What happens to smart values after low level HD format

[itchyhead]

Hi,

does anyone know if, following a zero driive fill of a HD (including MBR), SMART values are reset to factory defaults, or if their values are kept intact.

Thank you!

 

[skittle]

no... thats the point of smart. its like the odometer on your car.

 

[boogityboo04]

Hoping to pass off a used hard drive as new? 😛

 

[CompTIA_Rep]

Yes some can, but it will not mask any reoccurring problems as smart will log an error as soon as it boots up again. Turning off SMART in the bios only turns of monitoring.


You can perform a high altitude format to erase the logs, however, the drive will be damaged in the process (recommended altitude is 1000 ft or greater).

 

[itchyhead]

Hi guys,

thanks for your help, nice forum you got here!
boogityboo04 ,I am doing a fresh reinstall of my audio PC and needed to make sure that my smart reporting will be accurate.

pieze

 

[BigJ3384]

smart data is not stored on the platters, which is all a format will affect. it is stored on silicon built in to the hard drive and you can not modify it. it will always report no matter what. smart is more suited for monitoring hard drive spindle rate and rpm and other stuff, not so much for bad sectors.

 

[ZozZoz]

i.e. - the more use the more wear & tear. and low-level format for a HDD is like a Le Mans race for a car.

 

[ZOldDude]

Run SpinRite 6.0 on it and it will repair all data and often makes "bad sectors" good again as well.
It resets SMART with new updated data when it's done.

 

[ZOldDude]

smart data is not stored on the platters, which is all a format will affect. it is stored on silicon built in to the hard drive and you can not modify it. it will always report no matter what. smart is more suited for monitoring hard drive spindle rate and rpm and other stuff, not so much for bad sectors.

If you can recover "bad" sectors it will update it's self...right?

 

[BigJ3384]

part of a low level format operation is verifying each and every sector that is writes/formats, which is why a low level format takes so very, very long. if your hard drive is able to verify the supposed "bad" sector, then your smart data should adjust itself and reflect that fact. i'm not sure if the effect would be immediate though. if i had to guess, i would say that it is.

 

[ZOldDude]

part of a low level format operation is verifying each and every sector that is writes/formats, which is why a low level format takes so very, very long. if your hard drive is able to verify the supposed "bad" sector, then your smart data should adjust itself and reflect that fact. i'm not sure if the effect would be immediate though. if i had to guess, i would say that it is.

OK fair enough as I also am not sure myself.
As I understand it though if you ran SpinRight 6.0 and it -did- repair/recover a/few "bad" sectors then S.M.A.R.T. would update to reflect that.

One thing I can say is SpinRite 6.0 has saved -all- the data on two HD's after a power surged that had borked those HD's to the point they would not even boot...and in differant years.
Best recovery program ever and if used 2 times a year or so will -keep- a HD from data corruption and/or alert you to back things up and get a new drive befor it drops 100% dead.

 

[BigJ3384]

sounds like an awesome app ZOldDude. wish i had that for my laptop a few months ago. may have saved me 150 dollars on a new drive. although mine actually had spindle/bearing damage i think. i could hear the rotation and there was a steady scratching sound. mind you, i've not been too gentle with the laptop, nor has my computer illiterate best friend. live and learn. your theory on the smart data update sounds correct to me.

 

[itchyhead]

OK fair enough as I also am not sure myself.
As I understand it though if you ran SpinRight 6.0 and it -did- repair/recover a/few "bad" sectors then S.M.A.R.T. would update to reflect that..........things up and get a new drive befor it drops 100% dead.

you are mixing up two different things zol.

the first is what you are talking about and that is damaged sectors due to the power problem. that happens when the record of a sector gets corrupted. this can be fixed, the software you are refering to scans each and every sector and tries to regenrate those records. similarily if i zero fill (low level format) a disk, I get rid of the problematic secotrs as well, since during this format, all records of all files and these files are "deleted".

the second is a demaged sector on a hw level, whic is pretty much unrecoverable. this happens to a disk as time goes and it is why hard disks have an area to which they remap these sectors. the more sectors are remmaped, the more slower the disk operates since the reading head has to jump back and forth.