Reallocated sector

[John Connor]

I just bought a new HDD and I read the smart data with HDTune and Hard Drive Sentinel and both report 1 reallocated sector. Reading from Wikipedia I guess this could be a problem in the future as the drive will fail quicker?

If sequential access speed is critical, the remapped sectors can be manually marked as bad blocks in the file system in order to prevent their use.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.

How do I mark the remapped sector as bad blocks?

Should I just ask for a replacement drive? Pretty much a PITA because I need this drive and had to wait and now I don't know what to do. I can't remember the exact SMART values. I think it was 5 and 0 or something. I'll have to look again.

 

[Elixer]

I would return it for a new drive.
They come from the factory with a bad block list already populated, and then they zero out the SMART info before it gets to the shelves.
Since you are seeing it on a brand new drive, that means it has more issues.

 

[mxnerd]

I have several older drives.

A Samsung HDD that reports 10 reallocated every time I ran S.M.A.R.T report, but I never have any issue with the drive, instead I'm getting all kinds of issues from WD & Seagates that reports perfectly which can't even spin up from time to time.

Your mileage may vary.

 

[tweakboy]

You got saved on that one. Leave it alone lets see how much longer it will live. I say 10 years. if ur not gonna upgrade anymore. thx gb

 

[Soulkeeper]

I've had this issue twice before, once with a WD and once with seagate.
Both drives still work and havn't added anymore bad sectors.
If returning it is easy for you that's likely the safest bet, otherwise just keep an eye on the smart logs from time to time.

 

[Fred B]

It should be not a big deal a few relocated sectors as long as it not increase dramatically , but 1 sector is not much . Got in my desktop 2 ssd with both 6 relocated sectors but they function like new .

 

[John Connor]

Started the return on Amazon. I specifically bought this particular drive based on reviwes and what I know about Hitachi. I just want to be safe than sorry.

was $43 free shipping for 1TBs. I don't need anything larger. Primary is an Adata SSD and has been working flawlessly for 4 years now. I even have a 60GB G.Skill Sniper SSD with over 5 TBs written to it and just recently is now at 99% health.

Really sucks because my computer is a PITA to get into to remove and add drives since I have to remove the sound card. can't wait to build my new machine. I have bought the case and cooler. Just need the MOBO, RAM and CPU. Debating if I should wait for Skylake. Personally I've waited long enough and I'm coming from a Q6600.

 

[RecoveryForce]

I think it is a good idea to replace the drive, as was mentioned by an earlier post. If the drive is already showing bad sectors off the shelf, it is a recipe for failure down the road. That said, it shouldn't be an issue because you should have a regular backup of your data stored on another device when your drive fails.

 

[John Connor]

Sent it out yesterday.

I always clone! In this case its purpose is just a secondary HDD so I just copy/paste the stuff.

 

[AlienTech]

It should be not a big deal a few relocated sectors as long as it not increase dramatically , but 1 sector is not much . Got in my desktop 2 ssd with both 6 relocated sectors but they function like new .

I had a drive fail with 1 reallocted sector.. Sector 1.. It still worked since there are 2 copies of the MFT so when it gets an error it will read the secondary backup MFT.. But in a few years the drive started getting problems.. It is not safe to keep using the drive even though you might get away with it. Those platters are scanned at the factory for errors and then smart values cleared.. Every drive has many bad sectors on every track.. New ones developing are due to a problem you dont know about.. Maybe a dust particle got inside.. Kind of like a blood clot.. You may not die but you should go see a doctor and get it taken care off.. here it would be getting another drive without the problem..

 

[Mighty_Miro_WD]

Hi there!

Reallocated Sector Count in SMART test is quite important as an indicator of bad sectors. Reallocated sector basically means that your hard drive found a bad sector, and swapped it with a 'reserve pool' of sectors. After this swap, the medium should be free of bad sectors to the operating system. It's a technology designed to make failing sectors on the HDD cause no trouble for the operating system because it'll just swap a new one whenever it finds that a particular sector is becoming weak (because it takes more time to read that sector than normal).

However, there are a number potential problems.

1. The number of sectors available for replacement is limited. Once that number is reached no more sectors can be "fixed". A small number of reallocated sectors in not a serious, but the situation should be monitored and if they number keeps growing you should replace the drive.

2. The number of reallocated sectors can become large. The real problem is that there is usually some underlying reason for bad sectors developing and that problem is still there. Such problems are usually progressive and become more serious as time progresses. As the cause is usually unknowable so too is the time frame. The numbers could become very large in a very short period of time and essentially making the drive unusable, so regular backups should be made before trouble develops.

With that said, I think you've done the best option by replacing the HDD.

Cheers!

 

[John Connor]

Got my new HDD that I bought frrom the same seller on Amazon. Plug it in and check the SMART data. 36 bad sectors! I'm so pissed right now. I initiated yet another return and just bought the same hard drive from another seller on Amazon.

Question: Is it possible that these bad sectors could appear in the process of being shipped? This went priority so there would be little handling since the package goes by air. Here's the kicker. The jackass post man tried to jam the box in my mail box. The HDD is only protected by an anti-static bag and bubble wrap. I'm placing a sign on my mail box instructing the post man not to attempt to jam any packages in my damn mail box again.

 

[RecoveryForce]

Out of curiosity, how many hours of runtime does SMART show the drive running? It seems to me that you are getting used drives.

 

[VirtualLarry]

It seems to me that you are getting used drives.

goHardDrive on Amazon?

 

[AlienTech]

I have a seagate hard drive with over 33000 reallocated sectors.. It might sound like a lot but it is only like 16MB of data.. The drive still passes all the tests and works just fine.. It adds a few sectors if I use it continuously.. One of the problems that happen is if there are no spare sectors on the same track it will have to find a spare sector some where far away and hard drives unlike SSD's have very high access times.. You might run HDDScan because that shows you the sector access read times which will show you if a particular sector was weak or had to be re-read or if it was a spare sector etc.. It is the only program I know off that will flag such sectors.. Most new hard drives have very few relocated sectors.. Surprisingly.. It seems when they bin the platters, they use slower RPM's or lower capacity for lower quality platters rather than just using spare sectors to ship the drives.. I havent checked too many drives as it takes 2 days to do one but the few I did checked were all mostly this way with under 5 or so sectors remapped..

 

[VirtualLarry]

I have a seagate hard drive with over 33000 reallocated sectors.. It might sound like a lot but it is only like 16MB of data.. The drive still passes all the tests and works just fine.. It adds a few sectors if I use it continuously..

Uhh, might want to back up and stop using that drive. Jus' sayin'.

 

[John Connor]

Out of curiosity, how many hours of runtime does SMART show the drive running? It seems to me that you are getting used drives.

I should have checked that! Was thinking about this. Too late now I sent it back and ordered a new HDD from a different vendor on Amazon.

If SMARt data yet agin shows this crap with my new drive I will look at the run time.

 

[John Connor]

Got my new drive from Amazon a few days ago. This time there are no reallocated sectors, BUT the damn thing has a power on count of 65 and over 36,000 hours of use! WTF!

I have had nothing but bad luck with HDDs from Amazon. I don't know if this is a fluke in the HDD chip or not. I also used HDTune and Harddisk Sentential and all read the same result. This was a different vendor and the HDD came in a static bad with one of those silica paks. The others HDDs never had a silica pak. But I guess anyone could reseal the HDD. Funny thing is on Amazon it says the cache is 16 MB yet this cache is 30 MB. I'm tired of sending HDDs back so I think I'll just keep this one. I bought the 2 year warranty on Amazon and this vendor apparently offers a 1 year warranty.

This is the drive on Newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA67S22Y7744

This is the one one Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001Q9EKU0?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00

Bought it from uBestDeals. Now they want $51 and I payed $41! How about that crap. Same with the other vendor I bought from, Finity India.

Now NewBS wants $93!

 

[Elixer]

Congrats on getting a used drive.

Obviously, it isn't new, looks to be pulled from some kind of a server or storage pool going by the hours.
Nothing on that page shows "new".
If you look on the label, it has a date code as well...and it won't be 2015.
All these scam sellers should be avoided.
I say this is a scam, since they don't clearly identify that the drives are pulled units, and not new.

This is the one one Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ilpage_o00_s00

If you want new drives, stick with authorized resellers, not these clowns.

 

[John Connor]

Yeah, last time I buy a drive on Amazon. My first drive I bought on Amazon was a 320 GB WD and it died in about a month! Good thing I was able to use hdd regenerator and help fix clusters with several passes and retrieve most of my data.

Now here's something interesting. I went to Hitachi's site and wanted to see if the warranty was still valid and the site says invalid serial number. I even replaced the two zeros for O's. WTF! Good thing I bought a 2 year warranty on the damn thing.

 

[John Connor]

Nothing on that page shows "new".

If you look on the label, it has a date code as well...and it won't be 2015.

No, this drive came out in 2009 I think. I just wanted a cheap 1 TB and couldn't find one. But they said new!

 

[John Connor]

Unbelievable! Here's the same damn drive new and I payed $41. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA5AD23W5231

I may just return this damn drive yet another time. Threes a charm!

 

[John Connor]

LMAO! I'm running recovery software on the HDD and EaseUs Datarecovery says there are 306 files and counting. Unreal!

Edit- Over 1,100 now.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

if (SMART::realloc > 0) { die "No bueno!\n"; }

 

[MongGrel]

redacted.

No need to post.