CrystalDiskInfo shows "Caution" on my HDDs. [C5] [C6] Current Pending Sector Count 2 (Need advice!)

[Zeraschan]

I have three HDDs two of which are "Caution" on CrystalDiskInfo (shown in the pictures below) just wondering if its worth trying to fix or should I just replace the HDDs?

I have been having BSOD for the past few weeks and suffered simlar issues with my HDDs a year ago but managed to make them behave until now. I use my G: drive to record 1080p game footage to. I'm normally running the game I'm recording off the G: drive also. But sometimes my H: drive.

I've tried switching up which HDD I record to/ record a game from and still get a BSOD normally when I hit "Record" on my recording program (Action Mirillis) or once I've been recording for an hour or so then hit "End recording". Then I get a BSOD a second or two after, sometimes followed by a beep sometimes not. So I imagine its when the file is being finished up and wrote to my HDD that the HDD start to flip out.

When playing games on my C: G: or H: drive I sometimes hear a beep then my PC freezes for a little bit before returning to normal.

If someone could take a look at these pictures and give me your opinion, I'd greatly appreciate it!

Thanks guys!

 

[Emerald]

your C: drive looks very bad. With the high Read and Seek Errors and the high number of Uncorrectable Errors, I expect the drive to fail in the neer future.

Back up your data and replace the C: as soon as possible.

 

[Zeraschan]

your C: drive looks very bad. With the high Read and Seek Errors and the high number of Uncorrectable Errors, I expect the drive to fail in the neer future.

Back up your data and replace the C: as soon as possible.

Thanks so much for your reply Emerald!

I will replace my C: drive ASAP! Whats your opinions on my G: and H: drives? Should I back up and replace those too? Or are they okay for now? If so then how long do they have before I need to replace them.

Thanks again dude!

 

[D_Know_WD]

Hi there Zeraschan,

I would totally agree with Emerald. You need to back up the data stored on C: and replace. You can RMA it if it is under warranty.
Regarding your WD Blue(G, I would that that it may be a good idea not to keep crucial data stored on it. It seems it has a few bad sectors. This makes it unreliable. Yet, you can use it for storing non important data. The drive could fail in a week or last for years. You can't really know that.
I believe this drive is old right?

One thing you can try is to back up all the data stored on it, write zeros(fills in 0 value in each sector) and re-test. Sometimes this could help. You can use WD's DLG tool: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=KXW7Xd
This is a data destructive process and you need to back up all the data stored on the drive.

Your H: drive seems to be in a healthy state. You can move the important data stored on the other two drives to it. Yet, you need to keep in mind that the important data should be stored on at least two places.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

 

[Zeraschan]

Hi there Zeraschan,

I would totally agree with Emerald. You need to back up the data stored on C: and replace. You can RMA it if it is under warranty.
Regarding your WD Blue(G, I would that that it may be a good idea not to keep crucial data stored on it. It seems it has a few bad sectors. This makes it unreliable. Yet, you can use it for storing non important data. The drive could fail in a week or last for years. You can't really know that.
I believe this drive is old right?

One thing you can try is to back up all the data stored on it, write zeros(fills in 0 value in each sector) and re-test. Sometimes this could help. You can use WD's DLG tool: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=KXW7Xd
This is a data destructive process and you need to back up all the data stored on the drive.

Your H: drive seems to be in a healthy state. You can move the important data stored on the other two drives to it. Yet, you need to keep in mind that the important data should be stored on at least two places.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

Hey D_Know_WD, I saw you around the forums and thought to myself you seem like just the guy I need!

Thanks for getting back to me, I'll be getting a SSD to replace my C: drive.

I have been getting kernal blue screens I believe because of my G: drive. Might of been my C: drive giving what we know now about its health. Just for future referance and for the sake of good old education, how can you tell my G drive has bad sectors and what else should I lookout for/ know about to better diagnose my HDDs in the future?

Also isn't it just safe to say once I get a bad sector its time to replace, if zeroing it doesnt fix anything. I've heard a lot of people say zeroing their drive fixes errors and bad sectors for a while but them come back a little while later.

Thank you!
-Zeras

 

[Dylan873]

I have a couple of HDDs in my RAID array that also say "caution" in crystaldiskinfo. It just means that your drive has a couple of reallocated sectors that may be corrupted/pending. Normally it means the drives are on their way out and you should go get some new ones. (although the drives in my RAID array are 3 years old and I still haven't replaced them yet)

 

[D_Know_WD]

Well, look at the RAW data. Both C and G don't have many bad sectors, but C has many read errors. Hexadecimal to decimal conversion -> D34 = 3380
Also, you need to look at pending/reallocated sectors.
Pending = weak sectors. Those could be software ones and sometimes the writing zeros process could help.
Reallocated = bad sectors that were already reallocated.

Yeah, if zeroing or full format doesn't help and you get the same SMART results, it is rime for a new drive. It is not going to get better but only worse.
When talking about mechanical drives, bad sectors could appear sooner or later, no matter if this is after writing zeros or not. The important thing is to keep an eye on their health with testing them from time to time and have a back up of all the important data.

So, my suggestion would be: Back up the data on both drives, write zeros on them, re-test and see if this will fix the issue.
By the way, you will notice significant boot/loading times improvement with an SSD. Despite the fact that it is far more reliable than mechanical drives, sometimes electronics can fail as well.

One more thing about the OS installation. It is important that the SSD is the only drive attached to your system during the clean OS installation.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD