Is this HDD about to die? (SMART)

I

i_hate_toms

New Member
Windows locked up while starting.
Did a hard shutdown, and Windows started up fine.
Ran HDSentinel, Changed attributes:-
187. Reported uncorrectable errors: jumped from 0, to 6.
197. Current Pending Sector Count: jumped from 0 to 1.
Other attributes, like 5.Reallocated sectors count and 196.Reallocation Event count, were unchanged (at 0).
Ran a Short DST from HD Sentinel, it said "Status: Failed by read element", in bright red flashing fonts!!
Pretty scared at this point, i shut the laptop down. Turned it back on after about an hour, Windows boots up fine.
Opened HD Sentinel again, 187. Reported uncorrectable errors is still at 6, and miraculously, 197 Current pending sector count is back to 0!
Might have been remapped? But no, 5.Reallocated sectors count, and 196.Reallocation event count, are at 0 as well, like they were before.
Ran a short DST again, "Status: SMART Passed" in blue.
Ran a long DST, "Status: SMART Passed, estimated life remaining: More than 1000 days, disk health: 100%, disk performance: Excellent".
Ran a chkdsk on all partitions, no errors found, 0 bad sectors.
Weird. How can SMART fail, and then pass again?
Is this drive unreliable?
It's a Toshiba MK3261GSYN 2.5inch 320GB 7200RPM internal laptop drive. OS is Windows 8 Pro 64bit.
 
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The drive is on its way out. Save any data you need and replace the drive.
 
Those toshiba drives really suck. I've had to replace so many of those in laptops that I work on.
 
Thnx! Replace hardware right away? Or see if it was an isolated incident?

Thanks both of you for sharing your thoughts, really appreciated :)
So then, what do i do now? Replace the HDD immediately? It's 3.5 years old, and i guess it's about time to stop trusting it.
Two questions (out of general curiosity) :


FIRST: HDSentinel in now reporting disk health at 100%.
Reallocated sector count 0.
Reallocation event count 0.
Current pending sector count 0.
The only attribute that has changed is 187:Reported uncorrectable errors: (Threshold 0. Current 94. Worst: 94. Status: OK (Always Passing)).
According to some google research, 187 is not considered a critical matrix.
So shall i replace the HDD right away? or shall i give it a few days and see if SMART values change again? (data is backed up on an external WD HDD, and locked in my safe. so no fear of data loss if this HDD fails.)
Also, yesterday, short DST failed once (read element) with pending sector count 0 ->1. But now, the HDSentinel log has 2 events,
1. 02/17/2013 7:29 PM Pending sector count : 0 -> 1. degrading.
2. 02/17/2013 7:44 PM Pending sector count: 1 -> 0
since then, i have run short DST, long DST, CHKDSK, and the HP Hardware SelfTest from BIOS, all tests are passing with 100% ok. Is it even possible for DST to fail once, and then not fail in multiple subsequent re-checks & restarts?
Out of curiosity, how can "pending sector count" reduce to 0 without a corresponding increase in Reallocation event count/ Reallocated sectors count?


SECOND: If you suggest i replace the HDD right away, which new brand/ model would you recommend? For me, reliability is more important than speed. I'd like something which will last a long time. Of course such things cannot be guaranteed, an HDD can fail any moment, but nevertheless, which brand/ model has less failures?
Thanks. :good:
 
Thanks :)

johnb35 said:
Seagate or Western Digitial.
Click to expand...

Thanks Johnb :)
I'll get a seagate then, 've always built my own computers, and always used seagates, this was the first computer which had something else (Because i don't know how to assemble a laptop myself :P. We've got another notebook with a Hitachi though, but that's Dad's, not mine).
But before I get one, do you think i should give this Toshiba another chance?
I mean it's been 2 days after that SMART error, Windows 8 now seems to be quite happy with this HDD, and so is HDSentinel. The older "Pending sector count" error in HDSentinel, has auto-resolved itself, no idea how. Reallocated sectors count, and Reallocation event count, are both at zero.
No more lockups in Windows 8, and no more SMART hits in HDSentinel.
I've tried the "Extended DST" again, this morning, twice back to back (each took 1 hour to complete, so i had the computer test itself for like 2 hours in a row :P), no errors. HDSentinel says HD health is at 100%. No warnings in Windows Event Log. Everything seems normal again. What do you say, give it another 10 days and see if it works? Or replace it rightaway cause i am on borrowed time now?
The reason i ask, is i'm only a student. Probably it's not much for most of you guys with full time jobs, but for me, it's pretty expensive :) :P
Thanks again for all ur suggestions, really appreciated :good:
 
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Still haven't had any more trouble with the HDD.
Have been running HDSentinel extended self test once every day, and everything comes clean (Reallocation event count = 0, Reallocated sectors count = 0, Pending Sector Count = 0, Disk Health = 100%, Estimated life remaining = More that 1000 days, Reported Uncorrectable error count is still at "6" though, but Wikipedia says it's not a critical matrix)
I've backed up this disk and an abrupt failure won't mean serious data loss, so i'll keep using this and see how it goes.
The moment i face another error/ windows 8 lock-up, i will trash this drive, get a seagate, and update this thread to let everyone know.
Thanks everyone for helping, cf rocks :)
 
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