Hard disk health and reliability analysis

Almost every EIDE or SATA hard disk includes S.M.A.R.T. data. That information is collected by the drive itself and contains data that the manufacturer considered relevant to check reliability. The data is made up of several attributes that have a current value, a worst one, a threshold, some raw data, and some flags. Basically, when any attribute's current value is below its threshold, the hard disk is considered unreliable and likely to fail. By using several techniques, this report tries to give a wider range of information, basing its analysis on advanced comparisons with normal values based on real hard disks and on expert-like checks. The final results are not to be taken as an absolute truth, but they are almost as good as a professional expert advice about your hard disk status.

Your hard disk is a ST31000524AS with firmware JC4B.
The average temperature for this hard disk model is 33°C (min=24°C max=43°C) and yours is 30°C.

  Attribute   Current   Raw
Raw Read Error Rate 114 000004FFA263
Spin Up Time 100 000000000000
Start/Stop Count 99 000000000598
Reallocated Sector Count 66 000000000595
Seek Error Rate 81 000008AC7831
Power On Hours Count 93 00000000196C
Spin Retry Count 100 000000000000
Power Cycle Count 99 000000000598
SATA Downshift Error Count 100 000000000000
End To End Error Count 100 000000000000
Reported Uncorrectable Errors 100 000000000000
Command Time Out 100 000000000000
High Fly Writes 100 000000000000
Hardware ECC Recovered 45 000004FFA263
Current Pending Sector 64 0000000005CD
Offline Uncorrectable Sector Count 64 0000000005CD
Ultra DMA CRC Error Rate 200 000000000000
Write head 100 26CF00002853
Total LBAs Written 100 00007BB56191
Total LBAs Read 100 0000FACA5D33

All the attributes of your hard disk are above the S.M.A.R.T. thresholds set by the manufacturer. This is good.

SERIOUS ISSUE : your hard disk has 1429 reallocated sectors. Hard disks do have spare sectors (usually from 256 up to 2560) used to replace bad ones. This remapping operation is transparent to the end user. Anyway, this can lead to degraded performances (because remapped sectors are in different places of the disk than the original ones and the head needs additional moving). If reallocated sectors grow over time, you might encounter some serious troubles. A backup of the most important data is suggested anyway.

BLOCKING ISSUE : your hard disk has 1485 pending sectors (this value is very large and your hard disk should be replaced). Those are sectors that couldn't be properly read and that the hard disk logic is waiting for a write operation to try to remap to a spare sector (if available). According to the Reallocated Sector Count attribute, your hard disk seems to have available spare sectors. A simple disk surface scan won't be enough to force the remap operation. You need a read/write surface scan to remap the sector. The best option should be a tool that knows about what should be read from that sector so that it has some option to apply the best fix to the missing data.

BLOCKING ISSUE : your hard disk has 1485 offline uncorrectable sectors (this value is very large and your hard disk should be replaced). Those are sectors that an offline scanning found as unreadable. Offline scanning is a process that can be automatically started by the hard disk logic when a long enough idle period is detected or that can be forced by some tool. Those unreadable sectors are identified and the hard disk logic is waiting for a write command that will overwrite them to try to remap them to spare sectors (if available). According to the Reallocated Sector Count attribute, your hard disk seems to have available spare sectors. A simple disk surface scan won't be enough to force the remap operation. You need a read/write surface scan to remap the sector. The best option should be a tool that knows about what should be read from that sector so that it has some option to apply the best fix to the missing data.

NOTE : your hard disk Power On Hours Count attribute current value (93) is below the normal range (98 - 100) reported for your specific hard disk model. Basically your hard disk was powered on for more than the maximum time the average user did. This means that either all of the reports collected are from hard disks that were not powered on for too long (this is realistic for recent models) or that your hard disk is becoming old. Usually this is not considered as a pre-failure advisory, but you should check whether you want to replace the hardware or keep an eye on its performances over time.

NOTE : your hard disk Power Cycle Count attribute current value (99) is below the normal range (100 - 100) reported for your specific hard disk model. Basically your hard disk was power cycled more times than the maximum number the average hard disk was. Power cycles put some stress on the hard disk mechanic. Sometimes power cycles can be caused by a loose hard disk power connector. Make sure it is properly fastened.

The overall fitness for this drive is 0%.
The overall performance for this drive is 97%.

The link to get back and see a new report about this hard disk in the future is this. Consider that new hard disks and new checks are added over time.


DISCLAIMER: this report does its best to highlight issues and warnings related to your hard disk. It cannot be held responsible for any mistake. This page and its results cannot be used in any other way but the one defined by its author.