I just built a new PC. It’s awesome. I’ve been doing some monitoring and eventually connected my My Passport. The S.M.A.R.T. data is giving a warning regarding reallocated sector counts. Earlier in the day it was 75. After running Data Lifeguard Diagnostics (I was so freaked out that I didn’t save or screenshot) it jumped up to 184. At that I point I disconnected the drive.
It’s my understanding that this drive is failing. Is that correct? I don’t really understand what’s happening.
I’ve never had a HDD fail. I’ve ran HDDs for 15+ years. This My Passport isn’t 2 years old. Luckily it’s still under warranty.
I have questions about what to do now. My biggest problem is that this IS my backup and I don’t really have space to back it up. I can back up some of it and pretty much lock up all the storage on my new pc. I know, it’s not ideal.
I’ve gotten mixed opinions about how to attempt to back this up. Does anyone have advice?
Also, I guess I should RMA this? How long does that usually take? Should I count on being without a backup drive for long enough to consider just buying a new drive?
What causes this reallocated sector count business? I’m not sure I’m understanding what’s happening.
Thanks for any help.
