Error 1117

[HDD1818]

Hello,

I just bought the software today since I liked it and needed it.

I followed your guidelines, and ran short-test (failed due to read element), followed by long test (failed as well).
The issue with the drive is TOO many bad sectors (over 7320 sectors) and over 1992 weak sectors.

So I decided to do re-initializations as recommended, but I get error 1117 and the test window as well as HD Sentinel keep "hanging" (but I don't force close it) and wait.. the test is running but super slow @ 0.02% and I get the error 1117 the request could not be performed because of an i/o device error sector: 1235192, block: 2

What am I suppose to do? The health was 4%.

[hdsentinel]

Thanks for your message.

Yes, generally this is normal behaviour. When the hard disk finds that a sector can't be read or written properly, it tries to move all data from that sector to the spare area. Then the original sector is marked as "bad" and no longer used, the spare area will be used for all further reads and writes. This is called reallocation.
During this, the hard disk does not accept any kind of commands, generally seems not working - and any software trying to access the hard disk (including the hard disk test of Hard Disk Sentinel) seems not responding. If this happens, most users reset/power OFF the computer, causing even more troubles. This is described at www.hdsentinel.com/smart

Error 1117 indicates that the hard disk does not respond and can't complete the test operation even after many retries. Then the test automatically advances to perform testing on the remaining surface area.

Re-starting the test may help - but to be honest, personally I'd not expect too much from the hard disk with a such low health. With thousands of bad / weak sectors reported, most hard disk would not be able to store any kind of data.

[HDD1818]

Thank you for your detailed answer

Yes I tried doing the test internally and even using USB 3.0 docking station; all fail cannot complete the test and eventually the test lock-out with no communication to the device.

So I guess this Hard drive is out of the picture

Thanks for the insight.

[HDD1818]

I got a replacement today, so how should I prepare the drive?
do you recommend a long term genetic test, or should I do re-initialization before start using it?

So I can understand, does re-initialization include "long generic test", or are they both separate type of tests and mutually exclusive?

[hdsentinel]

The "re-initialization" is the most intensive test. Because of its nature (it performs both writes with different patterns and reads + verification) it is the most robust testing method, one of the recommended ways to confirm that a hard disk (even a new one) is really 100% usable.
Also as it uses excessive amount of data transfer, it generally tests the stability of the whole system, so it can reveal issues in the connections, cables - or in some cases even internal memory. So it can be effectively used to verify stability of the storage system.

Personally I prefer to run all tests (one by one) displayed in the
"Hard disk health is low or recently changed or I just installed a new (used) hard disk. How can I perform a deep analysis?"
( http://www.hdsentinel.com/faq.php#tests ) section:

1) Disk -> Short self test
2) Disk -> Extended self test
3) Disk -> Surface test -> Read test
4) Disk -> Surface test -> Reinitialise disk surface

as then both hardware and software tests are performed, to verify both the hard disk components internally - and the storage subsystem (with read + write) in general.
Yes, this may take longer time - but when I prefer to store TBs of important data, I feel it is important to make sure that everything is error-free - and I want to confirm this by these tests.

[sirgib]

Instead of starting a new thread, I'll reply to this one.

I'm getting the exact same error 1117 on a failing hard disk. The issue I'm having though is for the past 5 hours, HDSentinel has been stuck on the same sector. The status window shows updates every 10mins or so, but its the same error in the same sector.

Why won't HDSentinel move onto the next sector to continue the test?

Shall I leave the program running or is it time to abort?

Thanks

[hdsentinel]

Generally, when a sector fails, the software trying to access that (Hard Disk Sentinel surface test in this situation) would need to wait for the response from the hard disk before it continue. Depending on the hard disk model, this response may happen relatively quickly - or may need very long time until the drive examines the integrity of the sector, repairs it (by reallocation) if required.
Hard Disk Sentinel tries to advance as soon as possible and advance, but depending on the amount of problems (and especially if the following sector(s) also fail) this may require very long time.

Personally if this happens, I'd recommend to try to
- restart the disk test from the following block (or skipping some blocks) just to check if the remainder of the drive is usable
To start from a specific block, please Select Disk -> Surface test and the appropriate test method (eg. read test / write test / Reinitialise disk surface etc.) and before starting, use the Configuration tab and in the bottom left area specify First Block / Last Block to be tested

- restart the disk test but select "Sequential backward test" on the above mentioned tab: so the test will start from the end of the hard disk and advance to the beginning

If this is a read-test, and especially if further block(s) may fail, then (after backup of all possible files) the Disk menu -> Surface test -> Reinitialise Disk Surface test may be good idea to force the drive to repair (re-allocate) the problematic sectors as soon as possible.
After that, the disk may be better to use and then the read test may be completed (or at least complete more quickly).

[sirgib]

Excellent response, thanks very much for your help!