Question New Drive - Bizarre S.M.A.R.T results (pre-failure/old-age??) is it CMR or SMR?

[93QSD5]

The drive is supposed to be new so I don't understand these s.m.a.r.t values.

Device Model:
WDC WD80EDAZ-11CEWB0

Is it CMR or SMR?
Sadly WD refused to elaborate. The smart data doesn't display whether TRIM is supported so I honestly don't know.

SMART OUTPUT:
conducted on a Pi 4 via USB, rpios, gsmartcontrol/smartctl

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num Test_Description Status Remaining LifeTime(hours) LBA_of_first_error
# 1 Short offline Completed without error 00% 0 -
# 2 Short offline Completed without error 00% 0 -
# 3 Conveyance offline Completed without error 00% 0 -

SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
1 0 0 Not_testing
2 0 0 Not_testing
3 0 0 Not_testing
4 0 0 Not_testing
5 0 0 Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):

 

[SkyNetRising]

Seems to be CMR.

Watch this video.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oGzFc4F4oQ

 

[93QSD5]

Seems to be CMR.

Watch this video.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oGzFc4F4oQ

What about the smart data though? That's the most concerning part to me.

As mentioned, the short test was conducted on a Raspberry Pi 4 via GSmartControl. You gotta admit, those values are weird for a new drive (not refurbished. Sold as completely new by hardware store in packaging etc).

Is the RPI / RPi OS at fault?

 

[SkyNetRising]

What about the smart data though? That's the most concerning part to me.

Which value is concerning for you?
I didn't see anything weird.

 

[93QSD5]

Which value is concerning for you?
I didn't see anything weird.

Raw Sector Read is at prefail

Relocated Sector CT is the worst, at prefail + at 200 sectors despite this hdd being turned on at best 2-3x for a few moments without any file transfer.

Also all the other fields showing "old-age" despite this drive being new.

Offline uncorrectable error at number 253.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Raw Sector Read is at prefail
Relocated Sector CT is the worst, at prefail + at 200 sectors despite this hdd being turned on at best 2-3x for a few moments without any file transfer.
Also all the other fields showing "old-age" despite this drive being new.
Offline uncorrectable error at number 253.

Those are normalized values.
None of current/worst values are below threshold value. It is all fine.

Prefail and old-age are types of attributes. It doesn't mean attribute has reached prefail or old-age level.
Relocated Sector count is 0.
Offline uncorrectable is 0.

You need to learn, how to read SMART values.

 

[93QSD5]

Those are normalized values.
None of worst values are below threshold value. It is all fine.

Prefail and old-age are types of attribute. It doesn't mean attribute has reached prefail or old-age level.
Relocated Sector count is 0.
Offline uncorrectable is 0.

You need to learn, how to read SMART values.

The threshold of relocated sector ct is 140.
The worst is 200.

Doesn't that mean there are more relocated sectors than the threshold?

S.M.A.R.T values have always seemed cryptic to me honestly. One day I'll find a good book or lengthy doc.

 

[SkyNetRising]

The threshold of relocated sector ct is 140.
The worst is 200.
Doesn't that mean there are more relocated sectors than the threshold?

No. That's not, how normalized values work.

You start with 100 (or 200) and then value decreases.
When current value has decreased enough and has reached threshold value, then you have failure condition.

Actual relocated sectors count is zero - value in data column.

 

[93QSD5]

No. That's not, how normalized values work.

You start with 100 (or 200) and then value decreases.
When current value has decreased enough and has reached threshold value, then you have failure condition.

Actual relocated sectors count is zero - value in data column.

Ohhhhh, it all makes sense now, thank you.

Based on all the available information, I conclude that this drive is healthy and ready for use as a backup archive.

Thank you again for your help, much appreciated.

 

[fzabkar]

A HD Tune read benchmark graph can tell you whether TRIM is supported:

https://superuser.com/questions/178...r-western-digital-wd20spzx-2-5-2-tb-hard-disk

A normalised value of 253 for a SMART attribute is a placeholder. When the drive racks up enough operations to make that particular attribute statistically significant, this figure reduces to a normal level.

These are the SMART data for a WD80EDAZ-11TA3A0:

https://forums.tomshardware.com/thr...ernal-drive-running-hot.3670643/post-22115094

The family identifier ("TA3") is different to yours ("CEW"), so the SMART attributes (eg Spin-Up Time) have a slightly different structure.

FYI, WD40EDAZ-??SLVB?, WD60EDAZ-??U78B?, and WD60EDAZ-??BMZB? are SMR drives, but the following resource doesn't list your 8TB model.

https://hddscan.com/blog/2020/hdd-wd-smr.html

 

[93QSD5]

A HD Tune read benchmark graph can tell you whether TRIM is supported:

https://superuser.com/questions/178...r-western-digital-wd20spzx-2-5-2-tb-hard-disk

A normalised value of 253 for a SMART attribute is a placeholder. When the drive racks up enough operations to make that particular attribute statistically significant, this figure reduces to a normal level.

These are the SMART data for a WD80EDAZ-11TA3A0:

https://forums.tomshardware.com/thr...ernal-drive-running-hot.3670643/post-22115094

The family identifier ("TA3") is different to yours ("CEW"), so the SMART attributes (eg Spin-Up Time) have a slightly different structure.

FYI, WD40EDAZ-??SLVB?, WD60EDAZ-??U78B?, and WD60EDAZ-??BMZB? are SMR drives, but the following resource doesn't list your 8TB model.

https://hddscan.com/blog/2020/hdd-wd-smr.html

Thank you for your reply, I currently do not have access nor the ability to run Windows for various reasons. Only linux. What other option besides HD Tune do I have?

Here's a screenshot of a GSmartControl or GDisk performance benchmark.

 

[fzabkar]

I didn't realise that GSmartControl had that feature. It does appear that TRIM is not supported by your drive, assuming that there are large areas which have not been written since formatting.

 

[93QSD5]

I didn't realise that GSmartControl had that feature. It does appear that TRIM is not supported by your drive, assuming that there are large areas which have not been written since formatting.

This performance benchmark was conducted after taking the drive out of the original packaging/box, run 2-3 s.m.a.r.t short self tests.

A different smaller sized drive did show TRIM support immediately in Gsmartcontrol. This 8tb drive doesn't mention TRIM at all.

Also how did you discover the absense of TRIM via the image?

 

[fzabkar]

Also how did you discover the absense of TRIM via the image?

If you follow my link to superuser, you will see that TRIM-ed areas are not read by the drive. Instead the drive merely returns zeros to the host at the maximum transfer rate of the SATA interface. Therefore, a fresh drive which has been totally TRIM-ed will have a flat read graph. A drive which has been in use but which has large TRIM-ed areas will have a monotonically decreasing curve with large full-sized bumps.

 

[93QSD5]

If you follow my link to superuser, you will see that TRIM-ed areas are not read by the drive. Instead the drive merely returns zeros to the host at the maximum transfer rate of the SATA interface. Therefore, a fresh drive which has been totally TRIM-ed will have a flat read graph. A drive which has been in use but which has large TRIM-ed areas will have a monotonically decreasing curve with large full-sized bumps.

I went through the superuser thread but didn't understand it all.

Though I see now what you mean (spike in graph), thank you for the explanation, much appreciated.