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Hard disk failing?

L

limsandy

n00b
Joined
Jul 8, 2006
Messages
25
I have just bought a 1TB WD hard disk and it works fine, except for some times, it randomly makes that spin down noise? and the computer would freeze for 5-10 seconds before continuing. I have bought 1TB Seagate hard disk in the past and it showed the same symptoms before dying. Is there a utility program to confirm it is failing, not me hearing things? :rolleyes:

Thx in advance for your help. ;)
 
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At work (where i have 100s of drives and a 1% to 7% annual failure rate on drives) I have found that both seagate and WDs drive tools only will say a drive is bad if it almost unusable. I would look at the smart data with crystaldiskinfo before using the manufacturer drive testing software. If crystaldiskinfo tells you that the drive is caution then RMA it..
 
drescherjm said:
At work (where i have 100s of drives and a 1% to 7% annual failure rate on drives) I have found that both seagate and WDs drive tools only will say a drive is bad if it almost unusable. I would look at the smart data with crystaldiskinfo before using the manufacturer drive testing software. If crystaldiskinfo tells you that the drive is caution then RMA it..
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip. I'll try that on my 2TB samsung F3 that Win7 is now reporting as failing. That'd be rotten because the drive is only 4 months old.
 
the WD EADx "green" drives are for shit, and this is a known issue for many people
 
WD diagnostic tool can look at smart data as well
Click to expand...

It does but hides the raw data. Or at least I could not figure out how to get it to display the raw data for a 1TB black drive that was bad this year but it passed both WD the short and long tests and even all items in SMART were fine. CrystalDiskInfo did instantly displayed caution for that disk. As a result I plugged it back in a linux box and ran a few days of bad blocks such that every day a few more bad sectors appeared (when looking at the smart data in linux) and then plugging it into their software finally said the drive was bad.
 
@Terr1, I have run the long WD diagnostic test. It reported no error and passed every tests.
@drescherjm: Thank you so much!
@jiminator, I bought the new SATA3 1TB Caviar Black with 64MB cache. I have the older one with 32MB cache and that one has been serving me great with no problems since day 1.
 
@drescherjm: Do I just let crystaldiskinfo run in the background and do its thing or is there a quicker way to spot a problem with the hard disk drive by running some tests?
 
drescherjm said:
At work (where i have 100s of drives and a 1% to 7% annual failure rate on drives) I have found that both seagate and WDs drive tools only will say a drive is bad if it almost unusable. I would look at the smart data with crystaldiskinfo before using the manufacturer drive testing software. If crystaldiskinfo tells you that the drive is caution then RMA it..
Click to expand...

Thanks. I've been using Seatools and HDtune to keep tabs on my hard drives. Per your advice I've switched to crystaldiskinfo :)
 
The drive itself calculates statistics of how many errors it is having in SMART. CrystalDiskInfo displays this result and tells you if there is immediate danger. If the status is not Good (or whatever they have as green I am typing from linux) then you should make a backup of some kind and RMA the drive. For testing I generally do that in linux using badblocks. In windows you can use the WD tools to do a long test. That will take 1 to 3 hours.
 
cn06 said:
Thanks. I've been using Seatools and HDtune to keep tabs on my hard drives. Per your advice I've switched to crystaldiskinfo :)
Click to expand...

I would say that both manufacturer utilities favor protecting the warranty over protecting your data..

HDTune is fine to use and trust. I mention CrystalDiskInfo because that is the utility I usually use first under windows. It seems pretty easy to use for those who don't know what the raw data means. I know to look at the raw values for

Reallocated_Sector_Ct
Current_Pending_Sector
Offline_Uncorrectable
UDMA_CRC_Error_Count

for signs of problems. You want most of these to be 0 or as close to 0 as possible. It is fine to have Reallocated_Sector_Ct > 0 but as long as it does not grow weekly ...

UDMA_CRC_Error_Count is a sign of a communication problem between the SATA controller and the drive. A bad cable can cause this.

The other two are the drive telling you that it lost data..
 
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@drescherjm: What can you make out of this screenshot? It says good, I think otherwise. :(

muzkg1.jpg
 
You can try the WD diagnostics.

Every thing looks good except the stop / start count is high for the # hours you have had the drive . Do you have windows power management on for the drive.?I think the problem is the drive is spinning down after some short time. The drive has started more times then 1 per hour of usage..
 
I think you're right.... I went to power management options and windows turn off the harddisk after 20 minutes. I have set it to 0 minutes (never), and I'll wait and see if there problem still persists. Thank you so much, drescherjm. BTW, are you a German? :)
 
Every thing looks good except the stop / start count is high for the # hours you have had the drive
Click to expand...

What's the difference between the "Power on Count" and the "Powered on Hours"?
 
Old Hippie said:
What's the difference between the "Power on Count" and the "Powered on Hours"?
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I believe power cycle count is the number of times the drive has been powered on.
Hmm that is high as well for the short number of hours the drive has been used.

I was looking at stop / start count. Since this includes spin down where power cycle count does not.

Power on hours is the total time the drive has been powered up. I believe that also includes time the drive is sleeping.
 
I was looking at stop / start count. Since this includes spin down where power cycle count does not.
Click to expand...

Eye C says the blind Old Hippie.

That makes sense.

Thanks Jim!
 
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