Question Is my hard drive good?

[SweetFountain178]

The reason I'm worried is because I got my laptop (an Acer aspire 5) in December 2019. Then months later (June 2020), the hard drive died (complete with "no bootable device" when I rebooted from the BSOD that occurred) it failed again on August and since the laptop was still under warranty, they replaced the drive. Everyone assumed the failed drive was a manufacturing defect.

I've been using it since that month (but I took a long break from using the laptop, from March to October 2021, hopefully that didn't damage the drive) and it's working fine, but I fear it might fail on me sooner than later.

Here are some recordings I made of the sounds it makes. See if they're normal:
https://kapwi.ng/c/I8r2RfRBsI

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I used CrystalDiskInfo and here's what I got:
https://ibb.co/TYZCbcD

I have yet to run Hard Disk Sentinel (although I may use it if it's reliable) and I never ran CHKDSK (it could take a really, really long time. I have no idea)

HDD model: WDC WD10SPZX-00Z10T0

I usually have my laptop sitting on a table and being used on the TV as an external monitor with an external mouse and keyboard. I haven't seen any problems with that yet, although I fear that dust might have built up a lot after months of being on a table, but I usually put the laptop on its bag after use.

I haven't seen any warnings of bad sectors or anything. Does putting the laptop to sleep while away from it do something to the hard drive? Especially when programs are open and maybe writing to it?

Sorry if it was too specific with too many questions. I'm just that worried lol

I do have backups of personal projects on the cloud though.

Forgot to mention: I baby my laptop like a GODDESS and try my absolute best to never drop it or even bump it in the slightest. I never move my laptop when it's on and even in sleep mode I worry a bit.

 

[logainofhades]

Laptop HDD can be noisy, and 5400rpm is terribly slow. I personally would recommend a SATA SSD, unless it has an available NVME slot. Putting it to sleep shouldn't affect the HDD any.

 

[SweetFountain178]

Laptop HDD can be noisy, and 5400rpm is terribly slow. I personally would recommend a SATA SSD, unless it has an available NVME slot. Putting it to sleep shouldn't affect the HDD any.

I might put an SSD on it in the future.

 

[DSzymborski]

Really, the best approach is to consider any hard drive as terminally ill and make your plans with this assumption. Even the most delicately treated drive can very easily give up the ghost with zero advance warning.

 

[SweetFountain178]

Really, the best approach is to consider any hard drive as terminally ill and make your plans with this assumption. Even the most delicately treated drive can very easily give up the ghost with zero advance warning.

I think doing this would be too extreme.

 

[DSzymborski]

I think doing this would be too extreme.

Actually, it's widely considered the best practice for data integrity.

All important data should follow the 321 rule at a minimum. This means at least three total versions of every important file, in at least two different locations, with at least one off site.

By the time a hard drive displays any signs of dying, it's quite often already too late to save everything and sometimes too late to save anything.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

I personally wouldn't even think about using a spinning drive in a laptop these days. Spinning drives in a laptop take FAR more abuse than they do in a desktop system and SSD's are inexpensive enough in the most common sizes that it doesn't make sense to use the spinners any longer.

 

[SweetFountain178]

I personally wouldn't even think about using a spinning drive in a laptop these days. Spinning drives in a laptop take FAR more abuse than they do in a desktop system and SSD's are inexpensive enough in the most common sizes that it doesn't make sense to use the spinners any longer.

The thing is that I write a lot on my hard drive (I download a lot of stuff and move and copy things around) and I'm not too sure about doing that with the read and write limits of an SSD just yet.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

This so called read write limit hasn't been a thing for YEARS now. You will be replacing any SSD LONG LONG before you reach any limit. It's a complete non issue.

 

[SweetFountain178]

I've had at least one laptop whose hard drive lasted (and still lasts) quite a bit: my mom's.

Her laptop is like a decade or so old. It still has (at least I assume) the original HDD. This thing was dropped once (the battery was completely destroyed as a result. It only runs on AC), shaken a bit, probably bumped a few times, put on both soft and hard surfaces (beds, chairs and desks), had a cooling pad under it sometimes, didn't have it on others, and even though it's getting slow now (probably because of its age), the freakin drive still works, but I assume it won't for very long.

So some drives last longer than others. Maybe I should use my HDD until it goes kaput too, I don't know how reliable it would still be even if it has been reliable these past few months.

 

[SweetFountain178]

This so called read write limit hasn't been a thing for YEARS now. You will be replacing any SSD LONG LONG before you reach any limit. It's a complete non issue.

I could replace the HDD with an SSD when I get older.

 

[USAFRet]

I think doing this would be too extreme.

Not even a little bit.

Drives can die at any time, old or new.
Currently, I have a 16TB Toshiba Enterprise drive in my NAS that is deciding when it should kill itself.

Started showing bad sectors on Saturday. 5 days later...
Abnormal sector count has gone from 623 to 14,183.
This drive is only 7 months old. HAs been handled exactly once, when I took it out of the box and put it in the NAS back in April.

The only way I knew about these was that the NAS OS told me. Not something that would normally pop up on a Windows system.
So I might have been just cruising along, fat, dumb and happy....right up until the moment this thing actually kicked the bucket.

Luckily, because I am a bit fanatical about backups....all data on it already exists elsewhere.
New 18TB Seagate Exos going in tonight, format, and copy that data into this new drive.
The suicidal Tosh goes back to Toshiba for a warranty replacement.

Always always always have a backup.
HDD, SSD, old, new...

 

[SweetFountain178]

But legit I wanna check if this noise is normal:
https://kapwi.ng/c/4Lh2wAIR6r
It was running a VM and writing some stuff so I don't think it was idle.

 

[USAFRet]

But legit I wanna check if this noise is normal:
https://kapwi.ng/c/4Lh2wAIR6r
It was running a VM and writing some stuff so I don't think it was idle.

Noises are a poor method of determining health.
But new noises are rarely a good thing.

Some drives make noise right out of the box.
Or, mounting issues. Or resonance with other drives or components.

What does the SMART data for this drive show?
(even if 100% perfect, you still need a good backup)

 

[USAFRet]

Listening to your audio, can't really tell anything. Good or bad.
All I hear is a hum.

 

[SweetFountain178]

Noises are a poor method of determining health.
But new noises are rarely a good thing.

Some drives make noise right out of the box.
Or, mounting issues. Or resonance with other drives or components.

What does the SMART data for this drive show?
(even if 100% perfect, you still need a good backup)

Here's the CrystalDiskInfo report: https://ibb.co/TYZCbcD

 

[SweetFountain178]

Listening to your audio, can't really tell anything. Good or bad.
All I hear is a hum.

Try turning up your volume.

 

[USAFRet]

Here's the CrystalDiskInfo report: https://ibb.co/TYZCbcD

Read error rate and Reallocated sectors are above zero.
Monitor those over then next few days. If they increase...not good.

But still, it makes no difference.
A few years ago, I had a 5 week old Seagate 3TB go from seemingly great to absolutely dead in about 36 hours.

Your drive may last years, or it may die in the next 5 minutes.

Try turning up your volume.

Volume is fine.

 

[SweetFountain178]

Read error rate and Reallocated sectors are above zero.
Monitor those over then next few days. If they increase...not good.

But still, it makes no difference.
A few years ago, I had a 5 week old Seagate 3TB go from seemingly great to absolutely dead in about 36 hours.

Your drive may last years, or it may die in the next 5 minutes.


Volume is fine.

I'm also planning on installing HD Tune to check for bad blocks. Hopefully everything's green. I only had that new drive sitting on the table for around 8 months of actual operation (made a 9 month hiatus from the laptop in March, but it still works)

I posted the link on reddit and someone said that it was normal.

 

[USAFRet]

I posted the link on reddit and someone said that it was normal.

Well, if that is what you want to hear, go for it.

Hard drives die. Often, with little or no warning. What will you do if that reddit person was wrong?
Or, he was right and the drive died anyway?

 

[SweetFountain178]

Well, if that is what you want to hear, go for it.

Hard drives die. Often, with little or no warning. What will you do if that reddit person was wrong?
Or, he was right and the drive died anyway?

Then I asked about it on another community and there was this person: View: https://www.reddit.com/r/laptops/comments/qkr6jt/comment/hiy5sds/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

 

[SweetFountain178]

Here's another recording:
https://kapwi.ng/c/I8r2RfRBsI

 

[USAFRet]

Yes...being physical devices, they make noise. Some louder than others.
As I mentioned above, new noises are rarely a good thing.

The 16TB Toshiba I mentioned above is making NO weird noises.
But it is still dying.

Would YOU trust this drive?

 

[SweetFountain178]

Yes...being physical devices, they make noise. Some louder than others.
As I mentioned above, new noises are rarely a good thing.

The 16TB Toshiba I mentioned above is making NO weird noises.
But it is still dying.

Would YOU trust this drive?

Do you think I would? Even ONE bad sector can make me worried!

 

[USAFRet]

Do you think I would? Even ONE bad sector can make me worried!

So...ignoring the "noise"...what steps have you taken to be proactive with the data on this drive?