Interpreting SpinRite log (SMART)?

[Philip Gardner]

I use SpinRite 6 regularly to check a 40GB Seagate drive (ST340823A).
Until now there have been no problems, but yesterday's run produced
some errors that I don't understand.

On the "End-of-Run SMART System Status" page, in the top half of the
screen, we have the following (I've only included the relevant lines):

monitored param margin current/max raw data
ecc corrected 0 ------------------xxxxxxxxxxxx 59/94 0000000D0C0584
seek errors 0 ------------------------------ 56/56 000000185B9CB3

.... where the 'x's represent a red square character on screen. This
looks to me as though there is a problem with ecc corrected errors but
not with seek errors.

But, in the lower half of the screen, we have:

temp 34oC/ 93oF error count minimum error rate
maximum
ecc corrected 0 0 0
0
seek errors 2,831,290 17,251 20,937
21,768

.... which suggests exactly the opposite - that there's a problem with
seek errors but not with ecc corrected errors.

I've tried Googling for answers, and of course searching the grc.com
website, but without success.

Can anyone help me interpret these log results? Thanks!

Philip Gardner
(Please reply to the group - I don't see messages sent to the e-mail
address I'm using to post.)

 

[Joep]

I use SpinRite 6 regularly to check a 40GB Seagate drive (ST340823A).
Until now there have been no problems, but yesterday's run produced
some errors that I don't understand.

On the "End-of-Run SMART System Status" page, in the top half of the
screen, we have the following (I've only included the relevant lines):

monitored param margin current/max raw data
ecc corrected 0 ------------------xxxxxxxxxxxx 59/94 0000000D0C0584
seek errors 0 ------------------------------ 56/56 000000185B9CB3

... where the 'x's represent a red square character on screen. This
looks to me as though there is a problem with ecc corrected errors but
not with seek errors.

But, in the lower half of the screen, we have:

temp 34oC/ 93oF error count minimum error rate
maximum
ecc corrected 0 0 0
0
seek errors 2,831,290 17,251 20,937
21,768

... which suggests exactly the opposite - that there's a problem with
seek errors but not with ecc corrected errors.

I've tried Googling for answers, and of course searching the grc.com
website, but without success.

Can anyone help me interpret these log results? Thanks!

Philip Gardner
(Please reply to the group - I don't see messages sent to the e-mail
address I'm using to post.)

You better ask this in the GRC newsgroups instead. However, even when asking
there will not result in a clear explanation. Steve Gibson is still working
on the Spinrite 6 documentation.

 

[Philip Gardner]

You better ask this in the GRC newsgroups instead. However,
even when asking there will not result in a clear
explanation. Steve Gibson is still working on the Spinrite 6
documentation.

Thanks, sounds a good idea, but I can't find any current GRC
newsgroups. A Google groups search on 'SpinRite' doesn't throw any up.
Can you tell me how to get to them?

Philip

 

[Joep]

The news server address is news.grc.com. For more details:
http://www.grc.com/discussions.htm

 

[Peter]

http://news.grc.com/news.exe?cmd=xover&group=grc.spinrite

 

[Philip Gardner]

The news server address is news.grc.com. For more details:
http://www.grc.com/discussions.htm

Thanks very much - I've posted my question on grc.spinrite.

Philip

 

[Michael Hawes]

I believe the error rate is 'per million'
Mike.