Is this drive bad? Help me understand. S.M.A.R.T. Errors - Interface CRC Error Count

[itakey]

I have a 5TB drive that seems to work fine, but I decided to check the S.M.A.R.T. with HD Tune and it told me a different story than CrystalDiskInfo reports. The drive seems to run fine, but I noticed my SSD also shows the same error. I read that it could be an issue with the SATA Cable.

Is this drive not reliable with this S.M.A.R.T. report showing Interface CRC Error Count as it does? Did it really error out 4186 times??? Would a new SATA cable possibly solve this? Something tells me there is more to it since I see the same error on my SSD drive but the data value is only 3 on that one.

Included is an image, and i'll list the values here as well:
(C7) Interface CRC Error Count
Current: 200
Worst: 151
Theshold: 0
Data 4186

 

[panathas]

Try to use new SATA cables for both drives. It could also be a SATA controller (motherboard) issue. It doesn't seem to be too severe. Try to use other SMART reporting software. Since you have an WD drive, download Western Digital's Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows. Check your drive's SMART status and run both tests. If your drive is able to pass both of them then it's fine. Especially the quick test is checking the interface of the HDD, so if the it's able to pass it then it should be OK. Keep in mind that the extended test will take a lot of time (3+ hours) and you can't use the drive while this software is running.

EDIT. What PSU do you have? I just remembered that a few years back, I faced a similar situation, the HDD was getting randomly disconnected and I was getting SMART interface warnings. In the end I found out that the PSU was responsible.

 

[itakey]

Try to use new SATA cables for both drives. It could also be a SATA controller (motherboard) issue. It doesn't seem to be too severe. Try to use other SMART reporting software. Since you have an WD drive, download Western Digital's Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows. Check your drive's SMART status and run both tests. If your drive is able to pass both of them then it's fine. Especially the quick test is checking the interface of the HDD, so if the it's able to pass it then it should be OK. Keep in mind that the extended test will take a lot of time (3+ hours) and you can't use the drive while this software is running.

EDIT. What PSU do you have? I just remembered that a few years back, I faced a similar situation, the HDD was getting randomly disconnected and I was getting SMART interface warnings. In the end I found out that the PSU was responsible.

Thanks for the feedback and ideas, i'm going to give some of them a try. So I did run the WD Data Lifeguard on the quick tests and it shows all the drives as passed, but I didn't do the extended test though.

Seems like I have 3 drives that have this same error, one drive only has 3 counts, where this drive has lots. Wondering if these hard drives were in my last computer build and if it could have been from then. None the less I'm going to try to shift files off this drive and use it for more of a secondary backup drive I think.

I wonder why CrystalDiskInfo wouldn't consider this an issue, where other S.M.A.R.T. testing tools do. The drive seems to function fine, speeds are fine, no drops in connection or anything. So I'll watch the count and if it keeps climbing i'll retire the drive to a secondary use.

I also have new SATA cables on the way in case this is somehow the issue.

 

[panathas]

It's strange that all your drives show this warning. Something else may be happening with your system. It's too much of a coincidence. Also sometimes those SMART reporting utilities aren't very accurate. They are often outdated sometimes incompatibilities may arise between new drives and new motherboards or UEFI/BIOS versions. That's why it's important to consult more than one SMART reporting tool. The most accurate of all should be the software tool that is provided by the drive manufacturer. So in your case it should be the Western Digital's Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows. Besides the various tests it also has a SMART reporting tool. Check it. Also another useful SMART reporting software is Hard Disk Sentinel. It doesn't hurt giving it a try. Finally make sure that SMART reporting is enabled in the UEFI/BIOS. Sometimes it gets disabled thus providing wrong warnings or no SMART reports at all. Good luck.

 

[itakey]

It's strange that all your drives show this warning. Something else may be happening with your system. It's too much of a coincidence. Also sometimes those SMART reporting utilities aren't very accurate. They are often outdated sometimes incompatibilities may arise between new drives and new motherboards or UEFI/BIOS versions. That's why it's important to consult more than one SMART reporting tool. The most accurate of all should be the software tool that is provided by the drive manufacturer. So in your case it should be the Western Digital's Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows. Besides the various tests it also has a SMART reporting tool. Check it. Also another useful SMART reporting software is Hard Disk Sentinel. It doesn't hurt giving it a try. Finally make sure that SMART reporting is enabled in the UEFI/BIOS. Sometimes it gets disabled thus providing wrong warnings or no SMART reports at all. Good luck.

I have to agree, it is definitely strange. So I'm thinking of things that could have possibly caused this, and the only things I can come up with are:
-My old motherboard was very old, and I recall it lacked AHCI, could this have caused it?
-I used 2 or 3 SATA cables that may have been older. Maybe they were cheap or faulty?
-My power supply died a year or so back and I replaced it, I wonder if there were issues back then, or if this hard drive could possibly be having issues?

One thing I just realized, one of the drives is an SSD drive as well.

Out of curiosity I think I may try to wipe the drives, maybe write zero's on them, and then test them again and see if they past the extended manufacturer tests. If they do, I may consider keeping them around for some general less important files (Or tertiary backups), otherwise in the trash bin they go!

Time to see how they check out on the extended drive tests.

 

[panathas]

This issue isn't too severe because a lot of things can cause this that have nothing to do with the drive itself. You also have to keep in mind that a simple thing such as an unexpected power loss could trigger such a warning. Also once this event is logged inside the SMART software it remains there forever. What is important is to make sure that those numbers aren't increasing. Then you'll be safe.

Since it has happened on more than one drive you should put the blame on something on your system and the most likely suspect seems to be the power supply. A bad or dying PSU could turn on a lot of SMART triggers because in reality it's killing the drive. A lot of HDD failures are due to bad PSUs.

Old SATA cables can also cause this and you should always get new ones if your current cables are too old. I usually throw away very old (5 years +) SATA cables in order to avoid data corruption issues. A very old SATA cable may also belong to a previous SATA generation which can certainly cause issues with modern motherboards and drives.

Finally a bad or very old motherboard can cause this, and that's not a very good sign for your whole system. That's why it's so important to monitor those numbers and make sure that they aren't increasing.

With that said I don't think that this issue is too serious. Run the tests that each drive manufacturer provides and if your drive passes them, then you'll be fine. Just make sure that you run the WD software only on WD drives. If you have other drives use their appropriate testing software. Good luck.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

When I run the WD or Seagate diagnostic software I always choose the Long/Extended test as it's more thorough than the short test.

It's not impossible for a hard drive to pass the short test but fail the long one (because it tests more thoroughly by checking more possible failure areas).

 

[panathas]

When I run the WD or Seagate diagnostic software I always choose the Long/Extended test as it's more thorough than the short test.

It's not impossible for a hard drive to pass the short test but fail the long one (because it tests more thoroughly by checking more possible failure areas).

I always run both tests since I've also seen the opposite. I have a couple of drives that passed the extended test but failed the short. Every test checks different parts of the drive so it's important to run both of them.

 

[itakey]

When I run the WD or Seagate diagnostic software I always choose the Long/Extended test as it's more thorough than the short test.

It's not impossible for a hard drive to pass the short test but fail the long one (because it tests more thoroughly by checking more possible failure areas).

I always run both tests since I've also seen the opposite. I have a couple of drives that passed the extended test but failed the short. Every test checks different parts of the drive so it's important to run both of them.

The short test checked out fine, but I know the S.M.A.R.T. issue is there, and I'm running the long test now. Its expected to take about 25 hours for about 1.5TB of space, this is a partition of a 4TB drive. Seems long but the test is going sector by sector so i'll see what it says whenever its done. 11 more hours to go....

 

[panathas]

When I run the WD or Seagate diagnostic software I always choose the Long/Extended test as it's more thorough than the short test.

It's not impossible for a hard drive to pass the short test but fail the long one (because it tests more thoroughly by checking more possible failure areas).

I always run both tests since I've also seen the opposite. I have a couple of drives that passed the extended test but failed the short. Every test checks different parts of the drive so it's important to run both of them.

The short test checked out fine, but I know the S.M.A.R.T. issue is there, and I'm running the long test now. Its expected to take about 25 hours for about 1.5TB of space, this is a partition of a 4TB drive. Seems long but the test is going sector by sector so i'll see what it says whenever its done. 11 more hours to go....

If you are talking about Western Digital's Data Lifeguard Tools then there's something wrong. I know it because I have too many WD Drives and I've run it countless times. First that test checks a whole drive and not just a partition. So it should be scanning all the 4TB capacity. In the central menu you are selecting a drive not a partition. Second it usually takes 1-1.5 hours for each TB so it should take 4-6 hours for a 4TB drive. 25 hours is way too long, although in the end I don't thing it'd take that long to finish. Also it goes without saying that you should't be using that drive while running that test. Right now you should let it complete but if I were you I would change that SATA cable immediately.