Bad Sector Question

[Breck Fontaine]

Hello,

I Have a Maxtor DiamondMax 9 SATA drive. I downloaded PowerMax
and ran the full diagnostic test that came up with no errors or no
damaged sectors. My question is about SpeedFan that I am running. It
says I have 26 reallocated sectors via SMART at 86% overall fitness.
What should I believe (PowerMax or SpeedFan)? My system is running
okay no errors at all.

 

[Fabien LE LEZ]

It says I have 26 reallocated sectors

A hard drive comes with some "extra" sectors, that are used as a
replacement when some "normal" sectors are defective.
So, 26 original sectors are defective, and 26 extra sectors are used
instead. That means that all the sectors that are actually used are
sane, but there has been some errors in the past.

[Note: "in the past" can mean "before the hard drive was released from
the factory.]

What should I believe (PowerMax or SpeedFan)?

Both are correct.

And if you want to know whether you can trust the hard drive, the
answer is no: any hard disk can stop working properly, without much
warning. Make sure you have a proper backup system.

 

[Rod Speed]

A hard drive comes with some "extra" sectors, that are used
as a replacement when some "normal" sectors are defective.
So, 26 original sectors are defective, and 26 extra sectors are
used instead. That means that all the sectors that are actually
used are sane, but there has been some errors in the past.

[Note: "in the past" can mean "before the hard drive was released from
the factory.]

Nope, those dont show up in the reallocated sector list.

 

[Rod Speed]

I Have a Maxtor DiamondMax 9 SATA drive. I downloaded PowerMax
and ran the full diagnostic test that came up with no errors or no
damaged sectors. My question is about SpeedFan that I am running.
It says I have 26 reallocated sectors via SMART at 86% overall fitness.

What should I believe (PowerMax or SpeedFan)?

Both. Maxtors are shipped with write check enabled for the first
considerable number of power cycles, with marginal bads left as
usable, with the drive reallocating sectors that turn out to be bad.
Thats what produces that higher than usual reallocated sector number.

My system is running okay no errors at all.

It should be fine.

 

[Breck Fontaine]

Thanks for your help and time. Also, I use Norton Ghost, can't live
without it.

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

A hard drive comes with some "extra" sectors, that are used as a
replacement when some "normal" sectors are defective.
So, 26 original sectors are defective, and 26 extra sectors are used
instead. That means that all the sectors that are actually used are
sane, but there has been some errors in the past.

[Note: "in the past" can mean "before the hard drive was released from
the factory.]

Nope, it doesn't. The mark of the babblebot: clueless, as always.