Question Need some help with a possible RMA on Seagate Ironwolf 12TB - Uncorrectable Error Count

[CrispyBytes]

Hi,
I am hoping that somebody could please advise me on an issue I am having with a Seagate 12TB Ironwolf drive, that is currently under warranty.

I noticed on CrystalDisk today that I have errors for "Current Pending Sector Count" and "Uncorrectable Sector Count".

A quick Google of these suggested to me that the USC was a serious error that suggested a failing drive. As the drive is under warranty I went to the SeaGate site and commenced an RMA ("speak to support" was not available).

However, reading through the RMA terms suggests that I should run SeaTools to see if there is an RMAable issue. I have done a SMARTCHECK via SeaTools which reports no errors, and I have done a Short DST which also returns no errors.

I don't want to not RMA the disk if the USC is a serious error, but I also don't want to find the RMA getting rejected.

Could somebody please advise on how best to proceed.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

somebody please advise on how best to proceed

Seagate 12TB Ironwolf...
contact their support team directly and ask them about the reported errors.

and re-run your scans to see if these reports keep repeating the same errors.

 

[SkyNetRising]

I don't want to not RMA the disk if the USC is a serious error, but I also don't want to find the RMA getting rejected.
Could somebody please advise on how best to proceed.

Pending sectors can be resolved. With Victoria software - for example.
It's when you start getting relocated sectors, then you have a reason to RMA the drive.

 

[CrispyBytes]

Thanks to both of you. I have sent an email to Seagate support so will wait for a reply. I'm also running going to run the short and long generic tests in Seatools while I wait.

I wonder if somebody could please provide a legit link to the Victoria software (I found a few links, but always prefer to use a recommended legit link if possible).

 

[CrispyBytes]

Just a quick update to this.

The Short Generic in SeaTools passed, but the Long Generic failed (see below).

I'm not sure how soon the Long Generic failed (it estimated 23.5 hours for the test, and failed sometime in the first couple of hours) and I can't see a way to find any further details of the failure.

Does this information shed any further light on whether this should be a valid RMA?

 

[fzabkar]

SeaTools will give you a test code, assuming that the drive fails the long test. This test code is generated from your drive's serial number plus the number of the failing test. Therefore it will ensure that you receive a warranty replacement, even if the drive subsequently comes good.

Note that 8 Pending or Uncorrectable sectors probably corresponds to 1 physical sector (1 physical sector = 8 logical sectors).

I would be more concerned with the Command Timeouts.

https://ipv4.google.com/search?q=515403939960+in+hexadecimal

• 515 403 939 960 = 0x7800780078 -> 0x0078 / 0x0078 / 0x0078 = 120 / 120 / 120

This is telling you that the drive has encountered 120 occasions where it required more than 7 seconds to read a particular sector.

Try GSmartControl. In one its logs you may find the LBA(s) of the problematic sector(s). You could then use a disk editor (eg DMDE) to determine which files, if any, occupy those sectors.

 

[CrispyBytes]

Thank you.

I had missed the Fail Info section at the top but, thanks to your post, I have now located the test code and sent it to Seagate.

They had already responded to my intitial contact and requested that I run the Short and Long Generics (which I was already doing). Will now wait and see what they say about the failed test and test code.

 

[CrispyBytes]

Thanks for all the help on this issue.

After I sent the Seatools test code, Seagate responded and confirmed that they will RMA the drive, so it was actually all very smooth.

I am planning to encrypt the drive with Veracrypt or Bitlocker (I am running Win 10 Pro) and then run a disk wiper.

Is there a specific disk wiper that it recommended here?

 

[fzabkar]

An enhanced secure erase is all you need. That will overwrite everything, including any reallocated sectors.