I ran Hard Disk Sentinel's surface test twice on a two-year-old WD external drive, and it triggered one pending sector. I ran it again using the surface test with repair, and it found no errors, though I can see one darker sector and the pending sector is still pending. Is it advisable to run the read/write/read surface test scan to force this pending sector to either be marked bad or return to normal status?
If, after this test, I have one bad sector, should I replace the drive? It's a backup drive I mostly use for C: image backups. Because a six-month-old Samsung 990 Pro just failed on me, image backups are important, but I don't want to replace a backup drive that is unlikely to fail if it's not really necessary, and I do "grandfather" my C: images every week or two.
When to run the Surface test with read/write/read?
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hdsentinel
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Re: When to run the Surface test with read/write/read?
Generally the Read+Write+Read test designed to run on any secondary (non-OS) disk drive (eg. external hard disk, SSD, pendrive, memory card, etc) to "refresh" the stored data. This test should be used on correct, working drives (as it does not attempt to repair problems). But as any other test (like the read test), it can reveal problems, for example weak/pending sector.
After this weak sector revealed and then the Disk Repair used, the drive itself fixed the sector - "just" did not properly decrease the counter of the weak sectors. Rarely but this happens (but usually when the drive had higher number of weak/pending sectors). The darker green block indicates that the test needed more time to process that area - so it generally confirms the location of the affected sector.
Sometimes the counter changes (decreases back) automatically with time, during normal use, so you may wait and check if there is any change: you may see that the count of the weak sector decreases (ideally) or increases again (not too ideal).
If you prefer, you can re-run the Read+Write+Read test, to "force" the hard disk drive to re-write both the affected sector and also other sectors near that. This may help to recover the weak sector counter sooner.
Personally (instead of processing the whole drive again) probably I'd test specifically only the corresponding block.
Do you know the location (block number) with the darker green color? If not, you may check this way:
1) select Disk menu -> Device Specific Information
to attempt to detect additional information, eg. internal error logs and so
2) on the bottom of that page, you may see a Sector List section
It quickly summarizes the sectors (and their corresponding block), so it may show (for example):
-- Sector list 1800016, 6, 0 [S/B:62520] --
187560 (Block: 3)
which means that the last error(s) encountered in block 3.
If you know the location, you can use
1) select Disk menu -> Surface test and select the test type (Read+Write+Read) and the drive itself
2) in this window, select the Configuration tab and specify the block number to be tested in the First block / last block options (enable the Limit testing to specific data blocks option first).
You may configure a range of blocks too (eg. 2-4 in this case or so).
3) then proceed the test.
Then the appropriate blocks will be tested, refreshed again - and ideally after that, the current pending sector count will decrease back.
These weak/pending sectors usually related to cables, connections, power issue or something which may be not stable. Typical issue is also when an external USB adapter/dock may overheat during a such long intensive disk testing (this is why I'd now test only specifically of the affected area, not the whole drive too).
If the status / Health will go worse, then (depending on the age, power on time, current Health) yes, you may consider/plan replacement.
But alone a weak/pending sector does not indicate that - because (if the issue is more related to something else) then you may see similar with a replacement drive too.
As I usually recommend, if you use Report menu -> Send test report to developer option, I can check the actual status of the drive and advise. You can send multiple reports too: now and then after the test, so I can check possible status/health change too.
After this weak sector revealed and then the Disk Repair used, the drive itself fixed the sector - "just" did not properly decrease the counter of the weak sectors. Rarely but this happens (but usually when the drive had higher number of weak/pending sectors). The darker green block indicates that the test needed more time to process that area - so it generally confirms the location of the affected sector.
Sometimes the counter changes (decreases back) automatically with time, during normal use, so you may wait and check if there is any change: you may see that the count of the weak sector decreases (ideally) or increases again (not too ideal).
If you prefer, you can re-run the Read+Write+Read test, to "force" the hard disk drive to re-write both the affected sector and also other sectors near that. This may help to recover the weak sector counter sooner.
Personally (instead of processing the whole drive again) probably I'd test specifically only the corresponding block.
Do you know the location (block number) with the darker green color? If not, you may check this way:
1) select Disk menu -> Device Specific Information
to attempt to detect additional information, eg. internal error logs and so
2) on the bottom of that page, you may see a Sector List section
It quickly summarizes the sectors (and their corresponding block), so it may show (for example):
-- Sector list 1800016, 6, 0 [S/B:62520] --
187560 (Block: 3)
which means that the last error(s) encountered in block 3.
If you know the location, you can use
1) select Disk menu -> Surface test and select the test type (Read+Write+Read) and the drive itself
2) in this window, select the Configuration tab and specify the block number to be tested in the First block / last block options (enable the Limit testing to specific data blocks option first).
You may configure a range of blocks too (eg. 2-4 in this case or so).
3) then proceed the test.
Then the appropriate blocks will be tested, refreshed again - and ideally after that, the current pending sector count will decrease back.
These weak/pending sectors usually related to cables, connections, power issue or something which may be not stable. Typical issue is also when an external USB adapter/dock may overheat during a such long intensive disk testing (this is why I'd now test only specifically of the affected area, not the whole drive too).
If the status / Health will go worse, then (depending on the age, power on time, current Health) yes, you may consider/plan replacement.
But alone a weak/pending sector does not indicate that - because (if the issue is more related to something else) then you may see similar with a replacement drive too.
As I usually recommend, if you use Report menu -> Send test report to developer option, I can check the actual status of the drive and advise. You can send multiple reports too: now and then after the test, so I can check possible status/health change too.