Trust a WD Green 500gb HD which Data Lifeguard says it repaired?

gregrocker · 10 Apr 2015

I've run full bootable Data Lifeguard scan 3 times on a WD Green WD5000AADS 500gb I don't trust here. It recently kept rebooting to the BIOS splash screen which was corrected by a single Startup Repair, but I'm not sure I trust it even for the Dual Boot backup machine for our household.

Each time the Quick Scan says no errors reported (SMART, I believe). Then Full scan runs for two hours and says "Drive Repaired - Error Status 223," which their Help defines as:

Trust a WD Green 500gb HD which Data Lifeguard says it repaired?-capture.png

How can it be "defect free" if it keeps finding and repairing? Am I to keep running it until it repairs everything else? Is DL itself defective or unreliable?

I realize that we advise others here every day not to trust a drive even if it will repair by its maker's diagnostics. But then what is the point of the diagnostics repair function? I think I would continue to rely on it if it stopped finding ANY errors to repair, and then passed a full Disk Check. How about you?

ignatzatsonic · 10 Apr 2015

I suspect the "errors found, but have been repaired successfully" is a reference to re-allocated sectors.

All drives have a finite number of spares that are swapped in for bad sectors

If and when more sectors go bad, you may be into the "errors found and have not been repaired" category, IF you have used up all of the spares.

I think it's a bit of a misnomer to call that "repair" or "defect free". The bad sectors are still bad, they are just on the DL, to use a baseball term. Permanently on the DL. Or the physically unable to perform list (PUP), if you like the NFL.

I wouldn't agonize. Accept it as a fact, have backups, know what you will do the day it won't spin at all. They can fail suddenly---I had a 1.5 WD Green just give up suddenly 3 weeks ago. It had just been sitting in a closet unused and wouldn't spin when next connected.

Keep an eye on re-allocated sectors. They often rise rather quickly when things start to go bad.

gregrocker · 10 Apr 2015

Strange that Quick Test which tests SMART didn't reported Unallocated Sectors. I'll install and run Crystal Disk Info when it finishes the latest test.

What's really irritating and OT is that I had two other 500gb backup HD's before Windows 10 TP v.9879 ruined them by flipping a switch to Power On In Sleep that bricked a bunch of HD's causing a furor on MS Community. build 9879 bricking drives - Microsoft Community
Build 9879 hard drive disaster - Microsoft Community

I have tried every fix I can find to fix them as some others were able to do. More here: I lost 2 Hard Disks after updated from Build 9860 to 9879 - Page 5 - Windows 10 Forums

This drive had 9879 on it but shows none of those symptoms which only happened to my Hitachi's.

paul1149 · 11 Apr 2015

Hi Greg,

I would get the SMART attribute count, particularly ## 5 and 196-199. GSmart, HDScan, defraggler, etc will do that. Then run chkdsk /r on the drive. Then compare the attribute count again. If you get more bad sectors at this point, the drive is rapidly failing.

BW,
Paul

Lady Fitzgerald · 11 Apr 2015

ignatzatsonic said:

...I wouldn't agonize. Accept it as a fact, have backups, know what you will do the day it won't spin at all. They can fail suddenly...

Exactly. I don't trust any HDD or SSD any further than I can throw them (and, at my age, that's not very far). Frequent, multiple backups are the only way to reasonably ensure the safety of your data.

gregrocker · 12 Apr 2015

And on the third pass with WD Data Lifeguard CD, the Quick Test which had been showing Clean is also giving a defective error which must mean that it is deteriorating as we speak.

Then the long test passes, so go figure.

I don't think I trust the drive any longer to provide a Dual Boot backup PC for my roommates' aging PC's. Until I can get one of my spare 500gb Hitachi HD's killed by Windows 10 v.9879 to repair I am left with an 80gb I'll merge both of their installs into one Win7 with two accounts.

Come to think of it: I don't know how to merge two separate installs into one with two accounts? Nothing about export/import of a User account comes to mind. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Lady Fitzgerald · 12 Apr 2015

If the HDD is still under warranty, you should get it replaced by WD. I had to do that with a 2TB Green late last year. It was a pretty painless process. I opted to have them cross ship the replacement drive, allowing me time to make sure the replacement drive was good before returning the old one. I had to provide them with a credit card number but the hold on the card was lifted very shortly after I returned the old drive.

I prefer the blacks for HDDs in my computer, especially since my computer runs 24/7. I use my Greens for backup drives.

gregrocker · 12 Apr 2015

It's pretty old, at least 5-7 years I'd guess.

I'm now trying to revive 2 Hitachi's that Win 10 v.9879 killed by tripping PUIS switch as described in
build 9879 bricking drives!!!! - Microsoft Community
and Build 9879 hard drive disaster (read this) - Microsoft Community

My help thread is at I lost 2 Hard Disks after updated from Build 9860 to 9879 - Page 7 - Windows 10 Forums
so anyone who can help me try the remaining fixes I've not yet tried which require Linux fluency (I don't have) are greatly appreciated!

gregrocker · 12 Apr 2015

One other thing on the drive which is the subject of this thread. I just ran a final Disk Check on all 3 partitions and each was clear. Does this combined with the SMART data give it any chance after the mixed results of tests recounted here?

paul1149 · 12 Apr 2015

81 bad sectors is not a good drive, at least not for an OS or for storing important data. But the other question is how fast is it failing. One can get a glimpse of that sometimes by looking at the attributes both before and after a chkdsk /r.