[Capt]

So I used CrystalDisk to check one of my hard drives and it says that my Current Pending Sector Count has 67 sectors that are messed up. I then did a long format (zero fill) and it changed from 67 sectors to 1D sector which I have no idea what it actually means. I was wondering what this means and if I'm still able to use this hdd and also does anyone know how to fix it?

EDIT: I ran chkdsk and it changed from 1D to 2A. What does all this mean?

 

[Kramy]

That's the number of bad sectors detected. CrystalDiskInfo displays them in hexadecimal, which is why I always recommend using HDTune or Defraggler to read SMART stats instead - they convert the numbers to human readable form.

67 - 103 in decimal
1D - 29 in decimal
2A - 42 in decimal

It seems that zeroing the drive convinced it temporarily that as many as 74 bad sectors were okay - but then it started to discover that some of them were in fact not okay, and has since marked 13 bad again.

In my opinion, once a drive gets past perhaps a few dozen bad sectors, it becomes "dangerous" to use if you value your data. I say "dangerous" because it might take months to degrade to the point where files start getting corrupted... but it also might not. Keep in mind that for some files only 1 bit of data needs to be corrupted to make them unopenable.

I only use drives with under 5-10 reallocated sectors in my own PCs. After that I RMA them or replace them.

 

[Capt]

So I guess I should just throw it in the garbage since there's nothing I can do it.

 

[Kramy]

Well, if it's empty, you can zero-fill it a few times to see if that changes anything. I'm rather curious how it'd react.

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=612&sid=3

You have a WD drive, so you can use WD DLG to zero the drive. Run that a few times in the background and then run a Long/Extended SMART test to see what the drive reports. (Pass/Fail) If it fails, junk it. But I'm very curious how the bad sector count changes, regardless.

 

[Capt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kramy

Well, if it's empty, you can zero-fill it a few times to see if that changes anything. I'm rather curious how it'd react.
http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=612&sid=3
You have a WD drive, so you can use WD DLG to zero the drive. Run that a few times in the background and then run a Long/Extended SMART test to see what the drive reports. (Pass/Fail) If it fails, junk it. But I'm very curious how the bad sector count changes, regardless.

Thanks for your help. Actually the HDD in my sig is a different HDD than the one that has the bad sectors. The one in my sig which is a WD doesn't have any problems. It's the Samsung one that is giving me the problems which is not listed in my sig. If you look at the pictures that I posted it says Samsung so will this work on a Samsung HDD?

 

[Kramy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Capt

Thanks for your help. Actually the HDD in my sig is a different HDD than the one that has the bad sectors. The one in my sig which is a WD doesn't have any problems. It's the Samsung one that is giving me the problems which is not listed in my sig. If you look at the pictures that I posted it says Samsung so will this work on a Samsung HDD?

As long as you have at least one WD drive in your system, it will work for any connected drive.

 

[Capt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kramy

As long as you have at least one WD drive in your system, it will work for any connected drive.

Thanks. Should I do a full erase (zero fill) or quick erase?

 

[Kramy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Capt

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kramy

As long as you have at least one WD drive in your system, it will work for any connected drive.

Thanks. Should I do a full erase (zero fill) or quick erase?

Full Erase. It'll take several hours, but you can use your computer for other stuff while doing it.

You'll probably want to do at least two, checking the SMART values in between (for curiosity's sake), and doing one Long/Extended SMART test afterwards.

 

[Capt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kramy

Full Erase. It'll take several hours, but you can use your computer for other stuff while doing it.
You'll probably want to do at least two, checking the SMART values in between (for curiosity's sake), and doing one Long/Extended SMART test afterwards.

Holy crap dude. I think it fixed my Samsung HDD. The full erase is still going on and I decided to open CrystalDisk just see if it did anything to it and it looks like it fixed it. No more bad sectors! You are my hero!

 

[shinji2k]

Like Kramy I start to get nervous after just a few bad sectors even if you successfully map them to the many spare sectors hdds come with. I'd use it for now but if any more pop up I'd toss it or use it for target practice. I'd also be wary of putting anything irreplaceable on it. With my luck more sectors will go bad right where important things are stored.

 

[Capt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by shinji2k

Like Kramy I start to get nervous after just a few bad sectors even if you successfully map them to the many spare sectors hdds come with. I'd use it for now but if any more pop up I'd toss it or use it for target practice. I'd also be wary of putting anything irreplaceable on it. With my luck more sectors will go bad right where important things are stored.

I just installed a game on that HDD and I checked again with CrystalDisk and there seems to be one bad sector now. I guess there's no hope for this hdd after all.

EDIT: When I go back and do another full erase (zero fill), it goes back to 'Good' condition and there's no bad sectors.

EDIT 2: So now that I did my second Full Erase (zero fill), there doesn't seem to be any bad sectors even if I install stuff on that hdd. I installed some games and programs on the HDD and it still says 'Good' condtion in CrystalDisk and there's no bad sectors. It seems to be good now, don't you think?

 

[Kramy]

Hmm... I'm not sure how long it'll be good. I'd run the Extended SMART test to see what it says. If it passes, then you can at least experiment with it.

You'll have to keep an eye on the drive for a while if you start using it for anything. Check its SMART stats daily to see how it's doing.

 

[shinji2k]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kramy

Hmm... I'm not sure how long it'll be good. I'd run the Extended SMART test to see what it says. If it passes, then you can at least experiment with it.
You'll have to keep an eye on the drive for a while if you start using it for anything. Check its SMART stats daily to see how it's doing.

Ditto. I don't really trust consumer drives so at the first sign of trouble I usually set it aside. I tend to have spares so swapping out drives isn't a big deal, but if you don't have the money to replace it I would keep a very close eye on it.

 

[Capt]

The extended test just finished and it said 'Pass' but crystal disk says that there are 8 bad sectors.

 

[Capt]

The drive finally died.

 

[Kramy]

Yeah... once they start going downhill that fast, it's not a good sign. I'm rather surprised it limped along as well as it did, with that many bad sectors showing up daily.

Less than two weeks for it to go from really unhealthy to totally dead - noted for the future.

 

[bmbj]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kramy

Yeah... once they start going downhill that fast, it's not a good sign. I'm rather surprised it limped along as well as it did, with that many bad sectors showing up daily.

Less than two weeks for it to go from really unhealthy to totally dead - noted for the future.

Hi there,

I'm new to forum actually i joined today cuz of i have same problem like 'Capt'. My WD Black 1 TB hdd is gone 2-3 days ago. I did hdtune error scan and health test. There is results.

http://img.donanimhaber.com/upfiles/910492/487063fa-78a0-4727-8a91-cb3bf79db20b.JPG

http://img.donanimhaber.com/upfiles/910492/210464d4-6202-4714-8f68-6123631de806.JPG

What do you suggest me to fix that hdd ?

Also sorry for my english its not my native language.

Thanks a lot already

 

[Kramy]

1457 - I don't think you can fix that HDD. You should connect it to another computer using a USB hard drive dock, pull off any important files, and then RMA it to Western Digital or throw it in the trash.

If you want to attempt to revive it, you can zero out the drive with WD DLG:
http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=612&sid=3

But on a drive with so many bad sectors, there's probably something really wrong with it, so I don't expect it to permanently fix anything. At best you'd be able to use it for another few weeks before more bad sectors show up and files start getting corrupted again. Eventually it just won't be accessible anymore, and then you won't be able to get anything off the drive.

 

[bmbj]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kramy

1457 - I don't think you can fix that HDD. You should connect it to another computer using a USB hard drive dock, pull off any important files, and then RMA it to Western Digital or throw it in the trash.

If you want to attempt to revive it, you can zero out the drive with WD DLG:
http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=612&sid=3

But on a drive with so many bad sectors, there's probably something really wrong with it, so I don't expect it to permanently fix anything. At best you'd be able to use it for another few weeks before more bad sectors show up and files start getting corrupted again. Eventually it just won't be accessible anymore, and then you won't be able to get anything off the drive.

Actually i already got my backups. I got another hdd from my old computer. I make that hdd to my system hdd and copy that stuff to another external hdd. But there is only 1 red block on the error scan ? Is it really at bad shape ? Also i dont know what is the means of RMA ?

 

[Kramy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bmbj

Actually i already got my backups. I got another hdd from my old computer. I make that hdd to my system hdd and copy that stuff to another external hdd. But there is only 1 red block on the error scan ? Is it really at bad shape ? Also i dont know what is the means of RMA ?

Ok, good.

One error block visible, out of 2500 (50x50 graph in HDTune) - but they represent far more sectors. If you divide 1,000,000,000,000 bytes by the size of a sector (4KiB - 4096 bytes) then you end up with at least 244,140,625 sectors represented by 2500 blocks on HDTune.

There's at least 1457 bad sectors (and growing) - however, they are towards the end of the drive, so I suppose you could format only part of the drive and use only that part. If it never accesses the bad part of the drive... maybe it'll stop? If you zero the drive out and only use the first 50-80%, maybe it'll stop going bad?

I tried that once on a WD Green - my drive died totally a few months later.