SMART error ..Must H.Disc be thrown out ?

[Trimble]

@@@@

I have A Maxtor 120Gig IDE...after 18 months of home 6 hour per day
use as the XP system disk.
On a number of occasions it would suddenly freeze
with a few loud clicks until the sys. was restarted ..when a few files
were
found to
be damaged...eventually this damaged some system files & I have had
to get another disk & reinstall everything (not fun !)

This failure was due I have decided, because the drive was positioned
so as
to overheat .
...in a corner of the comp. on top of the DVD burner.

The SMART tester I run shows all the checks as OK except for
"Re-allocated Sector Count" shown as fail..I have Low Level re-
formatted
it with the same SMART test results afterwards .
I'm loath to through it out ..& as it is now as a general purpose 2nd
ary
drive its not done the big click & freeze thing ...I currently have
VISTA
on it just to try VISTA out ..
Should I be sensible & just chuck it ?? It's noisyer than should be
but I have other drives which have had much longer , harder use & seem
fine.

What does the only SMART fail "Re-allocated Sector Count" mean ??
Where can I find an explanation of the SMART codes ???
Thanks Mouse
@@@

 

[John Jordan]

I have A Maxtor 120Gig IDE...

Oh, just throw it away

So tempted not to reply to the rest of the post...

What does the only SMART fail "Re-allocated Sector Count" mean ??

The re-allocated sector count is the number of sectors on the HD that
have been detected as bad and remapped. A SMART fail probably means that
you have a good few hundred bad sectors, and this usually gets worse.

Save yourself a lot of hassle and dump it.

 

[Rob Morley]

Oh, just throw it away

So tempted not to reply to the rest of the post...

Stop it, this machine's running an 80GB Maxtor. I wonder if the
60/120GB models used platters that weren't good enough for the 80/160GB
models.

The re-allocated sector count is the number of sectors on the HD that
have been detected as bad and remapped. A SMART fail probably means that
you have a good few hundred bad sectors,

I'd have though it meant it had run out of spare sectors to remap.

 

[kony]

Oh, just throw it away

Don't be a dumbass, statisically speaking, the failure rate
is not enough to abandon a drive unless there are typical
symptoms of a problem.

So tempted not to reply to the rest of the post...


The re-allocated sector count is the number of sectors on the HD that
have been detected as bad and remapped. A SMART fail probably means that
you have a good few hundred bad sectors, and this usually gets worse.

Save yourself a lot of hassle and dump it.

Save yourself the bother and quit pretending that bashing a
line of drives implies knowledge. The FACT is, the sheer
number of drives out in the field from OEMs, will make
certain makes and models have higher problem reports without
it being a higher actual problem rate.

This coming from someone who has over a dozen Maxtors
spinning right now and no higher failure rate than other
makes, models. A dozen is actually being conservative,
bashing any certain model is not useful untill you can
attribute a failure to a particular fault point. IF you can
do so, please share that information. Otherwise you are
only a silly troll.

 

[John Jordan]

Don't be a dumbass, statisically speaking, the failure rate
is not enough to abandon a drive unless there are typical
symptoms of a problem.

<sigh> I remember now. No joking in alt.comp.hardware.

Well, I'd strongly advise ditching any late-model Quantum or Fujitsu
drive that's still (remarkably) running unless you really don't value
your installation, as virtually every one of these drives I've seen in a
customer's PC has later died.

I wouldn't go that far with the Maxtors, but the plus-8 and plus-9
drives certainly do have a much higher than average failure rate, unless
they make up >90% of drives sold in my area in the last five years.

The OP's failure mode is very common with the plus-9s. They last 12-24
months, and then rapidly accumulate bad sectors. I'm not entirely sure
what happens after that, because I replace them at that point.

 

[Odie Ferrous]

@@@@

with a few loud clicks

That alone is sufficient reason to replace the drive.


Odie

 

[paulmd]

Don't be a dumbass, statisically speaking, the failure rate
is not enough to abandon a drive unless there are typical
symptoms of a problem.

I would be interested in the source of those statistics. As the ones
collected by Google tell quite a a different story.


http://216.239.37.132/papers/disk_failures.pdf

See figure 7.

Save yourself the bother and quit pretending that bashing a
line of drives implies knowledge. The FACT is, the sheer
number of drives out in the field from OEMs, will make
certain makes and models have higher problem reports without
it being a higher actual problem rate.

This coming from someone who has over a dozen Maxtors
spinning right now and no higher failure rate than other
makes, models. A dozen is actually being conservative,
bashing any certain model is not useful untill you can
attribute a failure to a particular fault point. IF you can
do so, please share that information. Otherwise you are
only a silly troll.

Are you OK Kony? You sound a lot like Rod.

 

[Trust No One®]

The re-allocated sector count is the number of sectors on the HD that have
been detected as bad and remapped. A SMART fail probably means that you
have a good few hundred bad sectors, and this usually gets worse.

Save yourself a lot of hassle and dump it.

Nah....

Put it up on Ebay as "untested"

Someone will surely bite.

 

[TMack]

Don't be a dumbass, statisically speaking, the failure rate
is not enough to abandon a drive unless there are typical
symptoms of a problem.

Typical symptoms of a problem would be a clicking noise accompanied by a
SMART message saying the re-allocated sector count has been exceeded. Only
a "dumbass" would ignore such signs of imminent failure. "Throw it away"
(after recovering data) is good advice - any data on the disk will be at
high risk of total loss.

 

[Noozer]

That alone is sufficient reason to replace the drive.

Naw... Just zero the drive and run the manufacturers utilities on it for an
extended period. Toss it if it can't even do this.

Don't use it for anything important, maybe for testing fresh OS installs or
as a dedicated swapspace drive.

 

[Tim]

Naw... Just zero the drive and run the manufacturers utilities on it for
an extended period. Toss it if it can't even do this.

I agree - we recovered many IBM Deathstars (yeah, the Hungarian ones) like
this (IBM disk utility) and a fair percentage became/remained viable for
desktop use in a server based environment (ie no important data on desktop
machine at all).

Don't use it for anything important, maybe for testing fresh OS installs
or as a dedicated swapspace drive.

Indeed. I would write "dodgey" on it and never ever *rely* on it for
anything important ever again. Expect it to drop dead, if you (the OP) gets
some milage out of it, then that's a bonus, but otherwise, best pretend
it's half dead IMO after the symptoms it's shown.

Cheers

Tim

 

[kony]

<sigh> I remember now. No joking in alt.comp.hardware.

Sorry, I was pretty steamed at someone else at the time of
posting that, the remark was uncalled for.

 

[kony]

Typical symptoms of a problem would be a clicking noise accompanied by a
SMART message saying the re-allocated sector count has been exceeded. Only
a "dumbass" would ignore such signs of imminent failure. "Throw it away"
(after recovering data) is good advice - any data on the disk will be at
high risk of total loss.

Note the "throw it away" advice was prior to indication,
addressing of any problem. Certainly once a drive has signs
of impending failure it should not be used any longer.

 

[Synapse Syndrome]

Stop it, this machine's running an 80GB Maxtor. I wonder if the
60/120GB models used platters that weren't good enough for the 80/160GB
models.

The Maxtor D740X was the fastest and quietest drive of its time, and made
before Maxtors had problems. Is yours a D740X? I have two that have been
perfect for the last 5+ years of constant use.

ss.

 

[philo]

@@@@

I have A Maxtor 120Gig IDE...after 18 months of home 6 hour per day
use as the XP system disk.
On a number of occasions it would suddenly freeze
with a few loud clicks until the sys. was restarted ..when a few files
were
found to
be damaged...eventually this damaged some system files & I have had
to get another disk & reinstall everything (not fun !)

This failure was due I have decided, because the drive was positioned
so as
to overheat .
..in a corner of the comp. on top of the DVD burner.

The SMART tester I run shows all the checks as OK except for
"Re-allocated Sector Count" shown as fail..I have Low Level re-
formatted
it with the same SMART test results afterwards .

*any* SMART error is sufficient to justify *never* using the driver again...
check the warranty though...you may be eligible for a replacement

 

[Trevor Best]

Nah....

Put it up on Ebay as "untested"

Someone will surely bite.

Put it on EBay as broken, Nick will buy it

 

[Mike Tomlinson]

The OP's failure mode is very common with the plus-9s. They last 12-24
months, and then rapidly accumulate bad sectors.

Agreed, my experience too, from an installed base of several dozen.

 

[kony]

Agreed, my experience too, from an installed base of several dozen.

It is odd you have such an experience? To me at least, mine
still work fine but I tended to buy them with only one
platter per, is that what you have/had?

 

[Mike Tomlinson]

It is odd you have such an experience?

Really? University department, many makes and models of drive
installed. Maxtors gave me the most grief (I say gave, cos my supplier
knows not to fit them to my computers any more

To me at least, mine
still work fine but I tended to buy them with only one
platter per, is that what you have/had?

No idea. Mostly DiamondMax plus 9 120/160GB.

 

[John Jordan]

No idea. Mostly DiamondMax plus 9 120/160GB.

Mostly plus-9 80/120GB and plus-8 30/40GB here, home & small business
callouts. I didn't buy any of the plus-9s myself, but four out of six
plus-8s I installed are now dead. A wide range of different failure
modes on those, strangely enough.

I don't think the plus-8s were used by any major OEMs, but you often see
them in machines from small suppliers.