Needs RMA?

[manveruppd]

Seagate SATA 500GB drive bought last year just got a bad score from SpeedFan:

The overall fitness for this drive is 79%.
The overall performance for this drive is 79%.

Is this bad enough to RMA or should I not worry about it? Been finding errors with CHKDSK every day. I had been suspecting the PSU or the cable powering the drive, because I've also been finding errors on another drive (which gets 92% from Speedfan), but I used a Xilence PSU tester and didn't see any problems.

 

[Admiral Huddy]

Pop along to seagates website.. You should find a HDD diagnostic tool to test if the drive is faulty.. That is what they will do anyway. Best to test before sening off a perfectly good drive.

Here - did it for you

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/seatools/

 

[manveruppd]

Yep, already running those (I'm gonna let the bootable version run tonight while I'm asleep too), just thought someone would know just how bad a score of 76% is...

 

[ChrisLX200]

Difficult to say, it's a low score though. You need to look at the SMART message (use SpeedFan or HD Tune) and see which parameter is causing it - some are more critical than others.

 

[manveruppd]

Well, here's the Speedfan report in full.
Seatools still haven't finished the long tests (so damn long!!!) but the short tests passed allright.

Your hard disk is a ST3500630AS with firmware 3.AAK.
The average temperature for this hard disk is 39C (MIN=29C MAX=50C) and yours is 34C.
Your hard disk's S.M.A.R.T. attributes are now being analyzed and a full report about the reliability, health and status of your hard disk is generated:
Your hard disk is not below any attribute threshold. This is good.
Your hard disk was never below any attribute threshold. This is good.
Your hard disk is now being compared to real data used to define normal values for your specific hard disk model. This way, the analysis can automatically use proper operating ranges. The images give you an idea of how each attribute is within such range. Current and raw values are shown for easier reference for experienced users. There are 2300 hard disk models in the current archive.

Attribute Current Raw Overall
0 Raw Read Error Rate 88 0 Watch
Warning: Raw Read Error Rate is below the average limits (100-119).
5 Spin Up Time 93 0 Good
10 Start/Stop Count 100 749 Very good
10 Reallocated Sector Count 100 0 Very good
5 Seek Error Rate 70 24 3862 10547 Good
0 Power On Hours Count 93 6240 Watch
Warning: Power On Hours Count is below the average limits (98-100).
10 Spin Retry Count 100 0 Very good
10 Power Cycle Count 100 739 Very good
0 Reported Uncorrectable Errors 85 15 Watch
Warning: Reported Uncorrectable Errors is below the average limits (100-100).
10 High Fly Writes 100 0 Very good
9 Airflow Temperature 66 622526498 Very good
1 Hardware ECC Recovered 62 228511788 Normal
10 Current Pending Sector 100 0 Very good
10 Offline Uncorrectable Sector Count 100 0 Very good
10 Ultra DMA CRC Error Rate 200 0 Very good
10 Write Error Rate 100 0 Very good
10 TA Increase Count 100 0 Very good

NOTE: not all warnings are reflected on fitness and performance overall values as relevancy is based upon the settings from the hard disk manufacturer who is the best entity deputed to define such relationships.

NOTE : your hard disk Power On Hours Count attribute current value (93) is below the normal range (98 - 100) reported for your specific hard disk model. Basically your hard disk was powered on for more than the maximum time the average user did. This means that either all of the reports collected are from hard disks that were not powered on for too long (this is realistic for recent models) or that your hard disk is becoming old. Usually this is not considered as a pre-failure advisory, but you should check whether you want to replace the hardware or keep an eye on its performances over time.

The overall fitness for this drive is 79%.
The overall performance for this drive is 79%.
The link to get back and see a new report about this hard disk in the future is this. Consider that new hard disks and new checks are added over time.

Sorry about the state of the table. I made the warning messages bold to make it more readable.
The "overall fitness" was reported as slightly less last time I ran it. Obviously by submitting my results I brought down the average scores, so my own score came up The slightly below-average temp may be because there's an intake fan in front of the drive. My other drive (the 92%-healthy one) is in a different drive cage and is at 45 C. I used to have both drives in the same drive cage and they'd regularly climb into the 50s!