Western digital HDD Problem

Paulj · 2 Feb 2006 at 20:26

hey

I purchased a western digital 120Gb HDD just over a year ago from OCUK, i recently installed "Drive health" to monitor my hard disks.....ive started to get a message pop up on the screen randomly upto a few times a day saying "a non-typical smart attribute value fall error has occured" (something like that).
When i open up the reporting tool it has an exclamation mark against "seek error rate" but not always..... :confused:

however, it says at the top "nearest T.E.C 10/02/2006....does this mean it will die soon?
Im a bit of a n00b when it comes to hard drives

Anywho, im wondering if I should RMA it before it goes completely? (if i can this will be more handy)
thanks,
Paul

smids · 2 Feb 2006 at 20:42

Go get the Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostics for windows utility. This will check SMART and tell you if you need to RMA. I don't trust third party programs. http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp?cxml=n&pid=3&swid=3

Digital-Prozac · 2 Feb 2006 at 21:57

Just had a similar issue with mine where the SMART failed. WD agreed to an RMA without any problems

Paulj · 2 Feb 2006 at 22:21

Thanks for that tool-just ran it and it passed both tests

Got an error stating that the drive had reached 52 degrees though

I presume its safe to keep using the drive without possible dataloss and ignore the errors shown with the third party hard disk tool?

smids · 2 Feb 2006 at 22:41

Paulj said:
Thanks for that tool-just ran it and it passed both tests
Got an error stating that the drive had reached 52 degrees though
I presume its safe to keep using the drive without possible dataloss and ignore the errors shown with the third party hard disk tool?

Pretty much. The third party programs usually are buggy and generate errors where there are none. You have run both the long and short diag tests and checked the SMART status with the DLG? If so, and all was ok, then the drive is fine

.