Error 1117 without any SMART problems at all

[BlueDragon]

Hi Janos,

I would like to start this new thread which actually is somewhat connected to my former one about this same error, but it's another HDD this time so I think it's better to separate them.

The concerned HDD is brand new (and thoroughly tested before starting to use it). There is not problem at all at SMART level:

Code: Select all

  S.M.A.R.T.
   ------------
No.  Attribute                Thre.. Value  Worst  Data                Status                   Flags                                                  
1    Raw Read Error Rate      51     200    200    0                   OK                       Self Preserving, Error-Rate, Performance, Statistica.. 
3    Spin Up Time             21     174    172    4283                OK                       Self Preserving, Performance, Statistical, Critical    
4    Start/Stop Count         0      100    100    115                 OK (Always passing)      Self Preserving, Event Count, Statistical              
5    Reallocated Sectors Co.. 140    200    200    0                   OK                       Self Preserving, Event Count, Statistical, Critical    
7    Seek Error Rate          0      200    200    0                   OK (Always passing)      Self Preserving, Error-Rate, Performance, Statistical  
9    Power On Time Count      0      100    100    388                 OK (Always passing)      Self Preserving, Event Count, Statistical              
10   Spin Retry Count         0      100    100    0                   OK (Always passing)      Self Preserving, Event Count, Statistical              
11   Drive Calibration Retr.. 0      100    253    0                   OK (Always passing)      Self Preserving, Event Count, Statistical              
12   Drive Power Cycle Count  0      100    100    58                  OK (Always passing)      Self Preserving, Event Count, Statistical              
192  Power off Retract Cycl.. 0      200    200    40                  OK (Always passing)      Self Preserving, Event Count, Statistical              
193  Load/Unload Cycle Count  0      200    200    245                 OK (Always passing)      Self Preserving, Event Count, Statistical              
194  Disk Temperature         0      118    113    29                  OK (Always passing)      Self Preserving, Statistical                           
196  Reallocation Event Count 0      200    200    0                   OK (Always passing)      Self Preserving, Event Count, Statistical              
197  Current Pending Sector.. 0      200    200    0                   OK (Always passing)      Self Preserving, Event Count, Statistical              
198  Off-Line Uncorrectable.. 0      200    200    0                   OK (Always passing)      Self Preserving, Event Count                           
199  Ultra ATA CRC Error Co.. 0      200    200    0                   OK (Always passing)      Self Preserving, Event Count, Statistical              
200  Write Error Rate         0      200    200    0                   OK (Always passing)      Error-Rate                                             

Everything seemed fine until (after a reboot if i'm not wrong) on this HDD only one directory showed up in windows explorer (instead of dozen). After a quick SMART check showing all ok, I ran chkdsk /f. Because some process was preventing it I scheduled it on reboot. Then chkdsk started to find hundreds of errors in some index (always the same) so I left it run over night. Next day all seemed ok (all directories visible again). To double check I ran a chkdsk again. No error this time BUT this message at the end: "The second ntfs boot sector is unwriteable". First I thought I could easily fix that with some utility... After having tried out several things which did not bring any useful result (TestDisk etc) I started a HDS read scan from the bottom of the drive (only 1 partition). again... Only 1117 errors never ending. With the help of the HDS viewer I could find out where the last readable sector actually is. Almost 1/3 of the 2TB at the end of the drive / partition are simply unreadable!!

My assumption so far is that very likely the ImDisk tool I used to mount read-write an image (of my recovered drive of the other thread)totally messed up the filesystem (NTFS). Then chkdsk somehow fixed it but not correctly. Here again it would be very useful to find out which files actually are touched by (saved in) the unreadable area (without having to try to copy them one by one). I bet the whole (ddrescue) disk image (around 850MB) is concerned (borked)...

What is your opinion? What do you advise?

Thank you!

[hdsentinel]

Hi BlueDragon,

Thanks for the details and the information !

Yes, I see no problems with the SMART details.
If I'm correct, the Disk menu -> Short self test / Extended self test also both passed with no problems?
These would confirm that the hard disk (physically) has no probems (which is I also feel, as you wrote, previously tested before starting to use), so the issue is much more related to the file system and/or a different running software which may completely prevent accessing of this part of the disk surface.

Personally I do not know these tools you mentioned, but I'd worry that these can cause more troubles, just like chkdsk you did previously.
Yes, it is designed to "fix" the problems related to the file system, but it can cause even more problems ....

I suspect if you mount the image with imDisk for read-write access, then yes, it can use exlusively the area covered by the image (and may be others?) preventing all kind of other access. Then chkdsk may feel there is a problem with the file system and other tools trying to "repair" the issues can make things even worse.

Personally from the mounted image I'd copy/move everything to a different disk to store them safe, instead of using the mounted image, exactly because of this: if the mounted image become corrupted / unaccessible, all files stored inside may be lost.
I could not imagine a situation when the software managint that mounted image can corrupt even the host file system (the file system "outside" the mounted image) but it is possible that it happened ....

[BlueDragon]

Hi Janos,

Thanks a lot for your reply and your thoughts about it.

In the meantime I pushed my investigations further and I found the explanation for the whole story: the problem was
linked with a BIOS setting I (stupidly) changed thinking it would improve the performance... It was some 32 bit transfer setting
quite deeply hidden somewhere for every single HDD. I realised this when I found another of my HDD with exactly the same problem
AND the "good sector" limit exactly at the same location then for the other disk. So it could not have been a coincidence and could not
have had anything to do with the image file (which by coincidence was almost having the same size then the non readable area... reason
for which I really thought it was connected. :-O ) So clearly ImDisk was not at all at fault in all this mess!

Finally after having changed the settings back to like they were by default (don't know what that means exactly,
if not 32 bit) everything was perfect again on all the disks! Surprisingly the chkdsk index repair seemed like having never
occured at all. It's still a mystery to me why... but I'm happy anyway! That story shows how sometimes windows (dos) can give totally
wrong information. Thanks to HDS it was easy to check the SMART and for sure the extended self test would have been ok too. (I just tried the short one without any problem found.) So I knew very soon that the disks were actually physically in perfect state, all being only a logical problem at filesystem level!

I guess I learned one more thing and it showed how an error 1117 can be produced even for a disk in perfect (physical) working state.

[hdsentinel]

Thanks for the details and the information !
I'm glad to hear that the issue is now fixed and there are no problems with the disks

Are these drives larger than 2 TB?
Then yes, they may not be addressed correctly with some BIOS settings.
If you'd post the capacity and/or the number of the last sector you could access with Hard Disk Sentinel, then it would immediately give the idea about this.

Hard Disk Sentinel has protections to show a warning if it seems the total disk capacity may not be used / utilised, but usually if this happens, the BIOS reports the disk capacity incorrectly.

If you have the opportunity, I'd be more than happy if you can
- use Report menu -> Send test report to developer option now (when things are fine)
- enable this option again in BIOS, just for a test and use Report menu -> Send test report to developer option again (when the disk capacity can't be utilised properly)
- and write me the last sector number accessible

This way Hard Disk Sentinel can even improve to detect and report such situation, as it may help other users as well, to show if this different BIOS limitation (and/or an option) can cause problems.

Thanks, every day we see some new weird things

[BlueDragon]

HDDs are all 2TB disks in this case.

Accessible sectors were up to block 5496 (sector 2'147'483'647 with manual reading or sector 2'147'483'087 according to first read scan error)

Report and test should follow in a couple of days when I can devote more time again.