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How serious is this SMART error?


Asturia

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Today I got the message that one of my disks has a SMART error.

The Load Cycle Count is over 300000 (300881 at this moment).

How serious is this exactly? Do I need to replace the disk immediatly or can I still use it for a while?

 

Just to be sure I removed it from my drive pool (data was evacuated without a problem).

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Today I got the message that one of my disks has a SMART error.

The Load Cycle Count is over 300000 (300881 at this moment).

How serious is this exactly? Do I need to replace the disk immediatly or can I still use it for a while?

 

Just to be sure I removed it from my drive pool (data was evacuated without a problem).

WD Green drive, right?  You can ignore it, as its just a count of how many times the heads are loaded/parked, and it's a common issue with WD Greens, make sure you change the idle timer with wdidel3, http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=609&sid=113.  but definitely keep an eye on the drive and if it happens to be under warranty, I would suggest trying to get a replacement.

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WD Green drive, right?  You can ignore it, as its just a count of how many times the heads are loaded/parked, and it's a common issue with WD Greens, make sure you change the idle timer with wdidel3, http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=609&sid=113.  but definitely keep an eye on the drive and if it happens to be under warranty, I would suggest trying to get a replacement.

It's not a WD Green drive, it's a WD Black drive (2,5"). Serial number of the drive is WD5000BPKX-75HPJT0. Unfortunately it's not under warranty any more  :( 

 

I will try to use that tool on my other drives which are Green drives.

What's the best setting for the idle timer?

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It's not a WD Green drive, it's a WD Black drive (2,5"). Serial number of the drive is WD5000BPKX-75HPJT0. Unfortunately it's not under warranty any more  :( 

 

I will try to use that tool on my other drives which are Green drives.

What's the best setting for the idle timer?

5 minutes is the max, but I believe the value is in seconds.  I'm not sure if the tool works with your drive, but it never hurts to check, even if your drive is not listed in their compatibility chart, it may still work.  I was going to get a black 2.5" drive from my OS drive, and decided against it for this very reason.   

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I would recommend against using the wdidle3 on any disk that isn't specifically supported.

 

 

As for the disk, how old is it? (or better yet, the power on hour value).

If this is 3-4 years old, then that may be standard for it's usage. As long as no other SMART warnings or errors appear, you should be able to safely ignore the warning.

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I would recommend against using the wdidle3 on any disk that isn't specifically supported.

 

 

As for the disk, how old is it? (or better yet, the power on hour value).

If this is 3-4 years old, then that may be standard for it's usage. As long as no other SMART warnings or errors appear, you should be able to safely ignore the warning.

Power on time is 131 days and 13 hours.

The Load Cycle Count is 301757 now (previous value was 300881) so 900 more then my first post.

Is it still safe to use then?

And how do you know that the tool is compatible with your drive?

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Power on time is 131 days and 13 hours.

The Load Cycle Count is 301757 now (previous value was 300881) so 900 more then my first post.

Is it still safe to use then?

And how do you know that the tool is compatible with your drive?

This goes against Christopher's advice, but I have a "newer" green drive, and it was not on the WD compatibility list, but it worked fine for me.   You can run the tool as describe in the instructions, and  see if the drive is recognized by the tool, that's the only way to tell.  as far as making the changes, proceed at your on risk, but the drive will slowly kill it's self, if you don't/can't change the time out feature. Just make sure you back up it before you attempt to make any changes.

 

If this is being used as a data drive (not OS drive) there's a tool you can down load that writes data to the drive every 8 seconds, or what ever you set it too, to prevent the heads from parking, 

http://keepalivehd.codeplex.com/, I've being using this tool for about a year for a second pool I have using 2 1TB HGST 2.5 drives

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I'm going to try the wdidle tool on the disk.

It can't hurt anyway, I already moved the data from the disk.

and even if it doesn't work, I'm going to use the disk as a feeder disk for the others untill it dies.

 

And that other tool you suggested is a nice alternative.

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I just installed the Beta version of the scanner and suddenly it isn't a problem anymore?

Maybe the new Cloud Enabled Drive Reliability Information feature is now giving the correct parameters for the drive?

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It may still be a problem.

 

The newer version uses information from our cloud based database (BitFlock), and may ignore the value until it hits 600,000 (based on feedback and updated manufacture specs).

 

It may still be a good idea to use the wd idle utility. 

However, the reason that I don't recommend the utility is that it modifies the disks' firmware. That is always risky, and can cause the drive to be bricked. Even if it does "recognize" the drive. If the disk is empty, then it may be worth trying out.

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Thanks for all the help!

I replaced the disk with another one (same model) and applied the WDidle fix to it (with the /d option).

I'll monitor it and see if the problems comes back.

 

Thanks for the great software that helped me notice.

Without it, the drive would just have failed and I wouldn't have had a clue.

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Just FYI, this won't necessarily cause the disk to fail. 

 

It does cause wear and tear, as it idles and spins up more. But it may not necessarily cause it to fail faster. That's why it's generally ignored by a lot of people.

On a normal drive, it will be a better indicator, but on a "green" drive that hasn't been configured by wdidle3, it's much more of a false positive for failure. But since we don't know if you've done this or not, we don't want to assume. 

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Thanks for all the help!

I replaced the disk with another one (same model) and applied the WDidle fix to it (with the /d option).

I'll monitor it and see if the problems comes back.

 

Thanks for the great software that helped me notice.

Without it, the drive would just have failed and I wouldn't have had a clue.

 

glad the fix worked for you, and good to know that it works on this particular drive.

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