Is my HDD failing?

[tshrjain]

As I was checking HWInfo64, it showed a Yellow exclamation mark on my HDD. On checking further, I see the following errors:

"[05] Reallocated Sector Count:100/36, Worst: 100 (Data = 22)"

Should I be concerned? Any way to rectify this error?

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there, tshrjain!

Indeed, you should be concerned. When this SMART attribute starts failing, the number of reallocated sectors a.k.a. bad sectors could increase and cause more data corruption. I'd strongly recommend you backup all your data from the HDD somewhere else immediately and then use the HDD's brand-specific diagnostic tool to check up on the SMART status and its overall health again. This way, you will be able to benchmark the results as well.

Reallocated Sectors Count S.M.A.R.T. parameter indicates the count of bad sectors. The process is called 'remapping' which hides all the bad blocks, however, they cannot be used again. Any data that is contained on those sectors could get corrupted as well. My recommendation is to check the warranty of your HDD and, if it's still covered, send an RMA request to the reseller's or the manufacturer's customer support.

Hope this helps. Best of luck!
SuperSoph_WD