Scary Reallocated Sector Count inrease

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dddenes
Posts: 1
Joined: 2013.09.30. 16:49

Scary Reallocated Sector Count inrease

Post by dddenes »

Hi,

I have a relatively new hard drive (8 months old), and the reallocated sector count increases very quickly. Here is the disk's journal:

2013.09.30. 16:23:17,#5 Reallocated Sectors Count 38 -> 40
2013.09.30. 15:52:52,#5 Reallocated Sectors Count 37 -> 38
2013.09.30. 10:02:29,#196 Reallocation Event Count 4 -> 5
2013.09.30. 10:02:29,#5 Reallocated Sectors Count 35 -> 37
2013.09.28. 21:00:50,#5 Reallocated Sectors Count 29 -> 35
2013.09.28. 15:56:06,#5 Reallocated Sectors Count 28 -> 29
2013.09.28. 15:51:02,#196 Reallocation Event Count 3 -> 4
2013.09.28. 15:51:02,#5 Reallocated Sectors Count 23 -> 28
2013.09.28. 0:05:05,#196 Reallocation Event Count 2 -> 3
2013.09.28. 0:05:05,#5 Reallocated Sectors Count 17 -> 23
2013.09.27. 8:23:35,#196 Reallocation Event Count 1 -> 2
2013.09.27. 8:23:35,#5 Reallocated Sectors Count 11 -> 17
2013.09.26. 10:16:32,#5 Reallocated Sectors Count 10 -> 11
2013.09.26. 10:11:27,#196 Reallocation Event Count 0 -> 1
2013.09.26. 10:11:27,#5 Reallocated Sectors Count 5 -> 10
2013.09.25. 22:14:19,#5 Reallocated Sectors Count 4 -> 5
2013.09.25. 22:09:15,#5 Reallocated Sectors Count 0 -> 4

I made every possible tests - all say everything is fine, condition is on 58% now. I know, that the replacement will be possible, when it reaches 0%, but what can I expect from this drive? What can cause such a bad sector increasement?

Thanks in advance!
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hdsentinel
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Re: Scary Reallocated Sector Count inrease

Post by hdsentinel »

It is possible that the reallocated sectors simply not detected previously as these were in areas never used before.
This is very common on hard disk drives with high capacity: the problems may remain hidden for very long time, until revealed.
This situation exactly described at: http://www.hdsentinel.com/hard_disk_cas ... ectors.php

This is why it is recommended to start hard disk tests available in Hard Disk Sentinel before using the hard disk to store important data, to reveal and fix any possible problems before filling the drive with important data, as described at http://www.hdsentinel.com/faq.php#tests

Did you use these tests now?
If so, and there are no problems reported then the hard disk status is now stable. The bad sectors no longer used (instead the special spare area used for all reads/writes) so in theory everything should be fine. In this situation, you can even clear the error counters, to acknowledge the problems and be notified about any possible new problems, as described at http://www.hdsentinel.com/faq_repair_ha ... _drive.php

But in this situation, I'd suggest to set up alert to be notified about any future (even minor) problems and consider using the drive only as secondary storage.

Yes, in theory manufacturers offer warranty replacement only when the error-counter reaches the specified level (0 % health).
However, many times they may offer replacement before that, so you may try - but be careful as it is possible that you'll get a refurbished drive with even worse situation. So I'd more recommend to use the tests regularly to reveal and fix possible new problems.
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