Windows 7 Hard Drive failing popup, SMART shows reallocation

[CaptainLagbeard]

I recently recieved a popup from Windows 7 saying my hard drive is failing.
I did S.M.A.R.T. tests on it, they show that the drive has reallocated sectors.

The drive is a few years old, so some failure isn't unimaginable, but how bad are those values exactly?

 

[Colif]

that means that the hdd only has 1 sector left that it could swap out if one fails. the threshold is 10 so you really need to replace that drive now, as you really in danger of losing info on drive

Hard drives, supporting this attribute

Samsung, Seagate, IBM (Hitachi), Fujitsu, Maxtor, Western Digital

Description

Reallocated Sectors Count S.M.A.R.T. parameter indicates the count of reallocated sectors (512 bytes). When the hard drive finds a read/write/verification error, it marks this sector as "reallocated" and transfers data to a special reserved area (spare area). This process is also known as remapping and "reallocated" sectors are called remaps. This is why, on a modern hard disks, you will not see "bad blocks" while testing the surface - all bad blocks are hidden in reallocated sectors.

However, the more sectors that are reallocated, the more a sudden decrease (up to 10% and more) can be noticed in the disk read/write speed.

Recommendations

This is a critical parameter. Degradation of this parameter may indicate imminent drive failure. Urgent data backup and hardware replacement is recommended. See also How to Monitor Drive Health Degradation Over the Time in Acronis Drive Monitor.

https://kb.acronis.com/content/9105

the warning below on 2nd image is linked

Hard drives, supporting this attribute

Samsung, Seagate, IBM (Hitachi), Fujitsu (not all models), Maxtor, Western Digital (not all models)

Description

Reallocation Event Count S.M.A.R.T. parameter indicates a count of remap operations (transferring data from a bad sector to a special reserved disk area - spare area).

The raw value of this attribute shows the total number of attempts to transfer data from reallocated sectors to a spare area. Unsuccessful attempts are counted as well as successful. Since this is a count value, it can only increase.

Recommendations

This is a critical parameter. Degradation of this parameter may indicate imminent drive failure. Urgent data backup and hardware replacement is recommended.

https://kb.acronis.com/content/9132