Reallocated sectors

IvanDobskey · 13 Jan 2017 at 09:24

Ok, so i was in the process of replacing a blatantly failing 2tb samsung drive with a new 3tb WD drive when i noticed one of my other drives was showing a yellow warning in hwinfo. After closer inspection it seems there are 82 reallocated sectors. Should i be worried about this drive?

ED209 · 13 Jan 2017 at 10:32

I would keep an eye on it and not store anything on there that is not backed up.

the error means that it has 82 sectors it can no longer use for storage and flagged them as bad.

If this continues to increase i would replace the drive.

How old is the drive? if its still under warranty maybe RMA the drive

IvanDobskey · 13 Jan 2017 at 11:10

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, this is pretty much as I thought. I think the drive is a couple of years old, so it may still be in warranty. I will check the serial number on the WD site when I get back home.

I'm thinking WD will not take the drive back until it starts to fail the tests on the diagnostic tool though.

IvanDobskey · 14 Jan 2017 at 08:26

Well the number is going up. It was actually 630 and now it is 680. I think i need to get the drive replaced asap.

Shame it is out of warranty

lurkio · 14 Jan 2017 at 13:37

When a drive finds a damaged sector it relocates it to a spare sector (usually at end of the drive) it only has a finite number of spares, so it uses this spare sector instead of the damaged one

When I get any drive starting to do this a get what ever info is on it off and then dispose of it

IvanDobskey · 14 Jan 2017 at 15:00

Bought another 3tb wd blue. Copying stuff over now.

Duff drive was actually a seagate 2tb and not a wd drive.

1080 reallocated sectors now...

ED209 · 14 Jan 2017 at 20:13

good idea to replace as it doesn't seem like its going to last much longer

IvanDobskey · 14 Jan 2017 at 21:01

Was over 1200 reallocated sectors by the time i had finished copying everything over. Going to scrap the old drive. Will stick to WD as a brand in future.