[SOLVED] Is this HDD in good health? CrystalDiskInfo says "Caution"

[zwjna]

Hi, everyone! Searching for something related, I discovered this CrystalDiskInfo tool, and decided to give it a try to check out my HDDs. The image below shows the info for my main HDD. I've been searching about that stuff a bit, but I've not quite understood the Threshold part – and probably nothing at all, specially since this data is supposed to mean different things depending on the manufacturer.

What do you say? Is that Reallocated Sectors Count a bad thing? Is its Treshold of 5 bad? And, generally, is there anything to be concerned about this HDD? Thanks in advance!

 

[Lafong]

Yes, re-allocated sector count is important.

It may rise in the near future.

Regardless; I would do 2 things.

Back up whatever is important on it to some other drive.

Buy a replacement ASAP.

30,000 plus hours. It's been a good horse.

 

[zwjna]

Many thanks for the so quick reply!

In fact, what I was originally searching for was "good ways to backup personal files", because ultimately I am a little bit "paranoid" about computer failures – had to replace the PSU recently, and now the cooler fan also does some noises at startup on cold days. So I'm definitely going to backup my important files, which aren't many.

Now – I know you said ASAP, but, is it really doomed? I would like to understand that data a bit more, for the future.

 

[Lafong]

Many thanks for the so quick reply!

In fact, what I was originally searching for was "good ways to backup personal files", because ultimately I am a little bit "paranoid" about computer failures – had to replace the PSU recently, and now the cooler fan also does some noises at startup on cold days. So I'm definitely going to backup my important files, which aren't many.

Now – I know you said ASAP, but, is it really doomed? I would like to understand that data a bit more, for the future.

Yes it's doomed if doomed means will it die. Anything of an electro-mechanical nature will.

When? Nobody knows at what point it will completely refuse to work. You might limp along with it for hours or months or?

The "bad sectors" are in effect taken out of the game and replaced with substitute sectors. You have a limited number of substitutes.

There's said to be a tendency for bad sectors to accelerate once they begin to show up...as they are now doing.

You can watch and wait..........or you can throw in the towel pronto.

It's a personal decision entirely, driven by your anxiety level over losing data and possibly by your willingness to spend money on a new drive. That's known only to you.

Most would tell you to expect any and all drives, new, old, whatever, to fail at any time and to plan accordingly....which means having backups. Of course, if you are indifferent to personal data loss, there's no reason to back up anything.

What I'd do right now is manually copy all personal data files to another drive, using the mouse or keyboard. Up to you to identify them and know where they are. Then worry about a proper backup program.

 

[fzabkar]

Your drive's Current health score is 100. As the number of reallocated sectors increases, this health score will fall. If it falls below the Threshold, then the drive will be considered to have failed.

 

[Bob.B]

Hi, everyone! Searching for something related, I discovered this CrystalDiskInfo tool, and decided to give it a try to check out my HDDs. The image below shows the info for my main HDD. I've been searching about that stuff a bit, but I've not quite understood the Threshold part – and probably nothing at all, specially since this data is supposed to mean different things depending on the manufacturer.

What do you say? Is that Reallocated Sectors Count a bad thing? Is its Treshold of 5 bad? And, generally, is there anything to be concerned about this HDD? Thanks in advance!

Consider swapping out the hdd for a ssd and then using the hdd for backups.

You can then keep an eye on the hdd and if things start getting worse replace it.

 

[USAFRet]

Many thanks for the so quick reply!

In fact, what I was originally searching for was "good ways to backup personal files", because ultimately I am a little bit "paranoid" about computer failures – had to replace the PSU recently, and now the cooler fan also does some noises at startup on cold days. So I'm definitely going to backup my important files, which aren't many.

Now – I know you said ASAP, but, is it really doomed? I would like to understand that data a bit more, for the future.

Do you currently have a known good backup of anything critical, on some other drive?
If not, why not?

A storage device, not just this one, can die at any moment.

 

[zwjna]

Yes, I've started to make backups of my files. I'm copying them to my second HDD (image below) which is a bit older, has way more Power On Hours, but looks fine to CrystalDiskInfo; and also uploading them to Drive and OneDrive. I know there are other ways to backup things, but so far it's being easy this way.

I might add, if it's of any relevance, that I don't know since when this disk started reallocating sectors. It was just yesterday when I discovered the existence of CrystalDiskInfo and of SMART stuff, and decided to give it a try. So I will do as you guys say, and I'm now going to check daily to see how quick that number grows, if it does. I've just turn on the computer again, and it's still at 1.

As of the "plan accordingly" bit: I'm definitely backing up my files, so I can be quite relaxed about that. Now that I'm not as paranoid, I guess I kinda don't care if any of the two disks blow after backing up my files: I don't care much about my Windows installation, only the few files I'm backing up.

So I've learned cool things about how to act in situations like these. Many thanks to you all!