SMART warning, End-toEnd error

[btb]

I've had a new SMART warning come up on fairly new hard drive, only 3 months old.

 

Is this something I should RMA the HDD for now or wait and see if it this End-to-End error gets worse, or could it be an OS system controller/driver problem and not the HDD? Has anyone come across this type of error before?

 

I've attached a srceenshot of the error message.

 

[RJGNOW]

Interesting, I've never seen that before.. Looking forward to others opinions.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

That seems to be a newer value.

 

For details on it:

http://h20565.www2.hp.com/portal/site/hpsc/template.BINARYPORTLET/public/kb/docDisplay/resource.process/?spf_p.tpst=kbDocDisplay_ws_BI&spf_p.rid_kbDocDisplay=docDisplayResURL&javax.portlet.begCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken&spf_p.rst_kbDocDisplay=wsrp-resourceState%3DdocId%253Demr_na-c01159621-1%257CdocLocale%253D&javax.portlet.endCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken

 

However, it does seem to indicate a serious issue, and we may need to upgrade the "severity" of this type of error.

 

If the disk is under warranty, then I'd recommend RMAing it. Just in case. Better safe, than a dead drive.

 

 

 

 

And to clarify here, the documentation on the error doesn't seem to be clear as to how urgent the issue is. (it implies, but not outright states).

However, several sources agree that this is a severe warning and that the disk should be replace immediately.

 

I've flagged this for Alex, to see if it should be "upgraded" in severity. And as I already said, it would be better to RMA the drive just in case. When dealing with data, prudence is always smart.

[btb]

Thank you for the information.

 

I've downloaded the Seagate tools and done a long test on the drive with that and ran the other tests it offers and it declares the drive to be OK, it also passes Seagates SMART tests, so I think unless the Seagate software finds it faulty with their own tools I won't be able to RMA just yet.

 

It may be connected that I've had a couple of notifications that that drive is missing from the pool, only for it to be present again a reboot, so I think I may have a loose or intermittent SATA cable. I'm going to change the cable first and see if that stops its occasional 'missing' status first and then have a rethink.

 

Thanks again.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Well, I don't think that Seagate has updated their diagnostic tools recently, so it may not interpret that error correctly.

 

In fact, the error indicates silent corruption/damage to the disk, which is NEVER good.

 

However, given the description of your other issues, it does sound like maybe you have a loose or bad cable. Re-seating the cable, or even swapping it out may be a good idea.

[btb]

Thanks again for your reply.

 

I've swapped over the SATA cable, though take your advice regarding this error and have done a quick check with the retailer and I can RMA with them instead of Seagate, so once I've got the data off I'll do that.

 

You've convinced me no point in messing around when its failing so early in its life.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

I know the guys over at Home Server Show generally recommend running SpinRite on new disks to make sure there are no issues with new disks, and that's a pretty good idea. Though, it requires a dedicated machine (SpinRite is a boot disk), or a Virtual Machine capable of passing disks through (such as HyperV). And a few days. 

It's not a bad idea, but it does seem to have issues with disk larger than 2TBs unfortunately.

 

 

But yes, definitely, when it comes to your data, it's always better to err on the side of caution. 

[btb]

A big thank you to Scanner for picking up this SMART error. I took the data off the drive and removed it, but only just got around to RMA the drive. Segate have replaced it and the replacement is waiting to go in. I'm thinking about running Spinrite or similiar on it before installing as you mentioned.

 

So many thanks to Scanner and the help on this forum, without which I almost certainly at some point would have lost unduplicated data and the hassle of dealing with this after the event.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

I'm glad that our products, well have done what they're designed to. And I'm glad that you are very happy with them.

 

 

And I'm glad to hear that you were able to get the drives RMAed.

Though, since this is a 3TB drive, SpinRite may not work on it. However, the surface scan in StableBit Scanner should be able to pick up any problem sectors anyways.

And there other tools, such as mHDD that may work too.