Can someone give me their opinion on this info from CrystalDisk

[EnzTech]

Hey Guys,

Just need a moment of your time to check this feedback I got from crystal disk, (Kinda a stupid question but just wanna make sure).

I brought this hard drive off ebay to try and help fix an issue I'm having with a laptop I'm fixing, I installed it into the machine and tried installing the O/S but it errored at about 70/80% So i took it out and used Crystal Disk to see if it was any good.

Is this hard drive dead/ on its last legs?

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Also there is nothing I can do to resolve this can I?


Also Could I have caused this damage from trying to install the O/S? Or is it just caused by normal ware and tare it is an old IDE hard drive lol, I'm gonna try and send it back so just wanna make sure I got my facts straight.

Anyways sorry for the (maybe stupid) questions, Thanks in advance

Enzo

 

[Fokissed]

Reallocated Sectors Count (0x05) is a critical value that can indicate electromechanical failure. It is the count of bad sectors that have been remapped to spare area.

Current Pending Sector Count (0xC5) is also a critical value that can indicate electromechanical failure. This is a count of sectors that need to be remapped, but haven't yet, due to unrecoverable read errors.

This drive is failing or has been dropped a lot. Replace it ASAP.

 

[EnzTech]

Reallocated Sectors Count (0x05) is a critical value that can indicate electromechanical failure. It is the count of bad sectors that have been remapped to spare area.

Current Pending Sector Count (0xC5) is also a critical value that can indicate electromechanical failure. This is a count of sectors that need to be remapped, but haven't yet, due to unrecoverable read errors.

This drive is failing or has been dropped a lot. Replace it ASAP.

Cool Thanks for your help

 

[house70]

There are no stupid questions.

If the HDD is old, keep in mind they have a limited lifespan, mostly due to the wear/tear of the moving parts (platter, fork, etc). The HDD in question might as well be on it's last leg.
If so, you might have a chance by zeroing the HDD (I use Killdisk for that). It erases all the sectors and writes zeroes on them, rendering the HDD in a factory-like state. From there, you can format it and use it (again, provided that the mechanical parts are not failing).
I have managed to squeeze a few more months out of an old HDD by doing that, but that was about it. Bottom, line, it comes down to whatever you intend to do with it. If it is just a temporary crutch to use while servicing a system (like a temporary OS boot environment, for instance), you can use it like that, but don't entrust any important data to it, not even for a short period of time, because it might (still) work one minute and be dead the next.
If I was in your situation I would return it because you should not have to pay money to get something like that. For a "crutch-like" use I would just borrow an old HDD from someone (something they don't use anymore because it's failing).

 

[Fokissed]

BTW the normalized values (Current, Worst, Threshold) are on a scale of 1 (worst) to 253 (best). Since there are quite a few 1s on that drive, it's really on its last leg.

 

[EnzTech]

There are no stupid questions.

If the HDD is old, keep in mind they have a limited lifespan, mostly due to the wear/tear of the moving parts (platter, fork, etc). The HDD in question might as well be on it's last leg.
If so, you might have a chance by zeroing the HDD (I use Killdisk for that). It erases all the sectors and writes zeroes on them, rendering the HDD in a factory-like state. From there, you can format it and use it (again, provided that the mechanical parts are not failing).
I have managed to squeeze a few more months out of an old HDD by doing that, but that was about it. Bottom, line, it comes down to whatever you intend to do with it. If it is just a temporary crutch to use while servicing a system (like a temporary OS boot environment, for instance), you can use it like that, but don't entrust any important data to it, not even for a short period of time, because it might (still) work one minute and be dead the next.
If I was in your situation I would return it because you should not have to pay money to get something like that. For a "crutch-like" use I would just borrow an old HDD from someone (something they don't use anymore because it's failing).

Thanks again for the help you guys, and I will look into killdisk sounds like a good program.

But yeah I'm gonna email the guy and get it sent back/ replacement.

Thanks

Enzo

 

[fzabkar]

KillDisk would be useless in your situation.

Reallocated Sectors have already been replaced with spares, so there is nothing any software can do to change that. You would need factory tools for this purpose, but even then all they would do would be to move the grown defect list (G-List) to the primary defect list (P-List). The underlying problem (bad head or bad media) would still be there. You would just be sweeping the dust under the carpet.

 

[house70]

KillDisk would be useless in your situation.

Reallocated Sectors have already been replaced with spares, so there is nothing any software can do to change that. You would need factory tools for this purpose, but even then all they would do would be to move the grown defect list (G-List) to the primary defect list (P-List). The underlying problem (bad head or bad media) would still be there. You would just be sweeping the dust under the carpet.

I know that, that's why I did not recommend this as a permanent solution. I would argue, however, that is not useless, even in a dying HDD scenario.

I had an old PC that I resuscitated from work, erased all data from HDD, used killdisk on it, then installed Ubuntu and the thing lasted another 6 months or so before giving up the ghost. In a scenario where your main PC is non-functional (due to upgrade parts coming, problems, etc), a spare system that runs on fumes is way better than nothing. I used that PC for manipulating files that were considered unsafe for a main PC, especially a Windows PC (easier to infect).

In the end, I had nothing to lose and about 6 months to gain out of that system. I ended up replacing the HDD and selling the thing. 😀