About to RMA drive - but TrueCrypt cleared errors - still return it??

[murphyc]

If the disk is under warranty it may be worth trying to get it replaced. Otherwise just write zeros to all sectors and this will remove all sectors experiencing persistent write errors. Then just periodically run the SMART tests (which should be done anyway) to see if there are any new reallocated sectors or uncorrectable errors.

A small laptop HDD I have experience the same, just a few hundred bad sectors, and since zeroing it hasn't been a problem for years.

 

[vss1980]

Yeah, its gone now anyway.

I have done the other thing before on an older drive (force a wipe and force a drive to reallocate bad sectors) and its still going but even then, with the precaution of partitioning around the 'bad' LBA's to avoid any stored data getting caught up with potential spread of bad media or any lower performance LBA's surrounding the defect area - it's always a shame they never occur at the end of a drive (usually the lowest performing area).

 

[murphyc]

but even then, with the precaution of partitioning around the 'bad' LBA's to avoid any stored data getting caught up with potential spread of bad media or any lower performance LBA's surrounding the defect area - it's always a shame they never occur at the end of a drive (usually the lowest performing area).

That's not how reallocation works. And you don't ever need to partition around bad LBAs on modern HDDs.

When disk firmware finds a bad sector, its LBA is removed from that physical sector and assigned to a reserve physical sector. The location of that reserve physical sector depends on the disk model.

 

[vss1980]

That's not how reallocation works. And you don't ever need to partition around bad LBAs on modern HDDs.

When disk firmware finds a bad sector, its LBA is removed from that physical sector and assigned to a reserve physical sector. The location of that reserve physical sector depends on the disk model.

Oh I'm aware of that, but a disk scan showed a collection of low performing sectors around the bad sectors, so consider that a drive has marginal media in that area - yes the bad sectors have been remapped so now you have a collection of good LBAs located smack bang in the middle of potentially bad LBAs....

Only way to have any confidence in the remaining storage is to isolate the area.