WD Sector problems

[splendid11]

Hello.

6 months ago I bought a 3TB WD Green hard drive.

Yesterday, while watching a movie, the image froze and the movie crashed, I thought it was a problem with the movie in question.

I was surprised that the movie crashed and I did a test for bad sectors and indeed it had a couple of damaged sectors.

I let it run the HDD regenerator several times where the bad sectors were (the rest of the disk was fine) and now it doesn't show any bad sectors and I haven't had any more failures.

I only use the disk to store music, downloads, images, movies, the usual stuff, it's a data disk since I have an SSD as the main disk for the operating system, I don't store anything important on it.

It's still under warranty but I'm not sure if it's worth sending it to be repaired because of how long it might take, so far it hasn't given me any problems, only with that movie.

I don't understand why those errors occurred since it didn't receive any hit or anything like that.

Do you think it's worth sending it or will it hold up without any problem?

I leave you two SMART screenshots:

Thanks. Best regards.

[Fassou]

Go to the WD website, and download the Data LifeGuard Diagnostics for Windows.

If it fails, it will crash and you will send it for RMA.

Regards!

[splendid11]

@Fassou:

Go to the WD website, and download the Data LifeGuard Diagnostics for Windows.

If it pops up as defective, screen it and send it for RMA.

Salu2!

Thanks for responding.

SMART says everything is correct, it doesn't show me any warning like in the other programs.

And the quick scan also, I'll do the full sector scan tomorrow.

[Fassou]

The SMART is nothing more than an event accumulator that has been configured with certain limits, after which it tells you that your HDD is dying.

Tools like CrystalDiskInfo or HDTune are useful but not infallible and can interpret values as something they are not.

The only thing that counts for the warranty is the manufacturer's own utility, so don't use other programs to repair the HDD again, before running that utility, because if you now have bad sectors, but have managed to get them not counted as defective, you are wasting precious time, during which you will continue to use an unreliable HDD, while you are losing days of the warranty.

This does not mean that I say they are damaged, but when it marks them for something, it will be.

Salu2!

[splendid11]

Well I will check again in a while if the bad sectors come back or increase and check it with the WD tool.

I have no experience in sending any disk to be repaired, how long do they usually take to send you a repaired or new one?

Thanks. Regards.

[whoololon]

But listen to Fassou and send that disk back immediately.
I wouldn't even bother trying to fix it myself: it's under warranty and it throws out defective sectors, I write down the serial number and send it back automatically. :wall:

[Sylver]

In fact, the longer you wait to send it in for repair, the worse things can get. Take advantage now while you still have time.

Best regards

[splendid11]

Hello again, I'm sorry to reopen the topic.

I got another disk to save all the data so I could send it in for warranty and I already have it back.

The thing is, they sent me a "Recertified" one, what does this mean? Is it normal for them to send you a recertified one?

Hours, rotation time, turn-ons.. everything with 0 hours, so it looks completely new.

WD's warranty service is impeccable, I sent it last Wednesday and today I already had it at home.

Regards.

[whoololon]

A refurbished drive can involve anything from a firmware modification to the replacement of a physical part.
Even though they come with a warranty from the manufacturer and the seller, the user should be aware that this is a unit that has been repaired.

[Sylver]

As your colleague whoololon tells you, it is a repaired disk, which could perfectly be yours and in which the controller or some damaged plate has been replaced for example, which is why all the usage counters are probably reset to zero.

Best regards

[Fassou]

@splendid11:

Hola de nuevo, siento reabrir el tema.

Qué mejor sitio que este, para seguir hablando de tu caso. Que para eso está :sisi:

Sobre lo del HDD Recertified, es lo que ya te comentan whoololon y Sylver, son discos reparados que funcionan perfectamente, y por lo general no suelen ser el que mandas, porque lo habitual es mandar otro que ya tienen reparado, para que lo recuperes cuanto antes.

Salu2!

[splendid11]

Thanks to the 3 for the answers!

Since I don't trust how the disk might be, I'm running HD Tune to check the sectors and in some it slows down a lot as if it's going to give a bad sector.

I wanted to try HD Regenerator to scan the sectors without regenerating anything but it says "DISK NO READY" sometimes it doesn't even appear in the BIOS...

To boot sometimes other times it takes no longer than usual, I have an SSD for the system and it stays on the Windows logo longer than usual.

The problem is that it stays reading those sectors at a very low speed but for now it doesn't mark them as defective.

What solution do you see?

I don't want a disk that takes 10 minutes to read certain sectors.

And I suppose that if it doesn't give me errors I can't send it back to get another one, right?

What a despair with the disk issue. :wall:

Thanks, Regards.

[whoololon]

If the hard drive is the same as the WD Green 3TB it replaces, be aware that those "eco" drives are slow.
Booting may take longer or less for various reasons, the only way to know if the drive is performing as it should is to run a test and compare it to the manufacturer's estimated specifications; then we could have a basis for sending it back, which doesn't seem to be the case.

If the device is fine, it works correctly in day-to-day use, and shows no signs otherwise, getting into running repair programs is like force-feeding someone who isn't sick.

Don't obsess and keep working normally.

[Fassou]

+1

Also, getting used to the SSD is very easy, and then everything seems slow

Salu2!

[splendid11]

In the end it seems it was a problem with the SATA cable that I had as a spare, I changed it and now it reads all the sectors at the correct speed and all are fine after analyzing them all day.

I only use this disk for data, I have the OS on the SSD, but it was booting very slowly, it didn't stop reading the disk I suppose because of the bad contact it was making, I don't really know.

I only wanted to use HDD Regenerator to check for bad sectors not to repair them because if I got a bad sector I would just send it back.

Now I will transfer all the data to this disk and hope there are no more problems. :rollani:

Regards and thanks for your help!