Are sector count warnings indication of possible drive failure?

[kol12]

I have Current Pending Sector Count and Off -Line Uncorrectable Sector Count warnings on my data hdd. I've had them for quite a while. Are they an indication of eventual drive failure?

 

[SkyNetRising]

Can you show screenshot from HDtune health?

 

[kol12]

I don't have HDtune but I have taken a screen from HWiNFO if that helps?

Can never get these full screen: https://postimg.org/image/g2d0hkjsl/3fbebff4/

 

[SkyNetRising]

I don't have HDtune but I have taken a screen from HWiNFO if that helps?

Then install HDtune (free non pro version is enough).
Anyway - it looks like the drive has 96 pending sectors.

Pending sector means, that the sector could not be read, but the drive does not yet know, if the sector is damaged or not.
Pending sector can be resolved by overwriting it.

Use mhdd scan (with relocate enabled) to resolve pending sectors.
http://hddguru.com/software/2005.10.02-MHDD/

 

[kol12]

Great thanks. I will check this out when I get a chance. What are other potential drive failure S.M.A.R.T warnings to look for usually?

 

[SkyNetRising]

The main ones are Relocated Sectors Count and Current Pending Sectors.
Rest of them are less important, but can also signal about drive failure.

 

[kol12]

So how does a damaged sector lead to drive failure?

 

[SkyNetRising]

If there are enough relocated sectors, drive eventually runs out of spare area for sector relocation. When this happens, drive is considered failed.

 

[seagate_surfer]

You can download our free diagnostic software SeaTools if you'd like. It will give you a pass/fail status on the drive. Probably a good idea to run a Long Generic test on it, which will test all sectors of the drive. It takes longer, but shorter tests only pick sectors at random for testing.

If you'd like to look into potential warranty information, you can take a look at our Warranty Validation tool.

 

[kol12]

I don't have HDtune but I have taken a screen from HWiNFO if that helps?

Then install HDtune (free non pro version is enough).

Couple of alerts with HDtune trial at Virustotal.com False positives? You have no trouble?

 

[SkyNetRising]

And where are you downloading it from?

Get it from here - 2.55 version.
http://www.hdtune.com/download.html

 

[kol12]

I downloaded the 570trial.exe from the same page. Only one detection for version 2.55 that seems to be false positive so should be ok.

 

[kol12]

You can download our free diagnostic software SeaTools if you'd like. It will give you a pass/fail status on the drive. Probably a good idea to run a Long Generic test on it, which will test all sectors of the drive. It takes longer, but shorter tests only pick sectors at random for testing.

If you'd like to look into potential warranty information, you can take a look at our Warranty Validation tool.

The drive in question failed the Long Generic test. Can I repair the sectors with Seatools for Dos or the MHDD software SkyNet mentioned?

 

[seagate_surfer]

You could run software to try to fix the errors, but if you're seeing a failed long generic test, you definitely want to back up any data you value somewhere else before doing much else. The more stress you put the drive through when it's running into errors, the more likely it is the drive loses your data during diagnostic and/or fix efforts.

 

[kol12]

Sounds like the drive might be better retired. I will at least get the data off and then see if it can be repaired. I'm surprised the drive as gone this far with the errors.

When are these Seagate Multi-Actuator drives going to make an appearance?

 

[seagate_surfer]

Sounds like the drive might be better retired. I will at least get the data off and then see if it can be repaired. I'm surprised the drive as gone this far with the errors.

When are these Seagate Multi-Actuator drives going to make an appearance?

We demo'ed them as part of our experience at CES, the technology is being engineered to work with our new HAMR tech and you can see the animation in our Imgur Album here. As far as specific dates, the official word is to stay tuned, the multi-actuator tech is in development to be deployed in products in the near future. HAMR drives are already being manufactured with a supply chain solidly in place, with an estimated roll-out to the public sometime this year, here is our HAMR blog post if you'd like to give it a read.