What is the meaning of this warning "Reallocated sector count"

WMD

Member
Hi, Hi, Hi,
My GPU report as per your HWiNFO064 PROGRAM is as follows:

1643083575868.png In the said report the exclamation mark in the yellow triangle showed warning for interface SATA 3GB/s Model number:HGST HTS545050A7E380.

Would any expert explain the implications of this warning to me?

Other relevant copy from HWiNFO064 PROGRAM:

1643083902805.png

But my Hp diagnostic tool and windows 10 diagnostic tools reports showed 'Okay' for smooth functioning of my HDD.

1643084035012.png
1643084063396.png 1643084096331.png 1643084127052.png
 
 
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Hi,
How to read H.D.D. S.M.A.R.T. values?
My inference from your replied answer about " [05] Reallocated Sector Count: 100/5 , Worst:100 (Data = 524360, 0)" means Bad sector should not exceed 5 , but in my case it encountered 100 bad sectors per 5 good sectors in the data 524360 sectors. Is this inference correct? If not, explain me your inference about "[05] Reallocated Sector Count: 100/5 , Worst:100 (Data = 524360, 0)"
 
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No, those are the normalized values, not actual count of bad sectors. Raw number of bad sectors is 524360, but this might not be the true count as the number seems too high. Actual representation depends on vendor which usually doesn't disclose further details. In this case my guess would be that 524360 = 0x80048 (hexa) and the lower 0x48 = 72 (decimal) might be the true amount of bad sectors. But this is just my assumption, it's better to watch this number if/how it grows and perform regular backups as there is a danger of data loss.
 
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Hi,
How to read H.D.D. S.M.A.R.T. values?
My inference from your replied answer about " [05] Reallocated Sector Count: 100/5 , Worst:100 (Data = 524360, 0)" means Bad sector should not exceed 5 , but in my case it encountered 100 bad sectors per 5 good sectors in the data 524360 sectors. Is this inference correct? If not, explain me your inference about "[05] Reallocated Sector Count: 100/5 , Worst:100 (Data = 524360, 0)"

[05] = The ID of the attribute is 5
100/5 = Score is currently 100, firmware considers critical if below 5
Worst: 100 = The lowest the score has been recorded is 100
524360 = Actual number of reallocated sectors is 524,360

Over 2 gigabytes have been reallocated. It makes no sense the score is still 100, which is as high as it gets with most attributes. How many millions of reallocations would be necessary to lower the score to 5 then? As for the previous screenshots, "This device is working properly" means nothing for HDD health (it is the Device Manager status for drivers). Fragmentation is unrelated to the condition of the HDD. chkdsk only reports errors once the filesystem is damaged, which may not occur if all reallocations are successful.

I have the same model, and it is completely free of errors after 19,900 hours except for a Reallocation Event Count of 36, which started in 2021. The Current Pending Sector Count has always been 0, and the Reallocated Sector Count is 0. How could there be any attempts to reallocate sectors if there have been no successful or unsuccessful attempts? When the Reallocation Event Count increased above 0, the Power Off Retract Count increased to above 1 million, and is now around 3 million. That's obviously not correct, because the total number of spindowns is only 36,000. These models tend to be very reliable disks, with relatively common occurrences of errors with reporting attributes, but that doesn't mean 524,360 reallocations should be dismissed.

Backup the entire disk immediately, and backup all new contents every day. If your intention is to easily restore an entire OS, you should create a full disk image. Imaging the disk requires 500 GB of free space on another disk. This can be done within Windows with proprietary subscription software, but if the files on the disk are important to you, you should not attempt to run Windows while backing up. Instead, use a different computer to create a bootable Linux Mint pen drive with Rufus. Shut down the defective computer, hold ESC or F10 and press the power button to turn it on again. Use F6 to move the pen drive up the list in the Boot tab. Exit Saving Changes from the Exit tab. Connect an external HDD, open the Disks tool and click the upper-right menu icon, and choose Create Disk Image.

Once the disk is backed up, if you are in Windows, download smartmontools and open a Command Prompt as administrator. Input smartctl -t short /dev/sda and wait 5 minutes. Use smartctl -l selftest /dev/sda to check the results. Download openSeaChest and type cd C:\Users\[username]\Downloads\openSeaChest_Windows_x64 and press enter. Input OpenSeaChest_GenericTests --shortGeneric -d PD0. Use OpenSeaChest_GenericTests --longGeneric -d PD0 for a more thorough inspection.

If you are in Linux Mint, open a terminal and input sudo apt install smartmontools and sudo smartctl -t short /dev/sda. After 5 minutes, input sudo smartctl -l selftest /dev/sda to check results. Download the CentOS package for openSeaChest and use cd /home/mint/Downloads/openseachest_exes_CentOS7_x86_64/ and sudo ./openSeaChest_GenericTests --shortGeneric -d /dev/sda. Yes, the CentOS package should work.
 
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[05] = The ID of the attribute is 5
100/5 = Score is currently 100, firmware considers critical if below 5
Worst: 100 = The lowest the score has been recorded is 100
524360 = Actual number of reallocated sectors is 524,360

Over 2 gigabytes have been reallocated. It makes no sense the score is still 100, which is as high as it gets with most attributes. How many millions of reallocations would be necessary to lower the score to 5 then? As for the previous screenshots, "This device is working properly" means nothing for HDD health (it is the Device Manager status for drivers). Fragmentation is unrelated to the condition of the HDD. chkdsk only reports errors once the filesystem is damaged, which may not occur if all reallocations are successful.

I have the same model, and it is completely free of errors after 19,900 hours except for a Reallocation Event Count of 36, which started in 2021. The Current Pending Sector Count has always been 0, and the Reallocated Sector Count is 0. How could there be any attempts to reallocate sectors if there have been no successful or unsuccessful attempts? When the Reallocation Event Count increased above 0, the Power Off Retract Count increased to above 1 million, and is now around 3 million. That's obviously not correct, because the total number of spindowns is only 36,000. These models tend to be very reliable disks, with relatively common occurrences of errors with reporting attributes, but that doesn't mean 524,360 reallocations should be dismissed.

Backup the entire disk immediately, and backup all new contents every day. If your intention is to easily restore an entire OS, you should create a full disk image. Imaging the disk requires 500 GB of free space on another disk. This can be done within Windows with proprietary subscription software, but if the files on the disk are important to you, you should not attempt to run Windows while backing up. Instead, use a different computer to create a bootable Linux Mint pen drive with Rufus. Shut down the defective computer, hold F2 and press the power button to turn it on again. Use F6 to move the pen drive up the list in the Boot tab. Exit Saving Changes from the Exit tab. Connect an external HDD, open the Disks tool and click the upper-right menu icon, and choose Create Disk Image.

Once the disk is backed up, if you are in Windows, download smartmontools and open a Command Prompt as administrator. Input smartctl -t short /dev/sda and wait 5 minutes. Use smartctl -l selftest /dev/sda to check the results. Download openSeaChest and type cd C:\Users\[username]\Downloads\openSeaChest_Windows_x64 and press enter. Input OpenSeaChest_GenericTests --shortGeneric -d PD0. Use OpenSeaChest_GenericTests --longGeneric -d PD0 for a more thorough inspection.

If you are in Linux Mint, open a terminal and input sudo apt install smartmontools and sudo smartctl -t short /dev/sda. After 5 minutes, input sudo smartctl -l selftest /dev/sda to check results. Download the CentOS package for openSeaChest and use cd /home/mint/Downloads/openseachest_exes_CentOS7_x86_64/ and sudo ./openSeaChest_GenericTests --shortGeneric -d /dev/sda. Yes, the CentOS package should work.
Hi,

I already created system repair disc which can be used to boot my notebook pc. It also contained Windows system recovery tools that can help me in recovering windows from a serious error or restore my notebook pc from a system image.

I already created a disc containing Windows 10 ISO files for system recovery and already copied many important data, pdf, files to DVD +Rs
 
Hi,

I already created system repair disc which can be used to boot my notebook pc. It also contained Windows system recovery tools that can help me in recovering windows from a serious error or restore my notebook pc from a system image.

I already created a disc containing Windows 10 ISO files for system recovery and already copied many important data, pdf, files to DVD +Rs
Sorry, most of those Recovery Environment tools are not able to undo the damage caused by a failing HDD. The exception is System Image Recovery, which can restore Windows onto a new HDD if you have an image. You mentioned restoring from an image, does this mean you have the system image? The recovery disc isn't enough by itself, and the System Image Recovery can't recover from a fresh installation ISO or a basic DVD with files.
 
No, those are the normalized values, not actual count of bad sectors. Raw number of bad sectors is 524360, but this might not be the true count as the number seems too high. Actual representation depends on vendor which usually doesn't disclose further details. In this case my guess would be that 524360 = 0x80048 (hexa) and the lower 0x48 = 72 (decimal) might be the true amount of bad sectors. But this is just my assumption, it's better to watch this number if/how it grows and perform regular backups as there is a danger of data loss.
Wouldn't that mean 0 reallocations would be 0x80000, or 524,288? The Reallocation Event Counts and Current Pending Sector Counts are plain decimal numbers, so the Reallocated Sector Count probably is as well.
 
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Wouldn't that mean 0 reallocations would be 0x80000, or 524,288? The Reallocation Event Counts and Current Pending Sector Counts are plain decimal numbers, so the Reallocated Sector Count probably is as well. These disks do have a tendency to tolerate millions of successful reallocations without immediately bricking or causing noticeable problems, so it could be correct.
That depends on meaning of the upper word, it could be a bitfield. Problem is that SMART attributes, their meanings and encoding of raw values has never been standardized so each vendor can use its own encoding (which is also often the case).
Usually for 0 reallocations the entire value is 0. Hence I have changed reporting of this raw value in the latest Beta build to display each word separately.
 
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