Should I be worried about my HDD?

[slee79]

Hello everyone. I recently ran CrystalDisk 6.2.1 x64 and it gave me a Caution status for my HDD. However, chkdsk /R (I unfortunately do not have the results for the chkdsk) and WesternDigital's own diagnostic tool tells me the drive is fine and there are no bad sectors. If that is the case what does the error mean, can I fix the error, and should I worry about potential data loss in the immediate future? I am still under WesternDigital's warranty so a replacement is not an issue. The HDD in question is a 500GB WD Blue SATA III 5400 RPM 8 MB Cache WD5000LPVX notebook HDD in case anyone does not know. The links are imgur direct image links.

 

[D_Know_WD]

Hi there slee79,

As there is some HDD issue, I would advise you to start with backing up the crucial data that is on it.
Current Pending Sector Count is a critical parameter. My advise would be to retest the drive(testing it with some additional tools will not hurt also).
If you get the same Current Pending Sector Count warning indication, I would advise you to contact WD's Support either by e-mail or phone, as this is not really a usual thing for a new hard drive.

WD's Support: http://support.wdc.com/contact/index.asp?lang=en

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

 

[slee79]

Hi there slee79,

As there is some HDD issue, I would advise you to start with backing up the crucial data that is on it.
Current Pending Sector Count is a critical parameter. My advise would be to retest the drive(testing it with some additional tools will not hurt also).
If you get the same Current Pending Sector Count warning indication, I would advise you to contact WD's Support either by e-mail or phone, as this is not really a usual thing for a new hard drive.

WD's Support: http://support.wdc.com/contact/index.asp?lang=en

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

If it is not a hassle, do you know of any (preferably free) tools that I may use to further test my drive? And if I make a backup, will the Current Pending Sector Count affect my cloning or imaging the drive (i.e. will the clone or image risk corrupt data) if I chose to do a full clone or image, or would you recommend me to backup my data manually (drag and drop crucial files individually to another HDD)?

 

[D_Know_WD]

Sorry but I can't really recommend you a specific testing tool.
You can just drag and drop crucial files as currently we are not sure whether there is an issue or not. You can run the Crystal Disk again and see whether you get the same results.
In general, if you want to clone a drive with bad sectors, you should use a cloning software that knows how to work around bad sectors and perform sector by sector clone.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

 

[slee79]

Sorry but I can't really recommend you a specific testing tool.
You can just drag and drop crucial files as currently we are not sure whether there is an issue or not. You can run the Crystal Disk again and see whether you get the same results.
In general, if you want to clone a drive with bad sectors, you should use a cloning software that knows how to work around bad sectors and perform sector by sector clone.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

Crystal Disk stills says I have a Current Pending Sector Count raw value of 1. I will make an image of my HDD just in case, and find other testing tools to check. Thank you very much though.

 

[baladin]

There is a very useful utility called Hard disk sentinel

http://www.hdsentinel.com/

I've only got the trial version (it's free) but you get a pretty good indication of the HDD's health.

 

[slee79]

There is a very useful utility called Hard disk sentinel

http://www.hdsentinel.com/

I've only got the trial version (it's free) but you get a pretty good indication of the HDD's health.

hdsentinel reports my HDD as 99% healthy, so I guess I shouldn't worry too much. It says Current Pending Sectors count is 1. I'm guessing this means I have one block with a bad sector that is waiting to be remapped. Is there a way I can get Windows 7 to remap the bad sector without formatting my hard drive? And I am assuming I am understanding this "Current Pending Sectors count" terminology correctly. Happy Turkey Day.

 

[fzabkar]

A good tool for surface scanning is MHDD (DOS based). It is universally recommended by data recovery professionals. In fact its source code is now the property of Seagate. You could also use HDDScan (a Windows tool), but its results may be skewed by the multitasking environment.

Both tools identify "slow" sectors, ie those that require excessive read retries. Manufacturers' tools (eg DLG, SeaTools) are pass-or-fail diagnostics. They will report a sector as being OK even if it requires several seconds to be read.

 

[slee79]

A good tool for surface scanning is MHDD (DOS based). It is universally recommended by data recovery professionals. In fact its source code is now the property of Seagate. You could also use HDDScan (a Windows tool), but its results may be skewed by the multitasking environment.

Both tools identify "slow" sectors, ie those that require excessive read retries. Manufacturers' tools (eg DLG, SeaTools) are pass-or-fail diagnostics. They will report a sector as being OK even if it requires several seconds to be read.

Well MHDD is out of the question since it's a pure MS-DOS environment program. Will HDDScan mark the bad sector and prevent Windows 7 from touching the sector, or does it just tell me I have bad sectors? I would prefer it if I don't have to format my HDD to mark bad sectors.

 

[baladin]

hdsentinel reports my HDD as 99% healthy, so I guess I shouldn't worry too much. It says Current Pending Sectors count is 1. I'm guessing this means I have one block with a bad sector that is waiting to be remapped. Is there a way I can get Windows 7 to remap the bad sector without formatting my hard drive? And I am assuming I am understanding this "Current Pending Sectors count" terminology correctly. Happy Turkey Day.

There is no need for you to personally go and re-map bad sectors. The system will take care of that.
As far as the 99% health is concerned, I believe it would be 100% if it wasn't for that bad sector.
What you could do is take a screenshot of the hdsentinel result and save it. Then uninstall hdsentinel, otherwise it will nag you forever to buy it. Then, maybe 6-12 months down the track, you could re-install it and see if things have deteriorated. I'm not sure if it will let you do that, because it's supposed to be a trial. I have never read the terms and conditions.
It's pretty expensive to buy; more than the price of your hard disk.
Hope this helps.

 

[slee79]

Well I finished my backup so i guess I'll just wait and see if things deteriorate more down the road, and if they do I'll RMA the drive. Thanks everyone