Question Unstable sectors on almost new hard drive (CDI disk status "caution")

[Aude01100]

Hello, I have a nearly new 2.5" HDD. I only use it for backups. The drive is 2 years old (no longer under warranty).

I was running a backup today. I had also run Crystal Disk Info just before to see the number of hours of use. The drive's status was GOOD, with no defects or problems.

The backup was really slow. I decided to stop it and restart it, and the PC became very slow.

I restarted Crystal Disk Info, and the drive's status was CAUTION instead of GOOD. HARD DISK SENTINEL indicates unreliable sectors.

Could stopping the backup have physically damaged the drive? Is there a solution to try to repair the drive?

I've seen that sometimes software indicates "unstable sectors," but after formatting or something else, it works again.

If you have any leads, thank you very much.

 

[helpstar]

how did you stop the backup?

the HDD error could be arised while backing up because it was so slow

which hdd is it and how is it connected to your computer?

backup any data to a different drive

try running cmd as admin then type chkdsk x: /r
(x is your HDD letter)

 

[Misgar]

Hello, I have a nearly new 2.5" HDD. I only use it for backups. The drive is 2 years old

At two years old, it's not what I'd call "nearly new". Drives can fail at any time, including the first time your power them on.

I had a 4TB Toshiba N300 NAS drive which failed after only 10 hours use, so I replaced it.

I have some 20 year old drives that are still working fine, but there's a slowly growing heap of drives which have failed.

HARD DISK SENTINEL indicates unreliable sectors.

When Hard Disk Sentinel shows errors, I run a full Surface (Read Only) test. This can take roughly 2 hours per GigaByte, e.g. 4GB = 8 hours.

Depending on what HD Sentinel says, if it's really bad, I ditch the drive and buy a new one.

If you like to experiment, copy all the data off the drive, then run a DESTRUCTIVE Write test, followed by a Read test.
https://www.hdsentinel.com/help/en/61_surfacetest.html

A thorough write/read test might detect pending sectors and replace them, but when a drive starts developing bad blocks, I regard it as suspect and stop using it. It's quite likely the drive will slowly accumulate more faults and potentially corrupt files.

I keep a minimum of 3 copies of any important files on different devices. If your computer is hit by Ransomware and your one and only backup drive is connected, both copies of your precious files might be clobbered.

 

[USAFRet]

I have a nearly new 2.5" HDD. I only use it for backups. The drive is 2 years old (no longer under warranty).

As mentioned above, "2 years" is not "nearly new".

My last 2 dead HDDs were at 5 weeks and 7 months.


2 years old and out of warranty?