Seagate 2TB, over 500 reallocated sectors

[Roger Blake]

Got an automated message from smartd about a change in the SMART
status of a 2TB Seagate drive, shows 584 bad/reallocated sectors.
Confirmed in Gnome Disk Utility.

Seatools extended test and SMART extended test inist the drive is OK.
I also ran a "secure erase" on the drive, which should write patterns
to every block on the disk, and the bad sector count did not increase.

So the drive is showing some signs of internal distress but is currently
stable. I know that bad block forwarding is a normal part of drive
operation, but the number of bad blocks seems pretty high. Should this
drive be sent back under warranty? (Which means of course taking a chance
on a "recertified" drive...)

 

[joshua]

Got an automated message from smartd about a change in the SMART
status of a 2TB Seagate drive, shows 584 bad/reallocated sectors.
Confirmed in Gnome Disk Utility.

She's dying, Jim. You into necrophilia ?

Seatools extended test and SMART extended test inist the drive is OK.

Those are irrelevant. What matters is the actual data, the 584 sectors.

I also ran a "secure erase" on the drive, which should write patterns
to every block on the disk, and the bad sector count did not increase.

Is there any possibility that the drive may have been
running stinking hot for a while and now isnt ?

So the drive is showing some signs of internal distress

A lot of sign of that in fact.

but is currently stable. I know that bad block forwarding is a normal
part of drive operation, but the number of bad blocks seems pretty high.

Yes, that's much too high.

Should this drive be sent back under warranty?

Depends on how long more of warranty it's got left.

(Which means of course taking a chance on a "recertified" drive...)

Yeah, but the only real alternative is to bin it.

 

[Roger Blake]

She's dying, Jim. You into necrophilia ?

About what I figured. I don't think it was running hot, there's a fan
blowing directly on it. I'll send it to Seagate and see how long
the recert that they send back lasts...

 

[Arno]

Got an automated message from smartd about a change in the SMART
status of a 2TB Seagate drive, shows 584 bad/reallocated sectors.
Confirmed in Gnome Disk Utility.

Seatools extended test and SMART extended test inist the drive is OK.

They only mean tha drive sd "above threshold". Give that thresholds
are cutomary set to over-optimistiv calues, that doe snot mean anything.

I also ran a "secure erase" on the drive, which should write patterns
to every block on the disk, and the bad sector count did not increase.

It would not on writing. You have to read for that.

So the drive is showing some signs of internal distress but is currently
stable. I know that bad block forwarding is a normal part of drive
operation, but the number of bad blocks seems pretty high. Should this
drive be sent back under warranty? (Which means of course taking a chance
on a "recertified" drive...)

500 reallocated is dying fast, unless an external cause (vibration,
bad power, heat) is to blame. Nothing "stable" here.

Arno

 

[Roger Blake]

500 reallocated is dying fast, unless an external cause (vibration,
bad power, heat) is to blame. Nothing "stable" here.

Strangely it is still running stably, no read errors reported at the OS
level. (I've been playing around with it, nothing of value on the drive.)

Usually when I see a drive with this many bad sectors it shows very obvious
symptoms. This one seems content to avoid using the bad blocks and otherwise
keep working. I'll let Seagate deal with it.

 

[Arno]

Strangely it is still running stably, no read errors reported at the OS
level. (I've been playing around with it, nothing of value on the drive.)

It will eventually run out of spare sectors and then you will
start to see them. At that time yiou get data-loss as well.

Usually when I see a drive with this many bad sectors it shows very obvious
symptoms. This one seems content to avoid using the bad blocks and otherwise
keep working. I'll let Seagate deal with it.

Couldbe a marginal component that has a high change of recovering
problematic sectors.

Arno