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    Reallocated Sector Count warning on Seagate 500GB 7200RPM Hard Disk (ST9500420AS)

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by jonpet, Sep 17, 2010.

  1. jonpet

    jonpet Notebook Enthusiast

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    I got this drive some 6-8 months ago, and noticed crystal disk info had a warning about Reallocated Sector Count

    Id present worst
    05 _98 _98 _36 000000000037 Reallocated Sectors Count

    Same warning in everest

    ID Attribute Description Threshold Value Worst Data Status
    05 Reallocated Sector Count 36 98 98 55 OK: Value is normal

    Is this a misreading, or something to be worried about?

    Don't remember seeing the yellow warning icon in crystal disk info before
     
    jonpet, Sep 17, 2010
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  2. moral hazard

    moral hazard Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    One thing you might want to try is reformatting the drive.

    (after you backup).

    I had some bad sectors on an old IDE drive, reformatting with linux fixed them.
     
    moral hazard, Sep 17, 2010
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  3. newsposter

    newsposter Notebook Virtuoso

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    Your experience with an old IDE drive does not apply to modern SATA/PATA drives.

    Software (including 'format' work) cannot and does not 'cure' bad sectors in the bad/relocated sector tables of a modern drive.

    All it does it to cause the drives firmware to properly catalog and remap newly found bad sectors.

    All of this is transparent to the end user by design. Unless you have direct access to a factory test rig designed for your specific disk drive you simply cannot re-write the low-level format or reverse the reallocation actions taken by the drives firmware.

    If a modern SATA/PATA drive is giving a reallocated sector count warning, this is an indication that the on-disk reserved space for reallocated sectors is getting low. This could be an early indication of pending failure.

    The OP should be running the freely available Seagate drive diag utilities to verify the info provided by crystal disk. Then, if necessary, contact Seagate for an in-warranty replacement before the drive fails in an unrecoverable way.
     
    newsposter, Sep 17, 2010
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  4. jonpet

    jonpet Notebook Enthusiast

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    Running seatools, been on the "long generic" test for hours now.

    None of my other drives get this Reallocated Sector Count warning, so dont know if its enough to get it replaced.
     
    jonpet, Sep 18, 2010
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  5. Gracy123

    Gracy123 Agrees to disagree

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    I have this and one or two other warnings on almost all my hard drives (currently 5)! Don't worry about it ;) Unless it becomes a FAILURE instead of WARNING - keep using it. If it really bothers you and is still in warranty - send it back.

    I've been using one of them for over 4 years now - still working perfectly fine :)
     
    Gracy123, Sep 18, 2010
    #5