[Enemy of the State]

I have two hard disks installed, one is an old Quantum (4 years old) and the other is a Seagate i bought this year in January. I was downloading SpeedFan the other day, and after installing it I looked at the SMART section that shows information about the hard drives. I was comparing the fitness bar of the two drives and my seagate was showing as almost half the length of the quantum bar. I decided to download HDD Life to check this out and it shows my seagate drive as 50% on health and 50% on performance and the other drive as 88% on both performance and health.

I downloaded another program called SIGuardian Lite and checked with that and it gives my seagate 7% health and the quantum 63%. This has got me a little worried as this is a 200gb hard drive and ive only had it a few months. Ive already had one hard drive failure this year (ibm click of death) and i bought this seagate to replace that.

Ive used chkdsk and in windows it does not find anything, but in recovery console ( using /r ) it says it found at least one error and fixed it for each and every partition i scanned, including the quantum drive (1 partition).
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Old Today, 16:05 #2
makaveli789
Registered User

Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 73

I ran chkdsk 2 times on all drives and they all came out clean except the c: drive, and both times i get this exact same event log in the event viewer (except the Internal Info):

Quote:
Event Type: Information
Event Source: Winlogon
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1001
Date: 07/05/2005
Time: 15:53:04
User: N/A
Computer: ACE
Description:
Checking file system on C:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is WinXP.

A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk.
Cleaning up 2 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 2 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 2 unused security descriptors.
CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
File data verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
Free space verification is complete.

7373803 KB total disk space.
2830276 KB in 27167 files.
9640 KB in 3266 indexes.
4 KB in bad sectors.
99223 KB in use by the system.
33024 KB occupied by the log file.
4434660 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
1843450 total allocation units on disk.
1108665 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
78 ff 00 00 eb 76 00 00 8e a7 00 00 00 00 00 00 x....v..........
5a 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 c1 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 Z...............
2a a2 46 01 00 00 00 00 70 54 87 0e 00 00 00 00 *.F.....pT......
8a 7c 20 01 00 00 00 00 60 a9 67 7f 00 00 00 00 .| .....`.g.....
82 75 c5 56 00 00 00 00 b6 f6 96 ed 00 00 00 00 .u.V............
99 9e 36 00 00 00 00 00 1f 6a 00 00 00 00 00 00 ..6......j......
00 10 bf ac 00 00 00 00 c2 0c 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................

Windows has finished checking your disk.
Please wait while your computer restarts.


For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft....link/events.asp.


I ran this program called HDD Regenerator, and it couldnt find any bad sectors. Also ran Disk Fixer from VCom SystemSuite and that didnt find anything either. I was thinking of putting a clean install of windows on, but was wondering is there anything else i can do to get rid of this?

Also, i was looking into the SMART details and found that the Raw Read Error Rate is at 61, with a worst value of 53. And Seek Error Rate is at 78, but has a worst value of 60. The others are all very close to 100. Should i be worried?

[Closersource]

SMART is unfortunately an extremely proprietary standard with different manufacturers having different SMART standards and thresholds. In my experience as an ITS tech, Seagate has in the past been pretty demanding with its SMART values. That being said, looking at your description, it appears that your drive is failing, most likely due to heat stress or dirty power. You should get a Seagate RMA if your warranty is still active. If this is not an option then you should investigate purchasing GRC Spinrite and doing a Level 5 scan for defect repair. After Spinrite repairs your drive, you can consider using Seagate's Disc Wizard to zero-fill the drive and remove the bad sectors. On an aside I have had some bad experiences with HDD Regenerator and I cannot recommend using it, as its supposed unique magnetic algorithm is very suspect and tends to heat the target drive to dangerous temperatures.

[AforceII]

backup data and everything else that you need.

then repartition and reformat the hdd again. make it totally clean and fresh.

and then check disk or scandisk or seagate tools.

[Enemy of the State]

I sent seagate an email telling them about this, and they wanted me to scan the drive using seatools and send them the log. Does sea tools scan for bad sectors? I didnt see any mention of bad sectors in the log. Anyway, this is what i got:

SeaTools Desktop v3.02.03
Copyright © 2005 Kroll Ontrack Inc.

7/6/2005 @ 4:05 PM

The following information has been generated by SeaTools Desktop. Use
this information to help you recognize and resolve potential data access
problems.


System Information:
BIOS Date 04/02/03
Conventional Memory size 639 K
Extended Memory size 58532 K
IO Channel type PCI



Drive Information:
SIZE MODEL
--------- ---------------------
200 GB ST3200822A


Serial Number = xxxxxxxx
Int13 Num = 80, PHYS CHS = 16383x16x63.
ParmTable CHS, Rsvd = 24321x255x63

PARTITION CYLINDER SIZE
---------- ------------ ----
# Type Start End MB
PRIMARY
1 NTFS 0 917 7551
EXTENDED
2 NTFS 918 3541 21584
EXTENDED
3 NTFS 3542 5809 18656
EXTENDED
4 NTFS 5810 8965 25960
EXTENDED
5 NTFS 8966 24320 126307


Diagnostic Results:

Seagate DiagATA Quick Test Result: Passed
Recommendation:
The "Quick Test" is adequate for most situations.
Consider running the "Full Test" which
verifies each sector on the drive if you need to run a more
comprehensive diagnostic.



Results from Seagate's DiagATA/SCSI:
-----------------------------------------------------------------

DIAGATA.EXE Version 3.08.50328ML
Copyright © 2002 by Seagate Technology, LLC. All rights reserved.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Timer Resolution: 0.000122
Short Test Begin: 06-Jul-2005 14:42:23
Cable Test - 0 Errors
Buffer Test - 0 Errors
Identify Data
Model Number: ST3200822A
Serial Number: xxxxxxxx
Firmware Revision: 3.01
Default CHS: 16383-16-63
Current CHS: 16383-16-63
Current Capacity: 16514064 Sectors
Total Capacity: 390721968 Sectors
ID Method: Jumper
SMART Check: Passed
DST - Passed
PIO/DMA Data Compare
Total Bytes = 8151552
Estimated PIO Transfer Rates
Min: 2.87MB/s Max: 2.94MB/s Avg: 2.92MB/s
Estimated DMA Transfer Rates
Min: 72.95MB/s Max: 121.58MB/s Avg: 90.32MB/s
SMART Check: Passed
Short Test Passed: 06-Jul-2005 14:43:17


-----------------------------------------------------------------
End results from Seagate's DiagATA/SCSI

ATA Full Test Result: Passed



Results from Seagate's DiagATA/SCSI:
-----------------------------------------------------------------

DIAGATA.EXE Version 3.08.50328ML
Copyright © 2002 by Seagate Technology, LLC. All rights reserved.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Timer Resolution: 0.000122
Long Test Begin: 06-Jul-2005 14:43:19
Cable Test - 0 Errors
Buffer Test - 0 Errors
Identify Data
Model Number: ST3200822A
Serial Number: xxxxxxxx
Firmware Revision: 3.01
Default CHS: 16383-16-63
Current CHS: 16383-16-63
Current Capacity: 16514064 Sectors
Total Capacity: 390721968 Sectors
ID Method: Jumper
SMART Check: Passed
Full Scan (0 to 390721968) - Passed
Elapsed Time: 1.26 Hours
Estimated Internal Transfer Rates
Min: 25.29Mb/s Max: 4273.91Mb/s Avg: 372.02Mb/s
PIO/DMA Data Compare
Total Bytes = 25390080
Estimated PIO Transfer Rates
Min: 2.89MB/s Max: 2.96MB/s Avg: 2.94MB/s
Estimated DMA Transfer Rates
Min: 72.91MB/s Max: 121.51MB/s Avg: 88.65MB/s
Long Test Passed: 06-Jul-2005 15:58:54


-----------------------------------------------------------------
End results from Seagate's DiagATA/SCSI



File Structure Test Result:

Partition 1 (NTFS (7.5 GB) WinXP) Result: Failed with critical Errors

The following errors were found while scanning the volume:
- One or more errors were found in the index
- Other errors were found

NOTE: Any report of possible errors in the file system tests are for
informational purposes only. We suggest you should consider testing with
the official file system diagnostic utilities for your operating system.
Seagate is not able to assist with troubleshooting or reviewing
file system test results.

Partition 2 (NTFS (21.5 GB) Makaveli) Result: Failed with critical Errors

The following errors were found while scanning the volume:
- One or more errors were found in the index
- One or more errors were found in metadata file records
- Other errors were found

NOTE: Any report of possible errors in the file system tests are for
informational purposes only. We suggest you should consider testing with
the official file system diagnostic utilities for your operating system.
Seagate is not able to assist with troubleshooting or reviewing
file system test results.

Partition 3 (NTFS (18.6 GB) Apps) Result: Failed with critical Errors

The following errors were found while scanning the volume:
- Other errors were found

NOTE: Any report of possible errors in the file system tests are for
informational purposes only. We suggest you should consider testing with
the official file system diagnostic utilities for your operating system.
Seagate is not able to assist with troubleshooting or reviewing
file system test results.

Partition 4 (NTFS (25.9 GB) Games) Result: Failed with critical Errors

The following errors were found while scanning the volume:
- One or more errors were found in the index
- Other errors were found

NOTE: Any report of possible errors in the file system tests are for
informational purposes only. We suggest you should consider testing with
the official file system diagnostic utilities for your operating system.
Seagate is not able to assist with troubleshooting or reviewing
file system test results.

Partition 5 (NTFS (126.2 GB) P2P) Result: Failed with critical Errors

The following errors were found while scanning the volume:
- One or more errors were found in the index
- Other errors were found

NOTE: Any report of possible errors in the file system tests are for
informational purposes only. We suggest you should consider testing with
the official file system diagnostic utilities for your operating system.
Seagate is not able to assist with troubleshooting or reviewing
file system test results.



******************************************


Recommendation:
All selected physical diagnostics passed.

If you are not experiencing data loss and SeaTools reports File
System Structure errors, they may be caused by a lock-up or
failure to shutdown Windows correctly. Many times, these errors
may be repaired through normal system maintenance which
includes using the Windows provided "Defrag" and
"Scandisk / Chkdsk / Error Checking" utilities.

If you are experiencing a hardware error, you should isolate
the cause and replace the failing component. If you are unsure how
to proceed with repairs, contact a computer professional. After
completing any maintenance tasks, run SeaTools again to
verify that all errors have been repaired. If errors continue to
occur, the system may not be stable. Again, contact a computer
professional.




========================================================

[Closersource]

First back-up all your important data. Next consider running the Sea Tools Full Test. You seem to have multiple partitions. You may want to reformat your drive into one single partition and run Sea Tools again. In any event from the log details, you should be entitled to an RMA. If Seagate does not grant you an RMA, you should actively consider using Spinrite.

[sgrossklass]

This one bad cluster looks a bit suspicious. A dump of the SMART values would be helpful now.

[qasdfdsaq]

The drive and readings look perfectly normal to me and don't indicate there's anything wrong with it at all.

I've said this before and will do again - Seagate's SMART values for "Read Error Rate" and "Seek Error Rate" are proprietary and should be completely ignored. Drive diagnostics tools also have a very poor and buggy interpretation of filesystems and errors given by that should also be disregarded.

That said, you should always backup all important data regularly regardless of whether you think your drive is going to fail or not.

This post has been edited by qasdfdsaq: 08 July 2005 - 05:47 PM

[Enemy of the State]

qasdfdsaq, on Jul 8 2005, 10:46 PM, said:

The drive and readings look perfectly normal to me and don't indicate there's anything wrong with it at all.

I've said this before and will do again - Seagate's SMART values for "Read Error Rate" and "Seek Error Rate" are proprietary and should be completely ignored. Drive diagnostics tools also have a very poor and buggy interpretation of filesystems and errors given by that should also be disregarded.

Yeah after reading some old posts on here, i got that impression too. Thanks for posting and confirming for me though . I got the bad sector sorted few days ago. The reason for a late reply is because i reinstalled windows and am now having soundcard stuttering issues (doh!) which ive been desperately trying to fix while installing my software back on.

Anyway, what i did was i left all the partitions intact and just used the format option from the windows xp setup, and reinstalled windows after that. That got rid of the bad sector. I used chkdsk by connecting it to a separate machine as slave too, to verify it was gone. Not sure why it disappeared, i thought it was a hardware thing?

[qasdfdsaq]

Bad sectors sometimes pop up as a matter of "overprotectiveness". Usually, the system or the drive doesn't wait till a sector actually becomes "bad" to mark it so, it marks it bad as soon as its detected to possibly fail in the future - e.g. if a certain number of retries was needed to access it.

This could have been caused by a slightly weak sector, strenuous conditions, random interference, or simply just vibration (although rare). You shouldn't worry much about one isolated incident, but if more come up, then you should return the drive for exchange.

[meanie]

Enemy of the State, on Jul 10 2005, 01:43 AM, said:

qasdfdsaq, on Jul 8 2005, 10:46 PM, said:

The drive and readings look perfectly normal to me and don't indicate there's anything wrong with it at all.

I've said this before and will do again - Seagate's SMART values for "Read Error Rate" and "Seek Error Rate" are proprietary and should be completely ignored. Drive diagnostics tools also have a very poor and buggy interpretation of filesystems and errors given by that should also be disregarded.

Yeah after reading some old posts on here, i got that impression too. Thanks for posting and confirming for me though . I got the bad sector sorted few days ago. The reason for a late reply is because i reinstalled windows and am now having soundcard stuttering issues (doh!) which ive been desperately trying to fix while installing my software back on.

Anyway, what i did was i left all the partitions intact and just used the format option from the windows xp setup, and reinstalled windows after that. That got rid of the bad sector. I used chkdsk by connecting it to a separate machine as slave too, to verify it was gone. Not sure why it disappeared, i thought it was a hardware thing?

From what I know, all SMART values from all drive manufacturers are proprietary (i.e. non-standard). But each value should also have a corresponding threshold value. You should compare those values (or maybe what ever program you use to read the values did), and if current value approaches the threshold value, the drive thinks it's going to fail soon.