Large S.M.A.R.T. Reallocated sector count => Drive dying?

joeyjojo · 30 Jun 2009 at 13:36

Speedfan is telling me that the reallocated sector count of my samsung f1 750GB has a smart value of 95. The "perform an in-depth analysis of this hard disk" button takes you to

http://www.hddstatus.com/hdrepshowreport.php?ReportCode=3790757&ReportVerification=DC15A96D

which says NOTE : your hard disk has 208 reallocated sectors (this value is very large and your hard disk should be replaced)...

True?

G J · 30 Jun 2009 at 15:22

I would look to getting a new drive/backing up the data, esp if the count continues to rise in a short timespan.

Mine has a reallocated count of five for about a year now, these test's don't go into great detail and give exactly how many sectors are left.

Can you RMA the drive with a certain number, even with a low count like mine?

d_brennen · 30 Jun 2009 at 15:36

Hmm... Maybe the controller on Samsung F1 drives is quite fussy. Both my 500GB F1s have a relocated sector count. no. 1 has 56 no. 2 has 72.

Both are about 9 month old and otherwise have performed perfectly.

miniyazz · 30 Jun 2009 at 17:18

Reallocated sectors mean bits of the HDD have died and had to be supplanted by spare sectors that were left blank for that very reason. This gives you warning time to replace your drive before you start losing data. Once all spare sectors have been reallocated, you will start losing data.

joeyjojo · 30 Jun 2009 at 19:09

Then three more questions:

Are there any scanners that detect this as a problem? I will run hutil shortly..
Can I RMA based on 208 sectors?
How many sectors does the F1 750GB have for reallocation?

Gracias

joeyjojo · 30 Jun 2009 at 22:11

HUtil shows drive having no problems. Will ask samsung..

miniyazz · 30 Jun 2009 at 23:35

Run the Samsung disk check thing. Or tell them it fails SMART.. which it will do with that many reallocated sectors, they should probably replace one that fails SMART, but don't count on it.

joeyjojo · 23 Aug 2009 at 19:21

Bring this back up...

Samsung disk check thing says all is fine. Number of sectors has stayed at a solid 208 (ie. not increasing). I sent them an email about RMAing a drive which doesn't fail the checker.

Also did a comparison of the drives, you can see the bad one doing about 8%-10% worse on sustained read:

:/

Zarf · 23 Aug 2009 at 19:58

you might have to look into this, but i seem to remember SMART values not always working the way you expect - for instance your 208 might be the value for number of spare sectors remaining rather than the number that have been replaced.

joeyjojo · 23 Aug 2009 at 20:09

Zarf said:
you might have to look into this, but i seem to remember SMART values not always working the way you expect - for instance your 208 might be the value for number of spare sectors remaining rather than the number that have been replaced.

I see what you mean. The main problem is that samsung took out smart reading in HUtil, so I can only go on what speedfan/hdtune etc. report.

In this particular example, it does start from 0 and increases. Whether it goes linearly is anybody's guess (shrug)