Model ID,ST5000DM000 From 8% health to 98%

[SysopChris]

Version: 10.0.19041.488, 9-1-2020"
Hard Disk Model ID,ST5000DM000-1FK178
Firmware Revision,CC48

This drive went from 8% health to 98% after I performed Disk -> Surface test -> Reinitialize disk surface.

There have not been any new alerts or logs since I did except one temp. warning.

I used Windows 'Create & Format Hard Disk Partitions' to create a GBT partition at max. size and quick format.
So far all seems will but I am concerned about not being back at 100%. Is there anything else I should do to this drive before relying on it?

Thanks,
Chris.

[hdsentinel]

Hi Chris,

Thanks, it is excellent to hear that the Reinitialize disk surface test increased the health back with even 90%, wow!
I mean that yes, generally it designed to improve the usability of the hard disk drive, stabilize the problems and make it better (and ideally improve the hard disk health too) but usually it is rare to see a hard disk with as low health as 8% to increase back to 98%, this seems a bit too good
I mean usually we can't expect too much from a hard disk with 8% health only, usually that may have too much problems to be fixed/stabilized.

Yes, if there are no new problems/issues and (which is more important) no further changes/degradations in the health, then the hard disk could be used - but I'd recommend to do only with constant monitoring and backup upon any possible change, any possible new problem reported.

Personally to be safe, I'd surely perform (now, after the status seems much better) these tests too:
1) Disk -> Short self test
2) Disk -> Extended self test
3) Disk -> Surface test -> Read test
which are recommended in addition to the already used Reinitialise Disk Surface test at
Support -> Frequently Asked Questions -> Hard disk health is low or recently changed or I just installed a new (used) hard disk. How can I perform a deep analysis?
( https://www.hdsentinel.com/faq.php#tests )

If you use Report menu -> Send test report to developer option (even now and/or any further tests or normal use) I can check and advise - and if the tests show no problems, then I can assist to restore the health even back to 100%, to be notified about possible new issues only, as described on
https://www.hdsentinel.com/faq_repair_h ... _drive.php

[SysopChris]

I am also happy about the outcome. Even better, it's 98% health from 8%. All of the tests you mentioned in your post passed successfully. I guess I will just keep an eye on it but at this point I'm convinced it's back to normal and will stop actively looking for problems.

Thanks for the reply,
Chris.

[SysopChris]

I sent the test report email just now and referenced this post. Oddly, at the same time the hard drive I refer to in this post started loosing health, the same thing happened to my C: SSD. It's gone down to 50% with different errors. For 2 drives that were fine to start having errors on the same day seems odd.

I'm convinced this drive referenced here is fine.

Thanks again,
Chris.

BTW: Does the test report include all drives?

[hdsentinel]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for the report, yes, good to see the MUCH better status of the disk drive.
I hope the status and health will remain at this level.
Maybe you can configure to receive an alert in Hard Disk Sentinel when the health drops below a specific threshold and/or when any new problem detected and logged to the Log page. See Configuration -> Alerts for the alert options.
This way yes, you'd no need to check the values.

[hdsentinel]

This is a different situation: the health of the SSD is slowly but constantly decreasing due to wearout.

The SSD seems working perfectly (maybe "just" slower than when it was new) but as the memory cells can only tolerate a limited (finite) amount of program/erase cycles, the health will constantly decrease.
Seeing the graph is interesting as the rate of the decrease seems really fast... If possible, please try to minimise amount of writes to slow down the degradation.

The page
https://www.hdsentinel.com/ssd_case_hea ... earout.php
gives further details about this situation.


> BTW: Does the test report include all drives?

Yes, I could check the status of both the mentioned hard disk and this SSD too.

[SysopChris]

I'm sorry for the delay in getting back in touch. Even though I get to work from home now, still working allot. My company is integrating 14 Mfg. plants from an IBM AS/400 (iSeries) based ERP package written mostly in-house to a PC based ERP pkg. (JDE World to JDE E1). I write software on the IBM so it's a bit of a learning curve for the programming.

Thank you for your offer.
This is my concern for CT250MX500SSD1.

The status of the solid state disk is PERFECT. Problematic or weak sectors were not found.
The TRIM feature of the SSD is supported and enabled for optimal performance.
The health is determined by SSD specific S.M.A.R.T. attribute(s): #202 Percentage Of The Rated Lifetime Used
It is recommended to backup often to prevent data loss.

Please see: "CT250MX500SSD1 screenshot.jpg".

Are there any other measures I should take besides keeping a close eye on the drive or replacing the drive .

Thank you,
Chris

[hdsentinel]

Yes, due to firmware, this particular Crucial model sometimes have some weird issues, for example it may report one weak sector - which automatically fixes with time.
This is what you can see: both the Log page shows the change (1 error reported which then automatically fixed) and the Health % graph may also show fluctuations.

Please check this forum topic:

https://www.hdsentinel.com/forum/viewto ... 32&t=12514

which gives information and a possible solution if this happens.

To prevent this and show constant status (until there may be any real problem):

1) please open the S.M.A.R.T. page of the SSD
2) locate the attribute 197 Current Pending Sector Count
3) in the Offset column, specify -1

As you can see on this image:



This way when this value is flucuating (changing from 0 to 1 or back) then it will be not reported (ignored) and Hard Disk Sentinel will show 100% health - until any other problem/degradation will happen.

[AMH]

I used <Reinitialize disk surface> and the hard drive health has decreased from 31% to 29% and estimated remaining lifetime from 81 to 71 days. So nothing has improved.
My hdd is seagate 500gb.

[hdsentinel]

Sorry to say, but what you see is completely normal and expected.

The Reinitialise Disk Surface test designed to force the disk drive to stabilize the errors: reveal possible un-detected problems and force the hard disk to re-allocate bad sectors if required. These may remain "hidden" for long time without the test.

So alone that test will NOT improve the Health: if the drive previously had lots of bad sectors, we can expect that during the test we'll reveal even more and more. This can cause lower Health. The end of the test shows the results, for example "xy new bad sectors reallocated" or similar.
Without the test, these could cause data corruption / data loss, so the test helped to avoid this situation.

You can check the Log page, the amount of bad sectors increased (which explains why the Health decreased).
And if the status is now stable (so no new bad sectors in a later test), you can manually acknowledge ALL detected/reported bad sectors (as they are all fixed by reallocation).

This is explained at:
https://www.hdsentinel.com/faq_repair_hard_disk_drive.php
and if you use Report menu -> Send test report to developer option, it is possible to give step-by-step details based on the actual situation.


> So nothing has improved.

The drive usability improved as (previously undected) bad sectors revealed and reallocated, stabilized.
The Health % usually improves by the test if no bad sectors detected but the drive previously had just weak/pending sectors.