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Unstable sector warning. How best to handle?


crobot

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First off, thanks. I switched from DriveBender to DrivePool about a year ago and really like the integration between it and Scanner. I was hoping someone on here could go over the issue I'm having and offer some advice.

This morning I got a text message notification that one of my drives had several unstable sectors:

f4522c.png

I submitted it to BitFlock, ID: C8A93DCB

As soon as I got the error, I disabled all my applications that accessed the pool, turned off the DrivePool service, and removed the drive letter from the pool - all to limit the amount of drive activity while I figure this out. 

I ran CHKDSK in read-only mode, it returned no issues. I then ran it with the /r parameter, which took many many hours, and again didn't find a single issue. The S.M.A.R.T. status remains unchanged. (CHKDSK results included in attached TXT).

Obviously I can dump the files from the drive back into the pool and I've started to do this, but 5TB+ is gonna take some time.

My understanding of the pending sectors error is that perhaps this will cause those sectors to be read again, and if there is no issue, that number will go down. If not, would zero'ing the drive fix the issue? Should I remove the drive and RMA it? I'd prefer not to do that if at all possible. Please let me know if there is any additional information that I can provide that will help. Thanks!

CHKDSK.txt

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RMA the drive. 

Unfortunately, running CHKDSK won't fix this sort of issue.  Writing to the affected sectors on the disk is the only way to fix the issue... and that's an 'attempt to fix".  When that happens, it will either get reallocated, or promoted to "Uncorrectable sector count" as well. 

Generally, when you see this, it's the beginning of the end.  It generally doesn't get better.  So if the drive is under warranty, RMA it to get a new drive. 

 

And definitely remove it from the pool.

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I bought 5 x 3 TB WD Red NAS drives all in one shot 3+ years ago. 2 started this around the 2+ year mark. 1 or 2 Pending each. The 3rd waited until the warranty was almost up. I should have acted faster on the RMA.

For each I "Ignored the warning" until SMART promoted it to reallocated or un-correctable. I was able to get 2 in for RMA, but the 3rd temporarily went back to normal for a while after a full regular slow format. And then shortly after the warranty ran out in the space of a week it jumped to 3 reallocated, then 5. No data loss, fortunately.

I did the slow format 1 at a time so as to move along the progress from Pending to something else. Something to try as it is forcing a write to each sector. That or a Drive Wipe 0+1.

Go HGST whenever possible.

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Personally, as soon as I see a SMART error, it's time to RMA.  Don't care if it's 1 or 2 for the value.  It's time to RMA.  Period.

3 hours ago, nauip said:

Go HGST whenever possible.

That's highly personal, honestly.  Especially as HGST is a subsidy of WDC, might as well say "go WD". 

But honestly, the most important thing, IMO?  The warranty period.  3-5 years, not a day less. 

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