is it

 

[rrh]

Try SpinRite https://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm (NB: paid product)

Written by Steve Gibson - a mad genius if there ever was one - the product has been around for over 20 years: Steve updates it from time-to-time to cope with the latest technology. The website has a video that explains what the product does.

If you purchase the product use it on a regular basis to identify and prevent potential problems.

I can also recommend his Firewall leak test, his DNS benchmark - in fact, anything on his website, sight unseen ...

 

[WaxLyrical]

Backup, format and reload.

 

[dovij]

Try SpinRite https://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm (NB: paid product)

Written by Steve Gibson - a mad genius if there ever was one - the product has been around for over 20 years: Steve updates it from time-to-time to cope with the latest technology. The website has a video that explains what the product does.

If you purchase the product use it on a regular basis to identify and prevent potential problems.

I can also recommend his Firewall leak test, his DNS benchmark - in fact, anything on his website, sight unseen ...

I've saved so many drives with this product. Doing the Level 4 scan every few months also prevents issues from happening.

 

[pgs]

Try SpinRite https://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm (NB: paid product)

Written by Steve Gibson - a mad genius if there ever was one - the product has been around for over 20 years: Steve updates it from time-to-time to cope with the latest technology. The website has a video that explains what the product does.

If you purchase the product use it on a regular basis to identify and prevent potential problems.

I can also recommend his Firewall leak test, his DNS benchmark - in fact, anything on his website, sight unseen ...

And don't forget the excellent Shields Up!

Even Linux can benefit from it.

 

[bromster]

Backup. Remove and Create Partition. Reload.

 

[Fulcrum29]

SpinRite is awesome, helps a lot and can possibly revitalise drives 100%.

The problem however is with newer drives, not only size, but with SATA drivers.

Nothing worse than doing a level repair and you run into a Division Overflow Error, the updated SpinRite release is still coming like now since a very long while all ready.

Other software which can possibly revitalise a drive:

- DRevitalize (we use this in minor circumstances), but we moved to more expensive products.
- Victoria
- HDD Regenerator
- HDAT2

There is more, but you will possibly get these paid versions on custom repair discs… Remember that the revitalise techniques are for actual data recovery purposes and the HDD will lose health again eventually, this normally depends on Murphy’s Law.

You will also have a possibility to repair a drive with the manufactures own diagnostic tools. Check on this first before going extreme with other tools.

 

[ponder]

Silicone snake oil is strong in this thread.

 

[NomNom]

Could be different firmware, even though the brand & model are identical, different dates of manufacture will have slightly different firmware versions.

What drive is it

They are both Seagate ST3500410SV or SV35 for short, I bought them at the same time. The one shows me S.M.A.R.T data and the other does not, this is in a program called Defraggler.

I really don't wish to use a program to "fix" the hard drive I just wish to know if it's on it's way out or not considering the S.M.A.R.T data on my original post.

 

[ponder]

I really don't wish to use a program to "fix" the hard drive I just wish to know if it's on it's way out or not considering the S.M.A.R.T data on my original post.

The odd bad sector is nothing to worry about about, you should be alarmed when you see the values increasing.
You could expedite this by filling the hdd with data, formatting it and carrying on like this for a couple of cycles and see what happens to those values.

 

[NomNom]

The odd bad sector is nothing to worry about about, you should be alarmed when you see the values increasing.
You could expedite this by filling the hdd with data, formatting it and carrying on like this for a couple of cycles and see what happens to those values.

Fantastic thanks ponder, any comment about the "reported uncorrectable errors"? none of my other hard drives have them. :wtf:

 

[sajunky]

As it is a new drive, I would recommend to RMA immediately. Under normal conditions it should not report UNC to the user. Such errors can show however when drive receives mechanical shocks, or after power failure during writing. When I say 'writing' it includes internal maintenace operation, not only user writes.

In other words it can happen, but very rare and errors should disappear after write operation to the affected area. If you do surface scan, note UNC LBA, then attempt to write the affected sectors, you will have full picture about drive condition. If it is able to write successfuly and do not report errors anymore, is fine.

This above was about "reported uncorrectable errors". Nothing to worry about.

I am more concern about #197 and #198. Usually these parameters non-zero RAW value (especially #197) shows that there is a firmware internal problem being unable to remap bad sectors. Normally drive will detect weak and remap location before it becomes unrecoverable. Once again, rewriting surface tell the truth. If problem was intermittent, it should be fixed and RAW value should return to 0. If doesn't, it indicate serious problem.

Re: reporting SMART, it is separate issue. Reporting can be disabled in firmware. The same firmware revision?

 

[SouthBit]

If you want to know what all the SMART parameters mean, look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.

Your values show that there are unreadable sectors that need to be reallocated. The drive does this automatically in the background, but when it runs out of spares you run into trouble. The fact that the drive is degrading means that it's on its way out. Replace it and don't trust it.

And as for Spinrite...I would personally stay away from it. All it does it reads data from the drive and writes it back, serving no purpose. Run it on a dying drive and you will kill it. Run it for 'maintenance' on a good drive if you want, but what's the point if you have a backup. It's pointless and dangerous if used at the wrong time.

 

[NomNom]

Thanks guys.