Hi,
Over the last 5 days HDS has been notifying me of sector reallocations that increment another 5-10 about every 2-3 days. I contacted Dell support, and they had me perform computer diagnostics using F12 upon a reboot. The diags said everything was fine, so Dell washed their hands of the problem and said the HDS info was incorrect. This laptop has harddrive WDC WD5000LPVX-75V0TT0 which I purchased 10 months ago and right now I am being told by HDS that there are 795 bad sectors and it has 10% health. I have run the short test, extended test and non-destructive surface test with no errors being reported.
I am not sure what to do with this info except back up my drive. I am confused as to whether or not I have a serious HD problem or not. All the tests come out negative but I am constantly being recommended by HDS to backup my data immediately. Can you help me understand what this data means? BTW, the laptop is an Inspiron 3135 running Win 8.1.
Thanks,
wc-in-sc
Mixed messages from HD Sentinel and Dell
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hdsentinel
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Re: Mixed messages from HD Sentinel and Dell
Thanks for your message.
Yes, I must tell that it is not rare.
Generally, the "bad sectors" reported in the text description are no longer used by the hard disk: they are already reallocated.
It means that the hard disk moved the contents of these sectors to the spare area and now (instead of the original sector) the spare area is used for all reads and writes targeting those bad sectors. (There is no need to manually "fix" or "isolate" them - as these both already done by the hard disk).
This is why the detected and reported bad sectors can never cause problems, regardless of their position because that problematic area is no longer used.
This is why manufacturers (really shame but work this way) "allow" some bad sectors - even hundreds of them, until their number reaches an error-level threshold (when the hard disk is really considered bad and should be replaced). Then the health in Hard Disk Sentinel would be 0% and you may see other issues, for example the computer may issue warning on startup, Windows may show periodic "hard disk problem" notifications and even new OS installation may not possible on such hard disk.
Just the problem is that most hard disks never reach this point (may completely fail before that) or serious data corruption / data loss may already happen until the hard disk reaches this point. Yes, then you may get warranty replacement of the hard disk - but the stored data is already gone.
So generally the question is: did the hard disk found all bad sectors and fixed them by re-allocating?
Or are there any further problems with the drive (for example weak sectors, spin retry issues, slower/hardly accessible sectors etc.) which may cause problems?
Yes (after a backup, just to be sure) in such situations, it is always good to perform the tests in Hard Disk Sentinel: to verify if the currently used data area is
error-free, there are no further errors reported (no weak, damaged sectors, no further problems).
If this is true and the tests show no problems, then you can be sure that the hard disk drive is NOW stable and can be used - even if the health shows less than 100% percent. Then it is possible to use the hard disk (even for longer time) just because of the higher number of issues (and lower health) it is possible that further problems may be reported.
But if the status seems stable, then of course you can manually acknowledge the reported problems in Hard Disk Sentinel, to clear the error(s) reported from the text description and restore the health to 100%.
That way the software will no longer display the current problems, just reports any possible new issues, errors (if there will be in the future).
For more information about bad sectors and further steps, please click on the "?" next to the text description and check
http://www.hdsentinel.com/faq.php#health and
http://www.hdsentinel.com/faq.php#tests
http://www.hdsentinel.com/faq_repair_ha ... _drive.php
Also I recommend to use Report menu -> Send test report to developer option, as then it is possible to check the actual situation, verify the reported information (as in some very rare cases it is possible that the hard disk controller (chipset) driver is causing problems and can even report incorrect information - even if it's filtered by Hard Disk Sentinel) and advise.
Yes, I must tell that it is not rare.
Generally, the "bad sectors" reported in the text description are no longer used by the hard disk: they are already reallocated.
It means that the hard disk moved the contents of these sectors to the spare area and now (instead of the original sector) the spare area is used for all reads and writes targeting those bad sectors. (There is no need to manually "fix" or "isolate" them - as these both already done by the hard disk).
This is why the detected and reported bad sectors can never cause problems, regardless of their position because that problematic area is no longer used.
This is why manufacturers (really shame but work this way) "allow" some bad sectors - even hundreds of them, until their number reaches an error-level threshold (when the hard disk is really considered bad and should be replaced). Then the health in Hard Disk Sentinel would be 0% and you may see other issues, for example the computer may issue warning on startup, Windows may show periodic "hard disk problem" notifications and even new OS installation may not possible on such hard disk.
Just the problem is that most hard disks never reach this point (may completely fail before that) or serious data corruption / data loss may already happen until the hard disk reaches this point. Yes, then you may get warranty replacement of the hard disk - but the stored data is already gone.
So generally the question is: did the hard disk found all bad sectors and fixed them by re-allocating?
Or are there any further problems with the drive (for example weak sectors, spin retry issues, slower/hardly accessible sectors etc.) which may cause problems?
Yes (after a backup, just to be sure) in such situations, it is always good to perform the tests in Hard Disk Sentinel: to verify if the currently used data area is
error-free, there are no further errors reported (no weak, damaged sectors, no further problems).
If this is true and the tests show no problems, then you can be sure that the hard disk drive is NOW stable and can be used - even if the health shows less than 100% percent. Then it is possible to use the hard disk (even for longer time) just because of the higher number of issues (and lower health) it is possible that further problems may be reported.
But if the status seems stable, then of course you can manually acknowledge the reported problems in Hard Disk Sentinel, to clear the error(s) reported from the text description and restore the health to 100%.
That way the software will no longer display the current problems, just reports any possible new issues, errors (if there will be in the future).
For more information about bad sectors and further steps, please click on the "?" next to the text description and check
http://www.hdsentinel.com/faq.php#health and
http://www.hdsentinel.com/faq.php#tests
http://www.hdsentinel.com/faq_repair_ha ... _drive.php
Also I recommend to use Report menu -> Send test report to developer option, as then it is possible to check the actual situation, verify the reported information (as in some very rare cases it is possible that the hard disk controller (chipset) driver is causing problems and can even report incorrect information - even if it's filtered by Hard Disk Sentinel) and advise.
Re: Mixed messages from HD Sentinel and Dell
Thanks for your explanation. I did see the same info posted for other reported issues but thought maybe this was a little different. I suppose all the tests, including Dell and HDS, only test the good areas of the hard drive therefore no problems are reported because the bad areas are not being used? Still, I did send in the report to the developers in case there is any specific feedback they can give me.
When I told Dell that the F12 diagnostics all passed but HDS was reporting reallocation errors they replied:
Thank you for your reply.
It is good to know that there is no issues with the hard drive.
Dell will not concern about the third part application like HD sentinel.
You are system is working fine, we have already ran the F12 diagnostics no errors where found, it clearly says that there are problem with the computer.
If you get any error with the Dell F12 diagnostics, please reply to this email.
While I believe what they meant to say was "there are NO problems with the computer" what I really understood from this is that UNTIL the Dell F12 diagnostics fail, they do not consider a problem to exist.
Anyway, thank you for your help.
regards
When I told Dell that the F12 diagnostics all passed but HDS was reporting reallocation errors they replied:
Thank you for your reply.
It is good to know that there is no issues with the hard drive.
Dell will not concern about the third part application like HD sentinel.
You are system is working fine, we have already ran the F12 diagnostics no errors where found, it clearly says that there are problem with the computer.
If you get any error with the Dell F12 diagnostics, please reply to this email.
While I believe what they meant to say was "there are NO problems with the computer" what I really understood from this is that UNTIL the Dell F12 diagnostics fail, they do not consider a problem to exist.
Anyway, thank you for your help.
regards
-
hdsentinel
- Site Admin
- Posts: 3128
- Joined: 2008.07.27. 17:00
- Location: Hungary
- Contact:
Re: Mixed messages from HD Sentinel and Dell
Yes, this is (I'm afraid) normal: they may not offer replacement until the hard disk shows really noticeable problems - just that time usually it may completely fail.
When the hard disk health is not too low (eg. above 25%) this is why Hard Disk Sentinel shows "Warranty replacement is not yet possible" indicating that the resellers, manufacturers may not offer replacement.
In contrast, I've heard experiences that some manufacturers provided replacement even with 99% health (even if I personally feel it is not required to replace that point, as described at http://www.hdsentinel.com/faq.php#health ).
When the hard disk health is not too low (eg. above 25%) this is why Hard Disk Sentinel shows "Warranty replacement is not yet possible" indicating that the resellers, manufacturers may not offer replacement.
In contrast, I've heard experiences that some manufacturers provided replacement even with 99% health (even if I personally feel it is not required to replace that point, as described at http://www.hdsentinel.com/faq.php#health ).