ST31000528AS, 1TB 7200.12

[jimmy5]

hi

does anyone know what is wrong with the drive if it has these smart errors?
Reallocated Sector Count 0x0033 - 003 vs 036 //raw value 3998
End-to-End Error 0x0032 - 001 vs 099 //raw value 144
(and it also said that a firmware update may be available for it, posting 2 links to seagate website...?)
ddrescue also says something that errsize is 1TB? but the 0x0032 value might suggest a failing pcb?

i started to check the disk after it dissapeared from the drives list in windows... and i was able to connect it back in, but as soon as i started to view the content of the folders, it dissapeared again... (so i didnt plug it back in to save any further damage - so i wasnt able to check it under the disk management either)

 

[Jared]

It means that media is degrading and the sectors are going bad and having to be reallocated. The fact that it's going offline when you try to explore the file system means there are bad sectors in the lower LBA areas where the MFT is stored. Usually this is around the 6-7 million sector mark.

If you need the data I'd recommend you either ddrescue the data onto another drive, or get it to a pro fro imaging. It'll only continue to degrade. If you don't need the data, it's time to just toss it.

 

[jimmy5]

k, but i wonder how did it go so bad so fast? i even copied like 25gigs of pictures on there just couple of months ago and it didnt give any errors at all...
although im not really sure when was the last time that i browsed something on it(after copying that)... it just stood on the pc, waiting for me to use it...

 

[jol]

k, but i wonder how did it go so bad so fast?

Oh, it can happen from 1 sec. to another
for example if sector 0 gets bad, then you can't access data in the normal way
Or if the heads are degraded or contaminated it happens faster than you think (i don't say this is what was happened with your drive, it's just examples) and of course its getting worse every sec. that it's running.
bottom line it depends on what the problem is, either way your best bet will be (as Jared suggested) ddrescue at DIY, but not recommended if data is important.

 

[jimmy5]

ok thanks.
but why is ddrescue useful only when the data is not important?
dunno now tho...i tried to mount it once more on a linux live cd and i was actually able to copy some of the pictures that i copied on there in August... i didnt want to browse every folder, but i tried couple of them... and out of those 4-5, there was only 1 folder that crashed the browsing window... and after a reboot i tried to look at the photos again and fortunately they were still there

but the best option would be to take it to a lab, still? how much would 1TB be? :roll:
and how could i make the smart test re-check the disk again? (on any drive, not particulary this one, as its already failing...). as i can understand, the various apps just read the info, but who writes the info and when?

 

[jol]

but why is ddrescue useful only when the data is not important?

ddrescue can not handle every HDD problem, some times just powering up the drive can make things worse (to get a better understanding you're invited to watch the 14 parts from deepspar on youtube, this is the first one...).
so.. if the data is not important i would say give ddrescue a shot, but if it's important, unless you analyzed & you know exactly what the problem is, personally, i'll not take the chance of ruin the data (sometimes beyond recoveries).

but the best option would be to take it to a lab, still?

every professional lab, has equipment (pretty expensive) to deal with problems that regular people can't afford to buy it (such as PC3K... DDI Etc).

how much would 1TB be? :roll:

maybe you tell us where you're located, and someone will try to point you out to a known honorable & faithful guy in your area

and how could i make the smart test re-check the disk again?

it's not something that you make, it's like a software monitoring the HDD and writes it in the SMART, you can read more about SMART here, or maybe i didn't understand you correctly & you meant how to read the SMART ? if so, you can use CrystalDiskInfo for detailed SMART information.

but who writes the info and when?

the HDD it self, the initials for S.M.A.R.T.: Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology.

 

[Jared]

To give you a ballpark of price. A case like you're describing will cost $300-$450 here (Providence, RI USA), depending on how extensive the bad sectors are. It really shouldn't cost any more than that anywhere unless you have something really crazy going on like a single failed read/write head, which I doubt very much given your description.

 

[jimmy5]

ok thanks. i'll take a look at those videos etc, but i'm actually in Europe... and that price sounds quite high.. so perhaps i have to wait a bit to get my stuff back.. :roll:
but i was wondering if i can somehow force to run(or scan/write?) all of the smart tests again... or does it do this every time you launch the app? or does the app just read the info that was written by the hdd... (during every boot or once a week or smth?)

 

[Jared]

S.M.A.R.T. data is contained internally on the hard drive, and is constantly updated. Every time it hits any sort of error, it adds it to the SMART logs. Programs to read SMART only send a request to the drive for it's RAW values which can indicate if it's starting to develop any indicators that it's about to fail. Honestly though, drives can fail with absolutely no SMART warnings at all, and other drives run fine for years with certain SMART errors. It really isn't the best indicator of a drives health always. However if you see things like reallocated and pending sector count flags, it usually does indicate a serious problem.

 

[jimmy5]

well, i probably found out that it actually had a faulty power cable also, but after i now tried to run "chkdsk /r" command, it actually turned it into quite unusable drive, because it now only gives a cyclic redundancy check error and the whole drive is "unallocated"?
exactly like this error(mbr):
https://i.stack.imgur.com/L5nPV.png

so can i somehow fix the mbr now with spinrite for example? i already tried "mountvol", but that did not seem to show it's volume at all...
and i was even able to copy like 20gb of data off of it before using the chkdsk command... (and saw every folder on the disk... some folders were just really slow)