Opposite of short stroke a HDD?

[dmdinocala]

Just a hypothetical. If the SMART stats I should pay attention to are Recall sector count, Seek error rate, Current pending sector count and Uncorrected sector count, then all of them refer to sectors except Seek error.

If I've only used 400GB of a 1TB HDD, as an example, I would think as long as the Seek error is NOT due to mechanical/firmware problems (i.e. it's also due to errors on the platter) then the remaining unused space on the platters is 'good'. Meaning usable and only bad sectors from manufacturing, since it's never been used.

So I should be able to use the drive if I only use partitions on the inner, unused platter area. Sure I won't trust an old HDD as much as a new one but I could use old drives, set to utilize this unused space, in a RAID array, for instance.

Any thoughts?

 

[Supahos]

If I have a drive with lots of bad sectors you're just inviting issues later.

 

[geofelt]

You do not have absolute control over where data is stored.

If you are having a problem with a HDD, replace it, preferably with a SSD.

What kind of raid are you thinking about?
Why?

For a normal desktop user, there is little reason for raid 0/1 or any other variants.

 

[dmdinocala]

My question is based on the assumption that data is not spread all over the disk. If it's been written primarily to the beginning of the drive then bad sectors are located there. In any event if over half of a 1TB drive remains unused, and all but one SMART stat refers to sectors that have been used, then I was asking if I could simply change a setting to not use those.

Then start using the remaining sectors that have never been used. Assuming Seek error would not impact that. Additionally, wonder if I could set a partition and after SMART stats get bad for one partition, could I then switch to using only the second partition? Again, as long as errors only refer to sector issues on the first partition.

I was imagining a possible use of some old drives in a RAID box, not my main system. Since most likely only one drive would fail at a time. But if a drives' data is strewn all over a drive and there's no way to utilize good sectors that remain then yeah, time to s can the things.

 

[geofelt]

If you have a HDD that you want to use, the maker will have a utility that will reinitialize it.
That will discard any weak or unusable sectors.

And, If I am not mistaken, the start of the drive will be on the outer cylinders.

 

[USAFRet]

Just a hypothetical. If the SMART stats I should pay attention to are Recall sector count, Seek error rate, Current pending sector count and Uncorrected sector count, then all of them refer to sectors except Seek error.

If I've only used 400GB of a 1TB HDD, as an example, I would think as long as the Seek error is NOT due to mechanical/firmware problems (i.e. it's also due to errors on the platter) then the remaining unused space on the platters is 'good'. Meaning usable and only bad sectors from manufacturing, since it's never been used.

So I should be able to use the drive if I only use partitions on the inner, unused platter area. Sure I won't trust an old HDD as much as a new one but I could use old drives, set to utilize this unused space, in a RAID array, for instance.

Any thoughts?

That's not the way data is distributed.

If it is all one partition, data could and does go anywhere. It may start at the outside tracks, but in use...scattered all over.

If you made actual partitions, lets say 3 of them.
From the outside of the platter to the inside...partitions 1, 2, 3.

"short stroking" refers to making a partition on the outer (faster) tracks, and using only that space. Effectively throwing away the rest of the drive space.

And if a drive is throwing sector errors...the entirety of the drive is suspect. You can mess around with partitioning, short stroking, RAID whatever...doesn't change the fact that the drive and any data on it is suspect.


The best way to be safe? Replace this already failing drive, and institute a comprehensive backup plan.

 

[failboat]

So I should be able to use the drive if I only use partitions on the inner, unused platter area. Sure I won't trust an old HDD as much as a new one but I could use old drives, set to utilize this unused space, in a RAID array, for instance.

Any thoughts?

It's pretty common on storage with healing to run them until they die or slow down the pool. I don't think 1TB drives are worth hanging onto though. If you don't already have pool setup building around that drive wouldn't be worth it. Raid doesn't always have healing. You would have to check the implementation.

 

[geofelt]

With raid, if a drive fails, the drive will be removed, not just the sector that failed.
If you use raid on a suspect drive, you will get worse performance because of double updates.
Past that, a suspect hdd may need several retries to be able to write anything.
If you use the factory initialization app successfully, then go ahead and use it.
Past that it is fruitless to try to manipulate allocations to find useable space.