hey,

i got a couple of "The device, \Device\Harddisk0\D, has a bad block"
eventlog entries in the past 24 hrs -- checked status using HDD Health (a
SMART monitoring utility) and it showed 4 reallocated sectors in Extended
Info tab, although the value of "Reallocated Sector Count" in the SMART
status tab is still at 100 (threshold for my drive is 36).

CHKDSK /R doesnt show any problems either.

My question is: the drive (a seagate 40gb) is still under warranty, so could
i RMA it or is block re-allocation quite normal with today's hard disks?

best,
vin

In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage Vin <vingy_@hotmail.junk.com> wrote:
> hey,

> i got a couple of "The device, \Device\Harddisk0\D, has a bad block"
> eventlog entries in the past 24 hrs -- checked status using HDD Health (a
> SMART monitoring utility) and it showed 4 reallocated sectors in Extended
> Info tab, although the value of "Reallocated Sector Count" in the SMART
> status tab is still at 100 (threshold for my drive is 36).

> CHKDSK /R doesnt show any problems either.

> My question is: the drive (a seagate 40gb) is still under warranty, so could
> i RMA it or is block re-allocation quite normal with today's hard disks?

Usually yes. They do not need to be hard-errors, just errors
that needed more effort to recover from.

Errors in the SMART log do not mean the device is defective.
I have one Maxtor that had initially 28 errors, but has been
working fine for 18 months now without additional errors.

Keep a look on the reallocation coubnt (raw value if possible),
and if it steadily increases (had this with a drive damaget
in shipping recently) send it in for warranty replacement.

Same if you get OS errors when trying to read things.

Arno
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On Wed, 8 Oct 2003 00:48:32 +0530, Knowing that it was a Hollywood
invention that lemmings jump off cliffs "Vin"
<vingy_@hotmail.JUNK.com> wrote :

>hey,
>
>i got a couple of "The device, \Device\Harddisk0\D, has a bad block"
>eventlog entries in the past 24 hrs -- checked status using HDD Health (a
>SMART monitoring utility) and it showed 4 reallocated sectors in Extended
>Info tab, although the value of "Reallocated Sector Count" in the SMART
>status tab is still at 100 (threshold for my drive is 36).
>
>CHKDSK /R doesnt show any problems either.
>
>My question is: the drive (a seagate 40gb) is still under warranty, so could
>i RMA it or is block re-allocation quite normal with today's hard disks?
>
>best,
>vin

My Maxtor has a fee low level drive diagnostic free for download
called,"PowerMax".
http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/powermax.htm
It works on other makes but check the Seagate site for one for yours
to be safe.

HTH



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"Vin" <vingy_@hotmail.JUNK.com> wrote in message news:blv3jb$gth1m$(E-Mail Removed)...
> hey,
>
> i got a couple of "The device, \Device\Harddisk0\D, has a bad block"
> eventlog entries in the past 24 hrs -- checked status using HDD Health (a
> SMART monitoring utility) and it showed 4 reallocated sectors in Extended

> Info tab, although the value of "Reallocated Sector Count" in the SMART
> status tab is still at 100 (threshold for my drive is 36).

Your drive has several thousand of spare sectors, so obviously that counter
is serving as a kind of thermometer.
The number of blocks reasigned wasn't big enough to get the value to change
from 100 to 99.

>
> CHKDSK /R doesnt show any problems either.
>
> My question is: the drive (a seagate 40gb) is still under warranty, so could
> i RMA it or is block re-allocation quite normal with today's hard disks?

Why would they design a drive to reassign sectors if this wasn't normal?

>
> best,
> vin
>
>