Question Is LLF dangerous and necessary my hdd?

[fatihvoneinzbern]

Hello, I am using WD 1 TB 7200 RPM HDD .My HDD has sounded weird last few days and has slowed down.I did error and health scan with HDTune, PartitionGuru and Crystaldisk. There aren't any error or bad sectors.Results are as in the appendix. Do I need LLF and is it dangerous? Thank you and sorry for my bad english.

 

[USAFRet]

Is it still under warranty?

Have you run the WD Data Lifeguard utility?

 

[fatihvoneinzbern]

No, it isn't still under warranty. Should i run the WD Data Lifeguard ?

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

LLF from HDDGURU is a low-level formatting utility for securely erasing all data from an HDD to the extent that the data cannot be recovered. It is not relevant to your problem.

Please be more specific as to what you mean by "sounds weird"?

A short recording of the sound might prove useful if you can't describe it.

 

[USAFRet]

No, it isn't still under warranty. Should i run the WD Data Lifeguard ?

Yes.

You do have a current backup of all the data on it, right?

 

[fatihvoneinzbern]

LLF from HDDGURU is a low-level formatting utility for securely erasing all data from an HDD to the extent that the data cannot be recovered. It is not relevant to your problem.

Please be more specific as to what you mean by "sounds weird"?

A short recording of the sound might prove useful if you can't describe it.

Under stress its sound is "wuw-wu-wuw" : https://vocaroo.com/i/s0bsaSx3KTIa

And whether or not under pressure, always there is a sound like " niiii" : https://vocaroo.com/i/s0Onsrw76Ynu (i know its hard to hear with fan noise,sorry for this)

I know that SATA HDDs works louder but these weird sounds had never been before and it very slowed down especially while was starting windows or any application.

 

[jsmithepa]

Once errors creep up on HDDs, is not worth trying to rescue them.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

Thanks for the recordings but I don't hear anything that I would be concerned about.

 

[fatihvoneinzbern]

LLF from HDDGURU is a low-level formatting utility for securely erasing all data from an HDD to the extent that the data cannot be recovered. It is not relevant to your problem.

Please be more specific as to what you mean by "sounds weird"?

A short recording of the sound might prove useful if you can't describe it.

Is WD own low level format utility is same thing as HDDGuru's utility ?

 

[USAFRet]

You're concentrating on the wrong thing. Low level format is irrelevant.

What results did the WD utility return?

 

[fatihvoneinzbern]

You're concentrating on the wrong thing. Low level format is irrelevant.

What results did the WD utility return?

S.M.A.R.T values and quick test results are normal.Should i run extended test?

 

[USAFRet]

S.M.A.R.T values and quick test results are normal.Should i run extended test?

Yes.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Under stress its sound is "wuw-wu-wuw" : https://vocaroo.com/i/s0bsaSx3KTIa
And whether or not under pressure, always there is a sound like " niiii" : https://vocaroo.com/i/s0Onsrw76Ynu (i know its hard to hear with fan noise,sorry for this)

Recordings sound normal.
Can you show screenshot from HDtune health section?

 

[fatihvoneinzbern]

Yes.

Ok its running.i will share results

 

[fatihvoneinzbern]

Recordings sound normal.
Can you show screenshot from HDtune health section?

Of course

 

[fatihvoneinzbern]

Yes.

@USAFRet

 

[fatihvoneinzbern]

Of course

 

[SkyNetRising]

Everything looks good there. I see no reason to worry.

 

[fzabkar]

True Low Level Formatting hasn't been possible since the early days of IDE. All that "LLF" tools do nowadays is to erase the drive by writing zeros or some other data pattern to every sector. If the SMART report shows Current Pending sectors, then these will be rewritten and retested. If the test fails, then spare sectors will be reassigned to the failing LBAs. The SMART Reallocated Sector Count will then be updated.

 

[AllanGH]

Low Level Formatting....LOL....punching-in bad sector map entries.....I don't miss that aspect of the "good-old days".

Ohhhhhh, do I go with MFM, or can this drive handle RLL?

 

[mdd1963]

Drive stress tests often cause very wild swings in head activity over the entire surface media, and does not sound 'normal'...; you won't 'fix' it with any utility.

If the drive passes GsmartControl short test, get on to using it... if you don't like the scratchy/crunchy sounds that come from spinning drives during heavy read/write activity, a 1 TB Corsair MX500 SSD is $119....

 

[AllanGH]

If you're using windows, SpinRite-5 is an option....

 

[popatim]

Is the drive defragged? It wouldn't hurt to reinstall windows to speed things up again .