[SOLVED] Will my HDD die soon? CrystalDiskInfo: Current Pending Sector Count 1

[Deleted member 2742972]

Title.

I have a 1TB WD Blue HDD, with Windows 10 installed on one of the two partitions... I'm not very well-informed about hard drives, but I've kept CrystalDiskInfo installed along with WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostics for monitoring.

This HDD is almost only 2 years old, and a year ago I've done about 2 resets beore doing a clean install with the OS partition because the OS got corrupted once.

After those resets I haven't checked the HDD's health, but now, 3 months later after the clean install, I came upon this.

After an "extended test" with WD's DLDiag, which the drive failed, the reported uncorrectable errors count went up from 22 to 31.
The current pending sector count haven't changed in the last 2 weeks.

Right now I'm worried because I don't have a backup drive.
If it's failing like I think it is, how much time do I have? Is there anything I can do or fix in the moment?
My important files are in it, and I'm gonna start college in the next 2 months. (I have a laptop though, also comes with a 1TB drive.)

I have screenshots from other HDD tools as well, i'll link them if theyre needed.

Huge thanks in advance for the help.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

"After an "extended test" with WD's DLDiag, which the drive failed"

Well there you have it, no other tests are necessary --- replace it immediately, and keep your data backed up all the time, even when a drive is healthy.

 

[SkyNetRising]

1 pending sector doesn't necessary mean, the drive is going to fail.
But yes - you should always keep backups for your important files.

Pending sectors can be resolved with mhdd (scan with relocate option).
https://hddguru.com/software/2005.10.02-MHDD/

 

[sauzer]

I wouldnt waste time trying to repair it, it'll always be a risk using it no matter what. Since you're lucky and its not 2 years old yet, use warranty and get it replaced.

 

[Satan-IR]

One sector is not necessarily mean failure is imminent but backup all data ASAP.

Any further tests and attempts to repair are further stress on the drive and they might just accelerate the drives failure.

Pending sector means the drive probably cannot read the data to write to reserve sector, otherwise it would be reallocated count 1. Uncorrectable error count rising is not a good sign either.

 

[Deleted member 2742972]

Hey thanks for all your answers. I've just ran a chkdsk (after deleting unnecessary files) on the non-OS partition and it showed no errors, then right away CrystalDiskInfo displayed a "Good" drive status.

The 1 current pending sector disappeared, and none of the 5 highlighted attributes in CDI changed.
I found this weird, should I still be worried? Should I run another test?
(Also I just remembered I got this HDD last March 2017, so it's already past its 2-yr warranty)

Heres a screencap. Thanks again.

 

[sauzer]

No one can give you a clear answer because ALL drives in the end will fail, its not a matter of IF, but a matter of WHEN. From experience, I've had something like that happen to me before, a drive that started with a pending sector, then got fixed, then after some time it got worse again and the number was higher. It was the HD on one of my backup pcs (always on tho) and I can tell you that it kept working for over 2 years after that, in which the number of sectors kept gettin higher, until one day the pc rebooted itself and would still work but windows would take half an hour to start because the drive had a lot of problems.
So the point here is that your HD now is at risk, could work fine for years without any problem if you're lucky, could happen what happened to me and work for a while, or could just have a total failure right away. Since you cant get it replaced, id just use it but knowing that every important data you save on it has to be backed up very soon because its probably not as reliable as before.

 

[Deleted member 2742972]

From experience, I've had something like that happen to me before, a drive that started with a pending sector, then got fixed, then after some time it got worse again and the number was higher. It was the HD on one of my backup pcs (always on tho) and I can tell you that it kept working for over 2 years after that, in which the number of sectors kept gettin higher, until one day the pc rebooted itself and would still work but windows would take half an hour to start because the drive had a lot of problems.
So the point here is that your HD now is at risk, could work fine for years without any problem if you're lucky, could happen what happened to me and work for a while,

Thanks for replying. I also know there's no definite answer and that all drives will eventually fail, but I'm just trying to see if I can get it to work in the meantime. And I believe I would have bought a new drive in the next 2 years. I'm just unable to replace it right now.
I have my laptop, and i can dump some of my important files in it until I get a replacement. Right now I just really want to know if I need to do other tests on the drive to double check.
I'll keep monitoring the counts every 2 weeks.
Thanks again.

 

[sauzer]

Just leave crystaldiskinfo always open to monitor it, doesnt use many resources, so no reason to just do it every 2 weeks. Monitor it daily and see if there are any changes, other than that and backing up the important stuff you, you cant do anything else. The next weeks/months will tell you if somehow its stabilized or if it was just the beginning of gettin worse and failing.

 

[popatim]

If you have a DVD Burner in the PC you could always grab a pack of media and backup (or image the whole drive) to those....

 

[USAFRet]

I'm just trying to see if I can get it to work in the meantime

'in the meantime' is irrelevant and hazardous.
ALL drives die. Sometimes suddenly.

My most recent HDD death went from seemingly perfect to absolutely dead in 36 hours. It was 5 weeks old.
My most recent (and only) SSD death went from seemingly perfect to completely dead in the space of 5 minutes between power off and power on. Died at 3 years, 33 days.

 

[ElectrO_90]

Download and install Hard Disk Sentinel - this may give you a better indication of how long it has left before it dies.

 

[mdd1963]

My most recent (and only) SSD death went from seemingly perfect to completely dead in the space of 5 minutes between power off and power on. Died at 3 years, 33 days.

With a 3 year warranty?

 

[USAFRet]

With a 3 year warranty?

Precisely.
SanDisk did me a solid, and gave me a replacement anyway.

Reading through their reply email, I got to the word "Unfortunately..." and figured "no new drive for me".
But....
"Unfortunately, we don't have that one in stock anymore, so here's a newer, better one."

I knew it was out of warranty, they knew it, they gave me one anyway.