High Reallocated Sector Count, But All Diagnostics Passed

[mushaf]

I bought a HP 14-v052tx notebook last February. It came with a HGST 500GB hard drive. After Windows 10 came out I dual booted it with Windows 7. One day, after trying a system tweak tool for Win10 the screen started stuttering/flashing. No key combination worked to get rid of it, so I had to force shut down using power button and when I logged back in to Win7 I checked hdd SMART status and found 65544 reallocated sectors. Not to mention, it was giving 'warning'.

Couple of days later the reallocation sector count got exactly doubled (131088) and reallocation event count became 2.

Few days later it was tripled (196632) and reallocation event count was 3.

After around 10 more days now it has multiplied fourth time and current value is 262176. Meanwhile, reallocation event count is 4.

I found that some of my files got corrupted (previous hash value wouldn't match with current hash value) possibly due to the remapping of sectors.

I have warranty. However, HP recommends running hdd diagnostic tests from it's BIOS tools and my hdd passed all of them (SMART, Short DST, Long DST).

My questions are:

1. I find it weird that the reallocated sector count is increasing as a multiple of a certain value, that is 65544. Is there any explanation for it?

2. If I zero-fill the whole drive would it solve the issue? What tool can I use to do that? (I already tried it with Hitachi's Drive Fitness Test v4.16 from Ultimate Boot CD but it always gave me this error - "write protect error reading drive c".)

3. What else can I do?

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there, mushaf!

First, I'd strongly recommend you to do a backup of the data stored on the drive and make a copy of it somewhere else. I'd also suggest you to try running another diagnostic utility as well, so you can benchmark the results. Here are some good third-party suggestions from the community: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/282651-32-best-diagnostic-testing-utility

You could try writing zeros, however, keep in mind that it will erase everything on the HDD. If the reallocated sector count is increasing so suddenly, it's best to RMA the laptop and ask your manufacturer's customer support for assistance. If it's still covered by the warranty, they might be able to provide you with a replacement.

Hope this helps. Keep me posted!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[mushaf]

Hi, SuperSoph_WD! Thanks for your feedback.

I already backed up my data. The warranty support wasn't very supportive here. They said they'd run tests with their software and if the software finds no problem then they'd consider the drive to be okay.

I already benchmarked the drive with HDTune Pro. In fact, I used HDTune Pro and CrystalDiskInfo to check SMART. Here are three recent consecutive read benchmarks -

1.

2.

3.

Can you suggest what third party tool I can use to zero-fill the drive?

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there again, mushaf!

I'd like to ask you to go to the health tab in the diagnostic tools and share some links to the SMART status results as well. The results there will give us a more accurate reading on the health of the drive.
As for the write-zero utility, I'd recommend you to check the HDD manufacturer's website. There should be either a diagnostic utility that incorporates this feature or a specific tool that will help you do that. Better use the brand-specific tools as they are specially designed and tested for these manufactured HDDs.

Keep me posted with the other screenshots!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[mushaf]

I only took one screenshot of the health tab before I broke the partition table. I'm sorry as it doesn't show all the parameters. I should have saved a log.

I already checked the manufacturer's website and found WinDFT. But the problem is, it is written in the user guide that "WinDFT is not designed to run on your primary operating drive". I probably need to connect the hdd to another Windows PC and run WinDFT from that. But I'm afraid removing the hdd from my laptop might void my warranty. Also, I don't have any SATA to USB converter at this moment.

I couldn't find any current DOS based tool by the manufacturer. Besides, like I said in my first post I already tried Hitachi's Drive Fitness Test v4.16 from Ultimate Boot CD but it always gave me this error - "write protect error reading drive c". I'm not sure if it's compatible with newer drives.

That's why I was looking for a third-party tool for writing zeros.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Okay then, let's try with WD's Data LifeGuard Diagnostics. Even though it's a testing utility, it also incorporates the WRITE ZEROS feature which will let you fully erase the drive. You can give it a try with it, hopefully it will help you. Here's a link to the WD software, it should be second in the list: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=lN1M9l

Make sure you test the HDD again using all the diagnostic tools, and share screenshots of the SMART data afterwards again.

Good luck!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[mushaf]

Hi again, SuperSoph_WD! I really appreciate your feedbacks.

I have this certain question in mind - Is writing zeros to the entire disk gonna reset the reallocated sector count to zero?

It seems WD's DLD is a Windows based utility. Since I broke the partition table I don't have any OS installed on the system right now. I tried to run all known DOS-based manufacturer's tools from Ultimate Boot CD but they either failed to run (Hitachi's DFT) or didn't detect my hdd (WD's DLD, Seagate's Seatools, Maxtor's PowerMax).

So I did a zeo-fill with Linux Mint's live OS using the 'Disk' utility (format > overwrite zeros > no partition). Then I checked SMART and reallocated sector count is still 262176. I ran short DST and it passed. I'm pretty sure a long DST will pass too.

Any suggestion at this point?

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there again, mushaf!

Sorry for the late reply, we don't check the community on the weekends.
Nothing can fix bad sectors. Unfortunately, writing zeros don't have the magical power to turn them into good sectors that can be written to. It can partially repair the drive by placing markers which prevent the bad sectors from being used. Even if the bad sectors decrease, it means that they are hidden, but not fixed. However, if a drive knows that a sector is bad and the drive's controller receives a command to write over it, it will not reuse that sector and will instead remap it to one of its spare-sector regions. Although, the amount of these spare sectors are limited.

I believe you need to consider replacing the HDD as soon as possible!

Good luck!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[mushaf]

Thank you for your explanation, SuperSoph_WD!

I'm now currently using the drive having my data backed up and keeping an eye on it's health. If the drive degrades any further I'll definitely replace it.