Is my hard disk in danger?

[J. Clarke]

"Joep" <j o e p @ d i y d a t a r e c o v e r y . n l> ha scritto nel
messaggio I have downloaded and installed the trial version of "Active Smart
2.41"

(http://www.ariolic.com).

As soon as I started the programme a warning popup windows appears with
the
following message:

"WARNING! The drive Maxtor 6Y120MO, 122.9 GB [S/N: Y31XRT1E] indicated
a S.M.A.R.T error condition. Immediately back-up your data and replace
this
hard drive!
A failure may be imminent"


How much 'clearer' do they have to make this warning for you to
understand it? What part of it makes you doubt? What are the doubts?


not the warning message makes me to have any doubts. But the red item
which causes the warning message. The problem is I cannot undertand
what "Reallocated Sector Count" means and why my hard drive is in
danger according to active smart.

Every time the disk detects a bad sector it at the first opportunity maps it
to a spare--this is called "reallocation". As to what "reallocated
sector count" means to your program, I have no idea--it appears that the
program reports things backwards from the way common sense would have it,
so that a
low number is bad and a high one is good. Apparently it does some kind
of weird calculation on the real number to get one that makes no sense at all.
One of these days somebody needs to line up all the technicians in the
world, bore holes in their heads, and pour in a few pints of common
sense, but I suspect that Satan will be seen in LL. Bean shopping for
warm clothes
before that happens.

In the status window of the programme the item "Reallocated Sector Count"
is
red

Threshold 63
Value 3
Worst 3

Well, given that 100 is perfect and when the count however calculated
gets down to 63 that's bad and it's being reported as 3 I'd say that
that's _real_ bad.

I cannnot understand the whole sense of your answer (I'm italian) but I
think you advise me not to worry, don't you?
However I am scared by Arno Wagner's answer

No. Be scared. Arno's right. The way the counter seems to work a disk
with no reallocated sectors would show "100", a disk with all available
sparing used up would be a "0", with a warning issued when the counter,
however calculated, decreases from 100 to 63. On your disk, it has gone
past 63, all the way down to 3, which is exceedingly bad.

I am really confused!! What should I do????

Assume that your disk is dead--save what you can.

 

[Mr Anderson]

Mr Anderson wrote:


"Joep" <j o e p @ d i y d a t a r e c o v e r y . n l> ha scritto nel
messaggio I have downloaded and installed the trial version of "Active Smart
2.41"

(http://www.ariolic.com).

As soon as I started the programme a warning popup windows appears with
the
following message:

"WARNING! The drive Maxtor 6Y120MO, 122.9 GB [S/N: Y31XRT1E] indicated
a S.M.A.R.T error condition. Immediately back-up your data and replace
this
hard drive!
A failure may be imminent"


How much 'clearer' do they have to make this warning for you to
understand it? What part of it makes you doubt? What are the doubts?


not the warning message makes me to have any doubts. But the red item
which causes the warning message. The problem is I cannot undertand
what "Reallocated Sector Count" means and why my hard drive is in
danger according to active smart.

Every time the disk detects a bad sector it at the first opportunity

maps
it

to a spare--this is called "reallocation". As to what "reallocated
sector count" means to your program, I have no idea--it appears that the
program reports things backwards from the way common sense would have it,
so that a
low number is bad and a high one is good. Apparently it does some kind
of weird calculation on the real number to get one that makes no sense

at
all.

One of these days somebody needs to line up all the technicians in the
world, bore holes in their heads, and pour in a few pints of common
sense, but I suspect that Satan will be seen in LL. Bean shopping for
warm clothes
before that happens.

In the status window of the programme the item "Reallocated Sector Count"
is
red

Threshold 63
Value 3
Worst 3

Well, given that 100 is perfect and when the count however calculated
gets down to 63 that's bad and it's being reported as 3 I'd say that
that's _real_ bad.

I cannnot understand the whole sense of your answer (I'm italian) but I
think you advise me not to worry, don't you?
However I am scared by Arno Wagner's answer

No. Be scared. Arno's right. The way the counter seems to work a disk
with no reallocated sectors would show "100", a disk with all available
sparing used up would be a "0", with a warning issued when the counter,
however calculated, decreases from 100 to 63. On your disk, it has gone
past 63, all the way down to 3, which is exceedingly bad.

I am really confused!! What should I do????

Assume that your disk is dead--save what you can.

With a low-level format can the problem be solved?

 

[Will Dormann]

With a low-level format can the problem be solved?

You're not even listening, are you?


-WD

 

[Mr Anderson]

You're not even listening, are you?

Sorry but a new sata hard drive costs 100 euros.....I am buying a maxtor
hard disk...They say maxtor's hard drive are the best....do you agree?

 

[Mr Anderson]

You're not even listening, are you?

one more question: what can have caused this problem? I am used to execute
windowsXP's defrag utility very often....can this have caused such a big
problem?

THANKS YOU ALL!!!!

 

[Will Dormann]

one more question: what can have caused this problem? I am used to execute
windowsXP's defrag utility very often....can this have caused such a big
problem?

Excessive heat, faulty power supply, manufacturing defect.
You should be able to check temp in the SMART data. Should be under 45C


-WD

 

[Will Dormann]

Sorry but a new sata hard drive costs 100 euros.....I am buying a maxtor
hard disk...They say maxtor's hard drive are the best....do you agree?

Who are "they" ?
Personally, I'd never buy a maxtor again. But that's just me.



-WD

 

[J. Clarke]

"J. Clarke" <[email protected]> ha scritto nel messaggio
Mr Anderson wrote:


"Joep" <j o e p @ d i y d a t a r e c o v e r y . n l> ha scritto
nel messaggio
I have downloaded and installed the trial version of "Active
Smart 2.41"

(http://www.ariolic.com).

As soon as I started the programme a warning popup windows
appears
with
the
following message:

"WARNING! The drive Maxtor 6Y120MO, 122.9 GB [S/N: Y31XRT1E]
indicated
a S.M.A.R.T error condition. Immediately back-up your data and
replace
this
hard drive!
A failure may be imminent"


How much 'clearer' do they have to make this warning for you to
understand it? What part of it makes you doubt? What are the
doubts?


not the warning message makes me to have any doubts. But the red
item which causes the warning message. The problem is I cannot
undertand what "Reallocated Sector Count" means and why my hard
drive is in danger according to active smart.

Every time the disk detects a bad sector it at the first opportunity maps
it
to a spare--this is called "reallocation". As to what "reallocated
sector count" means to your program, I have no idea--it appears that the
program reports things backwards from the way common sense would have it,
so that
a
low number is bad and a high one is good. Apparently it does some
kind of weird calculation on the real number to get one that makes no
sense at
all.
One of these days somebody needs to line up all the technicians in the
world, bore holes in their heads, and pour in a few pints of common
sense, but I suspect that Satan will be seen in LL. Bean shopping for
warm
clothes
before that happens.

In the status window of the programme the item "Reallocated Sector
Count"
is
red

Threshold 63
Value 3
Worst 3

Well, given that 100 is perfect and when the count however calculated
gets down to 63 that's bad and it's being reported as 3 I'd say that
that's _real_ bad.

--
--John
Reply to jclarke at ae tee tee global dot net
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

I cannnot understand the whole sense of your answer (I'm italian) but I
think you advise me not to worry, don't you?
However I am scared by Arno Wagner's answer

No. Be scared. Arno's right. The way the counter seems to work a disk
with no reallocated sectors would show "100", a disk with all available
sparing used up would be a "0", with a warning issued when the counter,
however calculated, decreases from 100 to 63. On your disk, it has gone
past 63, all the way down to 3, which is exceedingly bad.

It means that it did encouter a lof of sectors it could just
barely read or not read at all and had to replace. Take the
warning literally and back-up now

I am really confused!! What should I do????

Assume that your disk is dead--save what you can.

With a low-level format can the problem be solved?

What part of "broken" are you having trouble with? Remember what Scipio
Africanus did to Carthage? Well something like that is happening to your
drive.

 

[Eric Gisin]

I know that, but power max tells me "cannot find dos. Press any key to
continue" and when you press any key your pc is rebootted (<---did I write
this last word correctly?)

I suspect you copied it to a bad floppy. Try another. You need to use to
authorize return. It will also tell you if there are uncorrectable bad
sectors.

I would burn all your personal files to CD-R immediately.

 

[CJT]

Mr Anderson wrote:

"J. Clarke" <[email protected]> ha scritto nel messaggio

Mr Anderson wrote:


"Joep" <j o e p @ d i y d a t a r e c o v e r y . n l> ha scritto nel
messaggio

I have downloaded and installed the trial version of "Active Smart
2.41"

(http://www.ariolic.com).

As soon as I started the programme a warning popup windows appears

with

the

following message:

"WARNING! The drive Maxtor 6Y120MO, 122.9 GB [S/N: Y31XRT1E]

indicated

a S.M.A.R.T error condition. Immediately back-up your data and

replace

this

hard drive!
A failure may be imminent"


How much 'clearer' do they have to make this warning for you to
understand it? What part of it makes you doubt? What are the doubts?


not the warning message makes me to have any doubts. But the red item
which causes the warning message. The problem is I cannot undertand
what "Reallocated Sector Count" means and why my hard drive is in
danger according to active smart.

Every time the disk detects a bad sector it at the first opportunity

maps

it

to a spare--this is called "reallocation". As to what "reallocated
sector count" means to your program, I have no idea--it appears that

the

program reports things backwards from the way common sense would have

it,

so that

a

low number is bad and a high one is good. Apparently it does some kind
of weird calculation on the real number to get one that makes no sense

at

all.

One of these days somebody needs to line up all the technicians in the
world, bore holes in their heads, and pour in a few pints of common
sense, but I suspect that Satan will be seen in LL. Bean shopping for
warm

clothes

before that happens.


In the status window of the programme the item "Reallocated Sector

Count"

is

red

Threshold 63
Value 3
Worst 3

Well, given that 100 is perfect and when the count however calculated
gets down to 63 that's bad and it's being reported as 3 I'd say that
that's _real_ bad.

--
--John
Reply to jclarke at ae tee tee global dot net
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

I cannnot understand the whole sense of your answer (I'm italian) but I
think you advise me not to worry, don't you?
However I am scared by Arno Wagner's answer

No. Be scared. Arno's right. The way the counter seems to work a disk
with no reallocated sectors would show "100", a disk with all available
sparing used up would be a "0", with a warning issued when the counter,
however calculated, decreases from 100 to 63. On your disk, it has gone
past 63, all the way down to 3, which is exceedingly bad.

It means that it did encouter a lof of sectors it could just
barely read or not read at all and had to replace. Take the
warning literally and back-up now

I am really confused!! What should I do????

Assume that your disk is dead--save what you can.

With a low-level format can the problem be solved?

I wouldn't take the risk unless this is just a play machine that you
don't use for anything important.

 

[CJT]

Sorry but a new sata hard drive costs 100 euros.....I am buying a maxtor
hard disk...They say maxtor's hard drive are the best....do you agree?

100 euros is probably cheap compared to losing all your files.

Maxtor drives work fine for me. So do Western Digital and Seagate.

 

[J. Clarke]

one more question: what can have caused this problem? I am used to execute
windowsXP's defrag utility very often....can this have caused such a big
problem?

Inadequate cooling, a marginal or defective power supply, or you may have
just gotten a bad drive--nobody's perfect--one slips through now and then.

 

[CJT]

Excessive heat, faulty power supply, manufacturing defect.
You should be able to check temp in the SMART data. Should be under 45C


-WD

some others -
bad cabling, bad mains power, powering it down when not quiescent

but most likely excessive temp or faulty power supply

 

[Shailesh Humbad]

Mr Anderson wrote:

Mr Anderson wrote:


"J. Clarke" <[email protected]> ha scritto nel messaggio

Mr Anderson wrote:


"Joep" <j o e p @ d i y d a t a r e c o v e r y . n l> ha scritto
nel messaggio


I have downloaded and installed the trial version of "Active
Smart 2.41"

(http://www.ariolic.com).

As soon as I started the programme a warning popup windows
appears

with

the

following message:

"WARNING! The drive Maxtor 6Y120MO, 122.9 GB [S/N: Y31XRT1E]

indicated

a S.M.A.R.T error condition. Immediately back-up your data and

replace

this

hard drive!
A failure may be imminent"


How much 'clearer' do they have to make this warning for you to
understand it? What part of it makes you doubt? What are the
doubts?


not the warning message makes me to have any doubts. But the red
item which causes the warning message. The problem is I cannot
undertand what "Reallocated Sector Count" means and why my hard
drive is in danger according to active smart.

Every time the disk detects a bad sector it at the first opportunity
maps

it

to a spare--this is called "reallocation". As to what "reallocated
sector count" means to your program, I have no idea--it appears that
the

program reports things backwards from the way common sense would have
it,

so that

a

low number is bad and a high one is good. Apparently it does some
kind of weird calculation on the real number to get one that makes no
sense
at

all.

One of these days somebody needs to line up all the technicians in the
world, bore holes in their heads, and pour in a few pints of common
sense, but I suspect that Satan will be seen in LL. Bean shopping for
warm

clothes

before that happens.


In the status window of the programme the item "Reallocated Sector

Count"

is

red

Threshold 63
Value 3
Worst 3

Well, given that 100 is perfect and when the count however calculated
gets down to 63 that's bad and it's being reported as 3 I'd say that
that's _real_ bad.

--
--John
Reply to jclarke at ae tee tee global dot net
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

I cannnot understand the whole sense of your answer (I'm italian) but I
think you advise me not to worry, don't you?
However I am scared by Arno Wagner's answer

No. Be scared. Arno's right. The way the counter seems to work a disk
with no reallocated sectors would show "100", a disk with all available
sparing used up would be a "0", with a warning issued when the counter,
however calculated, decreases from 100 to 63. On your disk, it has gone
past 63, all the way down to 3, which is exceedingly bad.


It means that it did encouter a lof of sectors it could just
barely read or not read at all and had to replace. Take the
warning literally and back-up now

I am really confused!! What should I do????

Assume that your disk is dead--save what you can.

With a low-level format can the problem be solved?

What part of "broken" are you having trouble with? Remember what Scipio
Africanus did to Carthage? Well something like that is happening to your
drive.

Everyone is having a field day with Mr. Anderson's skepticism of the
warning message. Go easy on him. Sometimes Windows gives a "Fatal
Exception Occurred" message, but in reality, nobody has died.

 

[George E. Cawthon]

one more question: what can have caused this problem? I am used to execute
windowsXP's defrag utility very often....can this have caused such a big
problem?

THANKS YOU ALL!!!!

I know less than most of the people here and do not say that any of
them are wrong but I have one comment. If you get several people
saying "disaster," then do what they say and back it up. However, it
is a computer, and computer are uncommonly stupid and the message they
send to you often has nothing do to with what is happening. The
software code could be corrupted for any number of reasons and there
may be nothing wrong with your hard disk, or there might be. So, back
it up, then delete and and reinstall what ever code you loaded just
before it started saying the disk was bad and make sure you are doing
everything correctly. Virus checkers can corrupt code so be sure all
of that stuff is off when you install anything.

I had a problem with a hard disk, explained it, and the messages
received and most everyone said that the hard drive was going bad, or
just as likely the power supply was. I had already backed up my date,
so for the second time i went through the case unplugging and plugging
in every connection possibly related to the hard drive. No more
messages, no more noise, no more problem because the first time I
checked connection I probably missed one.

Good Luck.

 

[Alexander Grigoriev]

Sometimes Windows gives a "Fatal
Exception Occurred" message, but in reality, nobody has died.

Overheard in a circus:

"Granpa, they said it's a deadly stunt, but nobody's died... Granpa?
Granpa?!"

 

[J. Clarke]

Mr Anderson wrote:

"J. Clarke" <[email protected]> ha scritto nel messaggio

Mr Anderson wrote:


"J. Clarke" <[email protected]> ha scritto nel messaggio

Mr Anderson wrote:


"Joep" <j o e p @ d i y d a t a r e c o v e r y . n l> ha scritto
nel messaggio


I have downloaded and installed the trial version of "Active
Smart 2.41"

(http://www.ariolic.com).

As soon as I started the programme a warning popup windows
appears

with

the

following message:

"WARNING! The drive Maxtor 6Y120MO, 122.9 GB [S/N: Y31XRT1E]

indicated

a S.M.A.R.T error condition. Immediately back-up your data and

replace

this

hard drive!
A failure may be imminent"


How much 'clearer' do they have to make this warning for you to
understand it? What part of it makes you doubt? What are the
doubts?


not the warning message makes me to have any doubts. But the red
item which causes the warning message. The problem is I cannot
undertand what "Reallocated Sector Count" means and why my hard
drive is in danger according to active smart.

Every time the disk detects a bad sector it at the first opportunity

maps

it

to a spare--this is called "reallocation". As to what "reallocated
sector count" means to your program, I have no idea--it appears that

the

program reports things backwards from the way common sense would have

it,

so that

a

low number is bad and a high one is good. Apparently it does some
kind of weird calculation on the real number to get one that makes no
sense

at

all.

One of these days somebody needs to line up all the technicians in the
world, bore holes in their heads, and pour in a few pints of common
sense, but I suspect that Satan will be seen in LL. Bean shopping for
warm

clothes

before that happens.


In the status window of the programme the item "Reallocated Sector

Count"

is

red

Threshold 63
Value 3
Worst 3

Well, given that 100 is perfect and when the count however calculated
gets down to 63 that's bad and it's being reported as 3 I'd say that
that's _real_ bad.

--
--John
Reply to jclarke at ae tee tee global dot net
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

I cannnot understand the whole sense of your answer (I'm italian) but I
think you advise me not to worry, don't you?
However I am scared by Arno Wagner's answer

No. Be scared. Arno's right. The way the counter seems to work a
disk with no reallocated sectors would show "100", a disk with all
available sparing used up would be a "0", with a warning issued when the
counter,
however calculated, decreases from 100 to 63. On your disk, it has gone
past 63, all the way down to 3, which is exceedingly bad.


It means that it did encouter a lof of sectors it could just
barely read or not read at all and had to replace. Take the
warning literally and back-up now

I am really confused!! What should I do????

Assume that your disk is dead--save what you can.


With a low-level format can the problem be solved?

What part of "broken" are you having trouble with? Remember what Scipio
Africanus did to Carthage? Well something like that is happening to your
drive.

Everyone is having a field day with Mr. Anderson's skepticism of the
warning message. Go easy on him. Sometimes Windows gives a "Fatal
Exception Occurred" message, but in reality, nobody has died.

The problem doesn't seem to be "his skepticism of the warning message", it
seems to be that his English (he admits that he is not a native speaker of
English and that he's having problems with it) doesn't seem to be up to the
task of following the discussion. So I gave him an example that any
Italian schoolboy should be able to follow.

When a drive has used up all its sparing, then it's got a serious problem.
That's the bottom line and continuing to dink with it is just going to
result in data loss.

 

[J. Clarke]

I know less than most of the people here and do not say that any of
them are wrong but I have one comment. If you get several people
saying "disaster," then do what they say and back it up. However, it
is a computer, and computer are uncommonly stupid and the message they
send to you often has nothing do to with what is happening. The
software code could be corrupted for any number of reasons and there
may be nothing wrong with your hard disk, or there might be. So, back
it up, then delete and and reinstall what ever code you loaded just
before it started saying the disk was bad and make sure you are doing
everything correctly. Virus checkers can corrupt code so be sure all
of that stuff is off when you install anything.

I had a problem with a hard disk, explained it, and the messages
received and most everyone said that the hard drive was going bad, or
just as likely the power supply was. I had already backed up my date,
so for the second time i went through the case unplugging and plugging
in every connection possibly related to the hard drive. No more
messages, no more noise, no more problem because the first time I
checked connection I probably missed one.

In his case though the message is unambiguous--the drive has used up most of
its sparing.

 

[George E. Cawthon]

In his case though the message is unambiguous--the drive has used up most of
its sparing.

Hey, I've got very unambigous messages many times from my operating
system that I know cannot possibly be true. Still suffering the
occassional modem message that there is a call waiting, but I don't
have call waiting and there is no possibilty that the modem could know
whether or not there is a call to my number. There are a few others
messages that pop up from time to time that also cannot possibly be
true.

 

[J. Clarke]

Hey, I've got very unambigous messages many times from my operating
system that I know cannot possibly be true.

So what? This is not a message from the operating system. Do you have an
alternative explanation for a disk drive reporting when queried that it has
used up all of its sparing?

Still suffering the
occassional modem message that there is a call waiting, but I don't
have call waiting and there is no possibilty that the modem could know
whether or not there is a call to my number. There are a few others
messages that pop up from time to time that also cannot possibly be
true.

So what? Again this is not an operating system message. Are you saying
that the drive is deluded about how many sectors it has reallocated?