HDD reallocated sector count

Since you are only noticing this after ~548 days worth of power on hours, you can't really conclude anything. Having a few reallocated sectors is not a major concern, you should only be worried if they the number of reallocated sectors are increasing rapidly, which would be a sign the drive is dying.

None the less, it wouldn't be a bad idea to back-up your data. If the drive reaches 10 reallocated sectors over the next few months, I would RMA it. If you are really paranoid, you could just go out and buy a replacement drive, since you must have gotten at least 3-5 years out of your current drive.

Edit: Wait a minute, assuming 3+ years of usage, your drive wouldn't even be in warranty? In that case I would just go out and buy a new drive now, and use the old one as a backup until it dies or something.
 
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Lol, believe it or not I've only had the machine 2.5 years... I use it as a media server so thats probably why the power on hours is so high... Hmm just thinking, this computer was a display model in the shop which I got it so it probably contributed to about 40 - 50 days worth of power on... If that number stays at 100 (i'll keep an eye on it) for maybe a week or so should I be ok???
 
The number under data is what is important... Wait a sec, I thought it said 000000000005 (5 reallocated sectors), but it actually shows 000000010005 (65541 reallocated sectors?), that can't be right. Maybe on that drive the 1 signifies if there are any reallocated sectors or not. Download Hdtune and post what it shows under Health in the Data column for reallocated sectors. http://www.hdtune.com/files/hdtune_255.exe
 
...it seems they forgot to put quotation marks around the file path. Well let's fix smartctl's typo...

Go to the installation path. Assuming your are on Vista or Win7, copy smartctl-run.bat to your desktop. From your desktop right click on smartctl-run.bat, and click edit. Notepad should open.

Change this line:
Code: 
C:\Program Files (x86)\smartmontools\bin\smartctl %1 %2 %3 %4 %5

To this (just adding quotation marks around the file path):
Code: 
"C:\Program Files (x86)\smartmontools\bin\smartctl" %1 %2 %3 %4 %5

Or if on 32bit, it would be:
Code: 
C:\Program Files\smartmontools\bin\smartctl %1 %2 %3 %4 %5

To:
Code: 
"C:\Program Files\smartmontools\bin\smartctl" %1 %2 %3 %4 %5

Copy smartctl-run.bat back to your installation directory. Click OK to the UAC prompt. It should now work.
 
Cyberbeing said:
The number under data is what is important... Wait a sec, I thought it said 000000000005 (5 reallocated sectors), but it actually shows 000000010005 (65541 reallocated sectors?), that can't be right.
Click to expand...

Yes the raw value is what to look at. And this is in hex so yes that is 65541. And like you I do not think that can be correct. I have never seen a number that high on a drive that was readable... And at work I have had at least 100 to 200 drives spinning 24/7 for almost 15 years. Many drives retired and purchased of course.
 
drescherjm said:
Cyberbeing said:
The number under data is what is important...
Click to expand...
Raw data is what is important in most cases.
Click to expand...

I can't tell if you are agreeing or disagreeing with me. :p

When I said data, I was referring to Raw Values/Data. Sorry if that confused anybody.

I'm suggesting verifying the number using something like SmartCTL or HDTune since they convert SMART data from HEX into Decimal. jamesydd, if SmartCTL does spit out 65541 reallocated sectors instead of 5, the drive has some major issue. In which case you should check your warranty status: http://www.hitachigst.com/portal/site/en/support/warranty/ If it's still covered, back-up all your data and RMA the drive. If it's not covered, buy a new drive. If SmartCTL spits out 5, then there is possibly some Hitachi quirk with reading the HEX for that value. In that case, I would give Hitachi Support a call and see what they say about your strange SMART readings.

I'm somewhat suspecting that the number may only be valid up to 65535 (HEX value of FFFF). In which case, only the last 4 HEX values would be valid, but I have no clue if that is actually what we are seeing here. That would also still leave the mystery of what the 1 is supposed to represent when seen like this.
 
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If he had many reallocated sectors, then the current threshold value would not be 100 but something like 21 or so, close to the 0 threshold where this is considered a failure.

A few fixed bad sectors is not bad either. The Current Pending Sector value would show you active bad sectors, which are very dangerous. Passive bad sectors on the other hand are no longer visible by the Operating System and as such cannot cause any more damage.
 
That is how SMART should work, but what is your explanation of the mysterious 000000010005 (HEX) SMART data? Usually if a Hitachi drive had 5 reallocated sectors, it would show 000000000005 (HEX).
 
what do u think of mine?
in 10[dec] and 16[hex]
i also havent done any firmware upgrade or patch on those
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I'm probably just gonna replace it very soon, can you guys tell me what the most reliable hdds are, I know that they are all mechanical and will all eventually fail... Thinking about a western digital
 
guys im sorry, I forgot to mention that the drive is partitioned for dual boot, ~34gb is partitioned for xp, would that have something to do with the high value in reallocated sectors?
 
jamesydd said:
guys im sorry, I forgot to mention that the drive is partitioned for dual boot, ~34gb is partitioned for xp, would that have something to do with the high value in reallocated sectors?
Click to expand...

No, it has nothng to do with it
 
@almanati

I would not worry about a few remapped sectors. The big worry is if the number increases at a regular rate.

@jamesydd

I would just watch this number. Run a few HD Tune benchmarks. I do not remember the option but you want to set it in a more accurate mode. The reason for this is you want HD Tune (or some other software) to read as many sectors as possible. If something is seriously wrong with the disk after reading the reallocated sectors, Current Pending and Uncorrectable offline should go up (05, C5 and C6). You may also see a large increase in C3.
 
My brother's pc has a Hitachi hard drive. CrystalDiskInfo shows its Reallocated Sectors Count "raw value" recently increased from 0 to 10001. (Hexadecimal. Plus a lot of leading zeros.) The Current Pending Sectors Count decreased from 2 to 1, so presumably the drive finally reallocated one of the two pending sectors.

I concur with the speculation that only the last 4 hex-digits of Hitachi's raw value indicate the count of reallocated sectors. If true, it means my brother's Hitachi drive has 1 reallocated sector.

I've spent about an hour googling to try to find out what the other bits of the raw value mean, but no luck.
 
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