Hard Disk Monitoring

Hi, I'm using Hard Disk Sentinel Pro v5.00 and I have a WD Blue 1TB drive that I think is failing (suddenly I couldn't open folders and performance was extremely slow even when hard disk was at 100% activity). The drive health was at 65% with a number of weak sectors (around 60, I can't remember) but it has been really difficult trying to repair this drive.

Why difficult? I tried to initialize disk repair from surface test (which took 5 mins just to start the test) and after 2 hours, the drive health has improved by 3% to 68%, with 54 weak sectors remaining. HOWEVER, the progress is extremely slow at 0.76mb/s and the progress stands at 0.7%, with 307 hours (12.5 days) remaining.

At this rate, I don't think I can continue to run the test for 12.5 days... Should I just RMA the drive? I am concerned with this because I read that you should NOT ask the disk manufacturer for replacement unless the disk health is at 0%. My drive also has no bad sectors, which I understand is a more serious problem. What should I do?

Yes, the weak / pending sectors can cause such issues: files, folders are inaccessible, can't be read/written or (at least) things are extremely slow.
This is common - text description in Hard Disk Sentinel usually describes such events in this case.

Yes, generally the Disk menu -> Surface test -> Disk repair test designed exactly to repair such weak sectors. It does its job well - but only if the current operating conditions are better - otherwise new weak sectors may be constantly detected.

This is why generally this page:
https://www.hdsentinel.com/hard_disk_ca ... ectors.php
( Support -> Frequently Asked Questions -> What is a weak sector? How to repair weak sectors? )
describes that first it is required to examine and improve the operating conditions, verify and replace cables - if possible, in order to fix the original cause of the weak sectors.

Generally the Disk menu -> Surface test -> Disk repair test designed to be as safe for stored data as possible, to repair the drive with attempting to recover the data in all possible ways.
Because of its nature, yes, it attempts to test a specific sector numerous times with different methods to repair - and yes, when a weak sector found, this may require lots of time.
As you can see, it's successful - as the count of weak sectors decreased and the health improved.

As soon as the drive would pass the area where the weak sectors found (so all weak sectors would be fixed) then the test would run with highest
possible speed and would finish quickly (if the operating environment is safe, no further problems will be revealed).

If you prefer a faster solution and the stored data is not important, then the best way is to use Disk menu -> Surface test -> Reinitialise Disk Surface
(which also recommended on the above link in this case).

This performs complete multi-pass overwrite with special patterns and then clearing, exactly to force the hard disk to repair and stabilize all problems (reglardless of previously stored data).
As this performs complete erase, it is possible only if the corresponding hard disk is used as secondary drive (does not contain the current OS or other open files/folders).

Traditionally yes, manufacturers replaced the hard disk when the error level threshold reached (when 0% health displayed in Hard Disk Sentinel).
Nowadays then may replace sooner - maybe even in this case, but consider that usually weak sectors are not really problems with the hard disk itself, but problems caused by the operating enironment (cables, connections, power source, etc.)
So in this case, yes, you may attempt to ask for replacement, but it is possible that you may
- receive back the drive (after performing such repairing) as "repaired" after you wait some weeks
- receive back the drive as perfect (and the service may still take many days and you may need to pay as the drive was perfect)
- receive back a worse (refurbished) drive with even more problems
To avoid these, I always recommend to diagnose with Hard Disk Sentinel, repairing if possible and do everything to make the status stable.

yes, I have read the FAQ page where you talk about weak sectors and how to repair them. That is why I ran the Disk Repair test in the first place.

My PC has always been looked after well, and I don't use cheap components. My PSU is a Seasonic Gold 550W, all SATA 3 cables from ASUS, operating temperature for the drives is around 35-40C.

Out of the blue, the performance of this 1TB WD Blue drive is suddenly extremely slow and I am attempting to repair the drive but I don't think it is worth it if I have to run the test for 2 weeks continuously (and my PC performance becomes extremely slow with this drive attached). The drive is still under warranty from WD. I tested a different HDD from Seagate with the same operating environment (all same cables, just swapped the drive) and it completed tests without a problem.

I really don't know how this problem happened in the first place. This faulty WD drive is used as a secondary storage drive while I have Windows installed on a Samsung 850 SSD.

Yes, this sounds excellent - and I completely agree that in theory, there should be no problems in the operating environment.

Generally different hard disks may tolerate operating conditions differently. It is possible that a hard disk may be more sensitive to minor issues than others - and even if one of the drives work perfectly, the other may be affected and weak sectors generated.

Or it is even possible that the hard disk (even if newly installed) was not perfect - and the issues detected when the appropriate sectors used.
This is why personally I always recommend intensive testing ( https://www.hdsentinel.com/faq.php#tests ) - even on new hard disks, to reveal any issues long before they can lead to problems.

No, as I wrote, there will be no need to run the test for 2 weeks. The estimated time is calculated by checking the time elapsed and the % complete, assuming that the whole data area is so defective. But I suspect the weak sectors can be fixed sooner - and when the problematic sectors repaired, the test will run much faster.

Also to improve the speed (and reduce the amount of data recovery attempts) you may try this:
1) select Disk menu -> Surface test -> Disk Repair test but before starting the test,
2) select Configuration tab in this new window
3) in the lower right corner, you can see "Maximum try count". This defines how many attempts the software should try to recover data before the repair attempt. If you reduce this from the default 3 to 2 (or 1) then Hard Disk Sentinel will attempt to repair the weak sector sooner, without so many attempts to recover data. This way the repair speed will be much faster.

Personally I'd surely try to
- backup as much data as possible.
- if possible, disconnect the hard disk and connect in an external USB adapter which has power supply. Even if the configuration is working correctly, I'd attempt repairing by completely differnt cables, connections, power source
- perform the Disk Repair test as described above (reduced Maximum Try Count, maybe with 1)

as hopefully then all weak sectors will be repaired. If not, I'd attempt the complete Disk menu -> Surface test -> Reinitialise disk surface test.

If then all problems and all weak sectors fixed, then we can be sure the issue was not really the hard disk. Then I'd check the original operating environment as there was still something which caused the damages (this is not rare).
If the hard disk still reports problems after such repairing attempts, then yes, I'd ask for warranty replacement.

Hi, I decided to test the drive further with Western Digital's Data Lifeguard Diagnostic tool.

The quick self test by WD's tool failed to complete, and reported a 'failed read test element' with status code = 07. I guess my suspicion that the hard disk's read-and-write head must be having a problem (since the drive is at 100% activity and only 500kbps) is correct..

Yes, this is completely normal and expected in such situations - but in most cases it is not really related to disk heads (even if we may think so).

As the Help ( https://www.hdsentinel.com/help/en/62_testfaq.html ) describes:

In some cases, these hardware tests (Disk -> Short self test, Disk -> Extended self test) are not available, not supported or they result in an error quickly even in relatively low number of problems. No further information is returned about the result, for example it is not possible to list the sector(s) which are damaged. In such case, an appropriate software testing method is required.

This is true for the Disk menu -> Short self test, Extended self test functions, which are generally 100% similar than the tools offered by the manufacturer (hardware self tests).

In such cases, yes, you may attempt to ask for warranty replacement - then the warranty service will perform a "zero-fill" (similar as the Disk menu -> Surface test -> Write test would do in Hard Disk Sentinel) and then give back the drive as perfect or repaired, as then the weak sectors would be eliminated. Then the short / extended self test (and the mentioned tool too) will show no problems, exactly as described at
https://www.hdsentinel.com/hard_disk_ca ... ectors.php
as the weak sectors would be fixed.

Personally I'd attempt the previously mentioned methods to repair - or if you prefer to perform the fastest possible repair (and the data is not important) then the Disk menu -> Surface test -> Write test.