HDS reports that the Reallocated Sectors Count Attribute has failed even though no sectors have even been reallocated. HDS used to show 10. May 09, 2018 Pyramiden. Reallocated are not really that much of a problem. It just means your drive found a broken or damaged sector and replaced it with a reserve sector, and that is why the disk now shows that it is 100% OK. I would make a backup, monitor the smart values, and get rid of the disk once you see value 'pending sectors' going up.
Active2 years ago
So this is NOT an old laptop, and my Windows OS crashed after upgrading it to Windows 10 last year. So I recently tried Ubuntu as I heard good things about it. This is what happens:
After installing, I get error message after error message saying 'Sorry, Ubuntu 16.04 has experience an internal error.', and so I decided to try to restart it and go to 'Try Ubuntu (Without installing)'. When I did this, I went to Search - 'disc' - Selected the HDD - SMART Data & Self-Test. It appears the Reallocated Sector Count is at 133 normalized, with the worst being 133, and the threshold being 140. It is the only mark that is in the failing state, everything else is OK. So because of this, the Overall Assessment: Disk is likely to fail soon.
Now I do have an above-average computer knowledge, but no where near the smarts of developers. I do however have more of a technology design type knowledge. From my reading, it is something that happened INSIDE the HDD, maybe a moving part got damaged. Regardless of what it may be, does anybody know of a fix to this error?
I am aware that a lot of people say the disc is done for, and I understand that. However I am looking for a 'potential' fix that maybe hasn't been done, aka soldering a new wire or cable, linking two parts together, etc. Otherwise, I would be willing to try a whole computer based approach, aka right now I am just doing an 'Extended' Self-Test on the HDD.
Any replies would be appreciated guys!
Thanks in advance.
Sonnatta Reel-NameSonnatta Reel-Name
2 Answers
A bad sector is a small part of your disk's storage (e.g. 512 bytes or 4 kB) that caused an error while trying to read or write it. It is most likely a tiny defect on the surface of the magnetic platters, which can be caused by high wear or minimal and inevitable inaccuracies in the manufacturing process.
The firmware of modern disks will automatically try to remap sectors it identified as bad when it is instructed to write anything there the next time, which means one of the additional spare sectors the disk has will be used instead of it from now on. After a successful reallocation, the OS will not notice any changes and be able to continue the drive as usual. This requires that enough unallocated spare sectors are left though.
However, although each disk has some bad sectors from the very beginning since its production, if their number increases significantly, this is a critical sign that the disk will most likely fail soon. It's not a guarantee - disks with many bad blocks can possibly survive years, but disks can also fail without showing any bad sectors before - but a strong indicator that you should back up your data and replace the disk as soon as possible.
If you like living on the edge, keep using it (make frequent backups though). Maybe it will last for another while. You should closely observe the bad sector count of the disk though. In case it stays pretty constant from now on, you might be lucky, but if it keeps increasing or if it makes significant jumps, it's really time to replace it.
Oh, and don't even think of opening the disk up and trying to fix any hardware in there by hand. First, it's not an issue of any electro-mechanical parts but most likely a surface defect which can not be repaired. The tracks on a modern HDD have a width in the range of nanometers. Also, the distance between the actuator head and the spinning platters is only generated by the air pressure caused by the rotation and is smaller than the diameter of a grain of dust. If you just open the casing and let any particles in, chances are high they will cause a head crash and destroy even more surface areas. So in short, don't open it except for wiping its data before throwing it away.
Byte Commander♦Byte Commander72.2k2828 gold badges196196 silver badges330330 bronze badges
![Count Count](https://atola.com/img/dsf/manual/1-standard-smart-table.png)
If this is not a SSD, you can try to badblock the disk. Understand that an increasing count of bad blocks on a disk may indicate a failing drive.
In
heynnemaheynnematerminal
...26.9k33 gold badges2727 silver badges7272 bronze badges
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged partitioninghard-driveacerdisk-management or ask your own question.
Active9 months ago
I ran this HD utility called CrystalDiskInfo that displays some of the S.M.A.R.T. information on my drives. It is displaying a 'Caution' warning on one of my drives because its 'Reallocated Sectors Count' value is 263 (ideally it should be 0 as it is on all of the other drives I have tested).
I posted this question on another forum and the general consensus of the responders was to back up immediately and get rid of the drive. The drive is fairly new and only has 4575 hours on it. I just learned about this utility a few weeks ago, so I don't know when the reallocation of these sectors may have occurred, but it hasn't changed.
Can I trust this drive?
Update (9/27/2009): That reallocated sector count stayed at 293 until about a week ago when I noticed it went up by 1. Just yesterday, I noticed it's up to 659. It's under warranty and is going back to the manufacturer for replacement.
bwDraco37.8k3737 gold badges146146 silver badges180180 bronze badges
ravenraven4,22755 gold badges3333 silver badges5050 bronze badges
5 Answers
In my experience it's a toss-up. I've had one drive that had some reallocated sectors and a nasty whine that ended up outlasting some drives that gave no warnings before dying a miserable death. I actually chucked it because it was so noisy, rather than data loss.
However, for me, personally, at the first sign of problems in a drive, I backup then swap it off. Drives are cheap, online backups are cheap and if you're anything like me, your time is better spent elsewhere than trying to recover a drive.
hyperslug12.3k44 gold badges4242 silver badges6262 bronze badges
emgeeemgee
Rather than just ditching the drive, you might want to just keep an eye on it first, to see if the reallocated sector count increases. If that count continues to increase, the drive is finding and mapping out more and more bad sectors.
I guess it depends on what this drive is doing - is it 'mission-critical' or on a server? If so, I would be more nervous than if it's in a home PC not doing a whole lot (as long as you make regular backups of the data, which of course you should do anyways).
Edit: I just downloaded and ran CrystalDiskInfo on my harddrive here at work (an always-on PC, as we're a 24-hour operation), and it's logged 7739 power on hours and has 100 reallocated sectors.
For those who don't know, reallocated sectors are:
Count of reallocated sectors. When the hard drive finds a read/write/verification error, it marks this sector as 'reallocated' and transfers data to a special reserved area (spare area). This process is also known as remapping, and 'reallocated' sectors are called remaps. This is why, on modern hard disks, 'bad blocks' cannot be found while testing the surface – all bad blocks are hidden in reallocated sectors. However, as the number of reallocated sectors increases, the read/write speed tends to decrease. The raw value normally represents a count of the number of bad sectors that have been found and remapped. Thus, the higher the attribute value, the more sectors the drive has had to reallocate.
Source: Wikipedia
Jared HarleyJared Harley11.5k33 gold badges3434 silver badges5050 bronze badges
I have drive that has 165 of them for a long time now. They all happened at one time and never increased since (two years ago). I would just closely monitor that figure. If it is just one time increase, do not worry.
Josip MedvedJosip Medved8,46711 gold badge2525 silver badges3939 bronze badges
It depends on how critical the data on the drive is.
You should always keep good backups... but in your case, I would keep an eye on it. If the number of reallocated sectors is not increasing, it might not be a deteriorating problem. It might have been a manufacturing defect or a one-time bump.
If you want to squeeze some more life out of it, I would say 'use it.' Use it for static data (pictures, music, applications, etc) that you can recover from a backup if the drive fails. But I would tend to prefer my other drives for data that is a bit more important to you.
Robert Cartaino♦Robert Cartaino5,43466 gold badges2929 silver badges4747 bronze badges
It might be a sign, but in general you should not be worrieduntil the reallocation count goes to a high number.
Modern drives are so dense that reallocations are quitecommon.
On the Security Now podcast Steve Gibson has talked aboutthis. See e.g. episode 196, near 'there are sectorsthat are going bad before they have gone bad. '.
Peter MortensenPeter Mortensen8,5791616 gold badges6262 silver badges8585 bronze badges