Hard Disk Health Suddenly Low after Read Test

[zeromind999]

Hello,

I have a Western Digital Blue 1000GB Internal 5400RPM 2.5" (WD10JPVX) running Windows 10 64 Bit newly installed barely 3 months back.

The Health & Performance was 100 % until last night



I performed a Surface Test - Read test overnight and the final notification screen showed No Errors

Final Notification After Read Test - No Errors

1 - 20170724-100619_REPAIR_WDC_WD10JPVX-00JC3T0_WD-WXS1A17DAL1L_01.01A01-surface-full.jpg (561.31 KiB) Viewed 13534 times

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However, When I went back to the main screen, it suddenly shows that the Drive is bad health of 23%

Suddenly low to 24% Health after Test

2 - HDD Test.jpg (170.37 KiB) Viewed 13534 times

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How can a new drive performing at 100% suddenly crash to 23% after a surface read test ? Is the tool reporting the values wrong ? or did the read test spoil the drive ? How can I fix this ?

Drive SMART - WD Blue

4 - SMART.jpg (221.14 KiB) Viewed 13534 times

Drive Info - WD Blue

3 - Info.jpg (154.06 KiB) Viewed 13534 times

Thanks for your replies.

[hdsentinel]

Thanks for the images and excuse me for the possible confusion.

No I can confirm that not "got it all wrong" and also "not spoiled the drive" of course.

Generally Hard Disk Sentinel designed exactly to reveal and show possible problems with the hard disk and make the drive work better - by forcing the hard disk to reveal and reallocate bad sectors if required. The result is (that even if the bad sectors detected and reported) that the hard disk should work better, without any problems.

When hard disks used, the software can only show the last known complete status of the drive.

When using for longer time the drive may able to find out some sectors which need replacement from the spare area.
Without the test, these problems may remain un-noticed for long time, sometimes even for years
(as described at https://www.hdsentinel.com/hard_disk_ca ... ectors.php )

In general, you do not need to worry about those bad sectors as these are already fixed by the hard disk: now the disk uses the spare area instead of these bad sectors, all read and write operations are using the spare area.
So there is no need to fix them, as these are already fixed by the hard disk. They will not cause problems in the future and some of them completely acceptable.

However, because your drive still have weak sectors (meaning the status is not stable) further problems may be detected any time which can cause problems and data loss.
These weak sectors are different thing - they are usually not related to hard disk, but more related to the operating environment (cables/connections/power source).

The Read test designed to reveal such issues and after stabilizing the problems, yes of course, it is possible to acknowledge the remaining reported problems and remove them from the text description, restore the health to 100% as then the software will only report future issues (if there will be).

This is described at http://www.hdsentinel.com/faq_repair_ha ... _drive.php

Can you please use Report menu -> Send test report to developer option?
Then I can examine the complete status of the drive and the situation and can help step-by-step about how to clear the error counters and restore the health.
However, if the status is not stable, further issues and weak sectors may be reported in future use.
(see: https://www.hdsentinel.com/hard_disk_ca ... ectors.php )

Personally I can understand if you feel you'd need a warranty. However, as I wrote, bad sectors are (from the viewpoint of the manufacturer) acceptable until we reach the error level threshold required for warranty. Then the health would be 0 %.

If you'd ask for warranty replacement now, you may
- receive back the drive (after the above steps) as "repaired"
- receive back the drive as perfect (and the service may take many days and you may need to pay as the drive was perfect)
- receive back a worse drive with even more problems
To avoid these, I always recommend to diagnose with Hard Disk Sentinel and make the status stable.

[zeromind999]

But, It is a brand new drive installed only a few months back, I am careful with its usage. No gaming or other high performance tasks. I always keep a temperature check of approximately 32 degrees .I use it only for office work and documents.

I still dont understand, how can the first screen after the read test show that all the sectors are GOOD

and suddenly the health crashes to 23% on the main screen ?

[hdsentinel]

When the hard disk left the company it was perfect. The hard disk drive recorded its status and Hard Disk Sentinel reads it and displays that.
Before the hard disk installed in your computer, it was shipped, damage may happened which may remain un-detected for long time, until the test revealed and fixed it
(or until you may fill it completely with data and then fail suddenly, causing complete data loss).

This is exactly why it is important to perform intensive testing BEFORE using any drive (even new) as recommended at

https://www.hdsentinel.com/faq.php#tests

to reveal and fix any such problems long before the hard disk used to store actual data.
The tests designed to reveal and fix (stabilize) problems (if any) - or by those tests, we can confirm that the status is really perfect and the hard disk is safe to use.

Otherwise the problems may remain undetected for months, as described at
https://www.hdsentinel.com/hard_disk_ca ... ectors.php
(where the bad sectors detected only after years, when they already caused data corruption / data loss).

This is similar as you'd install an antivirus software: when installed, it may show everything is clean - but after performing a complete scan, it may find the "hidden" issues.


> I still dont understand, how can the first screen after the read test show that all the sectors are GOOD

The disk test revealed bad sectors (which could otherwise cause data corruption if those sectors would be used to store data) and then the hard disk performed the re-allocation: replaced the original problematic sector by a sector from the spare area.
The completely perfect read test means that now the hard disk (with its total capacity) can be used without problems. The original bad sectors no longer used, so now yes, it is safe to use the hard disk - until possible other, new problems detected.
The test shows the status of the original (good) sectors and when the bad sector was tested, the hard disk automatically redirected the command to the spare area. So generally we see no issues, maybe except slight performance degradation.


> and suddenly the health crashes to 23% on the main page?

No crashes at all.
The health decreased because of the detected bad sectors.
The health change (and the text description) designed to show the actual situation: to allow you to take the required actions (for example performing backup if required) and after further testing and repairing (for example checking connections/cables which caused weak sectors) you can acknowledge these problems (as these fixed) to restore the health and be notified about possible new problems only (if there will be).