SMART warning on Caviar Black

WD Internal Drives Desktop & Mobile Drives
1

Hi Everyone,

I have a WD Caviar Black (WDC WD5001AALS-00L3B2 ATA Device) only 4 month old. CrystalDiskInfo (version 3.8.0) is giving yellow warning on the following SMART parameters:

  • Current Pending Sector Count
  • Uncorrectable Sector Count

Can someone tell me what is wrong and if I have to take any action on the harddisk?

Thanks in advance:smiley:

P.S. here is the output report of CrystalDiskInfo:

CrystalDiskInfo 3.8.0 (C) 2008-2010 hiyohiyo
                                Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/

    OS : Windows 7 Ultimate Edition [6.1 Build 7600] (x64)
  Date : 2010/10/05 9:09:39

– Controller Map ----------------------------------------------------------
 + Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller [ATA]
   - ATA Channel 0 (0)
   - ATA Channel 1 (1)
 + Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller [ATA]
   + ATA Channel 0 (0)
     - TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-S222A ATA Device
     - Hitachi HDP725050GLA360 ATA Device
   + ATA Channel 1 (1)
     - WDC WD5001AALS-00L3B2 ATA Device
 - Roxio SoftScsi Host Adapter (AMD 64) [SCSI]

 (2) WDC WD5001AALS-00L3B2

           Model : WDC WD5001AALS-00L3B2
        Firmware : 01.03B01
   Serial Number : WD-WCASYA878476
       Disk Size : 500.1 GB (8.4/137.4/500.1)
     Buffer Size : 32767 KB
     Queue Depth : 32
    # of Sectors : 976773168
   Rotation Rate : Unknown
       Interface : Serial ATA
   Major Version : ATA8-ACS
   Minor Version : ----
   Transfer Mode : SATA/300
  Power On Hours : 1052 hours
  Power On Count : 756 count
     Temparature : 34 C (93 F)
   Health Status : Caution
        Features : S.M.A.R.T., AAM, 48bit LBA, NCQ
       APM Level : ----
       AAM Level : 80FEh [OFF]

– S.M.A.R.T. --------------------------------------------------------------
ID Cur Wor Thr RawValues(6) Attribute Name
01 200 195 _51 000000000000 Read Error Rate
03 168 166 _21 0000000011DF Spin-Up Time
04 100 100 __0 000000000301 Start/Stop Count
05 200 200 140 000000000000 Reallocated Sectors Count
07 100 253 __0 000000000000 Seek Error Rate
09 _99 _99 __0 00000000041C Power-On Hours
0A 100 100 __0 000000000000 Spin Retry Count
0B 100 100 __0 000000000000 Recalibration Retries
0C 100 100 __0 0000000002F4 Power Cycle Count
C0 200 200 __0 00000000006D Power-off Retract Count
C1 200 200 __0 000000000301 Load/Unload Cycle Count
C2 113 _98 __0 000000000022 Temperature
C4 200 200 __0 000000000000 Reallocation Event Count
C5 198 198 __0 0000000000D3 Current Pending Sector Count
C6 198 198 __0 0000000000C5 Uncorrectable Sector Count
C7 200 200 __0 000000000000 UltraDMA CRC Error Count
C8 198 198 __0 00000000011F Write Error Rate

– IDENTIFY_DEVICE ---------------------------------------------------------
     +0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 +9 +A +B +C +D +E +F
000: 7A 42 FF 3F 37 C8 10 00 00 00 00 00 3F 00 00 00
010: 00 00 00 00 20 20 20 20 57 20 2D 44 43 57 53 41
020: 41 59 37 38 34 38 36 37 00 00 FF FF 32 00 31 30
030: 30 2E 42 33 31 30 44 57 20 43 44 57 30 35 31 30
040: 41 41 53 4C 30 2D 4C 30 42 33 20 32 20 20 20 20
050: 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 10 80
060: 00 00 00 2F 01 40 00 00 00 00 07 00 FF 3F 10 00
070: 3F 00 10 FC FB 00 10 01 FF FF FF 0F 00 00 07 00
080: 03 00 78 00 78 00 78 00 78 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
090: 00 00 00 00 00 00 1F 00 06 07 00 00 44 00 40 00
0A0: FE 01 00 00 6B 74 61 7F 23 41 69 74 41 BC 23 41
0B0: 7F 40 2A 00 2A 00 00 00 FE FF 00 00 FE 80 00 00
0C0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 30 60 38 3A 00 00 00 00
0D0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 50 E2 4E 33 04 3A F0
0E0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 10 40
0F0: 10 40 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
100: 29 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 9D 16 00 00 00 00
110: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 04 00 00 00
120: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
130: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
140: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
150: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
160: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
170: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
180: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
190: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 37 30 00 00
1A0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1B0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0E 10 00 00
1C0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1D0: 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 10 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1E0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1F0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 A5 3C

2

Those numbers are worrisome. I would watch the Reallocated Sector Count attribute. It may be that at least some of the “pending” sectors may eventually be reallocated, ie replaced with spares. Backup your data and be ready to replace the drive.

3

Hi fzabkar,

Thanks for your contribution. May I ask a few more question?

  • Do you have any more technical detail on the meaning of these two parameters?

  • What is a spare?

  • Is this kind of warning covered by warrantee? (Can I send my drive to warrantee service?)

Thanks again

4

Hi everybody

I would like to give an update of the situation. 

Following fzabkar’s advice, I have run the latest version of WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows. After an hour of testing it reported this error: “too many bad sectors detected”.

 

Is there a way to correct this problem, or I have to return my drive for service?

Thanks in advance

5

The SMART attributes are explained in this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.

“Pending” sectors are those that are marked as bad by the drive. The next time your OS writes to a pending sector, the drive knows that the data it contains are no longer needed. The sector is then retested and returned to service if good, or replaced with a spare sector if bad.

Hard drives have several thousand spare sectors that can be used to replace any defective ones. When a sector is replaced, the SMART Reallocated Sector Count is incremented.

Warranty would cover SMART failures. A SMART failure occurs when the current value of a life-critical attribute falls below its threshold. Your SMART data are still OK in this respect.

However, your current DLG test results (excessive bad sectors) should qualify you for an RMA.

6

fzabkar,

Many many thanks for your comments. You are absolutely right as I have just received an email from WD support that my hard disk is eligible for an RMA.

Cheers

Morteza