What to do with a new harddisk with smart error - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

Dragonlich · 03-25-2008, 11:52 AM

About two weeks ago, I bought a new computer, which includes two 750 Gig (Samsung) harddisks. One of the disks seems to be a bit unstable. I tried running a RAID-0 array, only to get regular SMART warnings from Intel's raid utility. I looked around on the 'net, and found out that there's issues with Intel Raid when combined with Windows Vista, so I wasn't that worried.

Just to be on the safe side, I removed the RAID array, and re-installed Windows in a normal two-disk mode. Unfortunately, I seemed to have picked the wrong disc (they're identical, after all). Windows had a lot of problems, and the disk seemed to go downhill rapidly. I checked the drive with HD Tune, but this only added to the problem (or uncovered it); I got many "Raw read errors", "Current pending sector" counts and "TA Counters". Eventually the raw read errors became critical, and HD Tune decided my harddisk is a failure...

To be on the safe side, I re-installed Windows (again!) on the other disk. I checked the "bad" disk using Samsung's HUTIL tool. It found one problem: a simple read/write test had a command time-out. There was no surface damage, however. I performed a low-level format, because this apparently checks for bad sectors and "replaces" them with spares; this essentially hides the problem. After this low-level format, I haven't fount any problems with the disk. HD Tune doesn't find any errors any more. Other tools also don't seem to see a problem; Harddisk sentinel says the disk is 92% healthy (compared to 97% for my other disk), while smartmon says the disk is healthy.

The problem: I now have a harddisk that I don't trust, with a Smart error in HD Tune, but no problem in other tools... I don't really know what to do with it; I don't feel too comfortable putting data on it. Perhaps I could return it to the store to get it swapped, but I don't know if their tests will even find the error; after all, Samsung's own tool didn't.

My questions:
- Does anyone have experience with smart errors?
- Are HD Tune's results reliable? (HD Tune's findings are attached.)
- What about HUTIL? How reliable is that? Is the command time-out a problem, or could that be a motherboard/chipset issue?
- Is this a warrenty issue, or should I keep the disk (until it really dies)?

robot_parade · 03-25-2008, 12:52 PM

I'd just get it replaced. Depending on the policies of the store you bought it from "It has smart errors" should be enough to get a replacement.

Lasereth · 03-25-2008, 03:42 PM

Google recorded the results of their hard drive storage (they have something crazy like 100,000 HDDs in use) and made them public. I remember the results saying that Smart errors are good and bad: bad because a bad hard drive doesn't always display a Smart error, but good because those that DO display a Smart error are royally fucked. I'd get it replaced.

03-25-2008, 12:52 PM	#2 (permalink)
robot_parade Junkie Location: San Antonio, TX	I'd just get it replaced. Depending on the policies of the store you bought it from "It has smart errors" should be enough to get a replacement.

03-25-2008, 03:42 PM	#3 (permalink)
Lasereth Knight of the Old Republic Location: Winston-Salem, NC	Google recorded the results of their hard drive storage (they have something crazy like 100,000 HDDs in use) and made them public. I remember the results saying that Smart errors are good and bad: bad because a bad hard drive doesn't always display a Smart error, but good because those that DO display a Smart error are royally fucked. I'd get it replaced.