200 Unstable Sectors

ShivP

ShivP

ShivP

Soldato
Soldato
Joined
26 Oct 2013
Posts
10,141
Location
Leicester
Just installed HD Tune Pro to check up some stuff, and noticed that my 500GB WD hard drive has 210 unstable sectors?? and also 6 Interface CRC Error Count?! After reading up, this amount of unstable sectors seems ridiculous, but thought I'd run it past you guys.

http://imgur.com/vvfqJID
 
You can't just read those numbers because they way the disc manufacturers use them is not always numbers = errors.

You need to download the WD utilities and run those over the suspect drive. If it can't remamp bad blocks or otherwise has issues, it will advise you to RMA.
 
Steampunk said:
No, you have to go to the WD website and download their equivalent.
Click to expand...

You can, but WD Tools is probably better to use on WD Drives, not I wasn't sure if WD Tools can attempt repairing, so that's why I recommended SeaTools.
Plus WD Tools can have issues detecting drives on a RAID controller and uncommon motherboards!
 
BadPil0t said:
You can, but WD Tools is probably better to use on WD Drives, not I wasn't sure if WD Tools can attempt repairing, so that's why I recommended SeaTools.
Click to expand...

Last time I checked, Seatools did check for Seagate drives on startup. WD tools will do a repair on a WD drive if it can. If the drive is really on the way out though, you'll often find that bad block errors simply keep popping up in new places, even after forcing bad blocks to remap.

BadPil0t said:
Plus WD Tools can have issues detecting drives on a RAID controller and uncommon motherboards!
Click to expand...

As does Seatools. There are lots of drive apps that have trouble with RAID controllers.

Ultimately it's the manufacturer's own tools that have the final word (if you want to RMA), though some others (like Hard Drive Sentinel) actually can do more.
 
Steampunk said:
Run the long tests from WD tools, and it will remap faulty blocks to spare blocks if it can. If it can't remap, or more errors come up, then you need a new drive. I'm not sure what HD Tune calls "unstable sectors".
Click to expand...
Regardless if bad sectors are remapped or not, my trust in a drive diminishes even if just one bad sector is found.

In my books, one bad sector or more means it's high time for a new harddrive.
 
darael said:
Regardless if bad sectors are remapped or not, my trust in a drive diminishes even if just one bad sector is found.

In my books, one bad sector or more means it's high time for a new harddrive.
Click to expand...


Modern drives have millions of blocks, and tens of thousands of spares for remapping. If over a few years you see a bad block here or there that's successfully remapped, it's not a big deal. With today's high density platters, it's expected and designed for. We are well beyond the days of MFM.

If you see a lot of bad blocks suddenly appear, or they keep popping up, then it's time to worry.
 
Steampunk said:
Modern drives have millions of blocks, and tens of thousands of spares for remapping. If over a few years you see a bad block here or there that's successfully remapped, it's not a big deal. With today's high density platters, it's expected and designed for. We are well beyond the days of MFM.

If you see a lot of bad blocks suddenly appear, or they keep popping up, then it's time to worry.
Click to expand...
Personally I have no tolerance for bad sectors. One bad apple makes all the difference when it comes to the security of data, regardless of how important it is.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom