Laptop HDD Error -How bad are these? Inputs needed

[windchimes]

Hi guys,

Recently my Windows 7 OS wasn't booting in and I gave it for service . They came back saying that my Laptop had a faulty HDD. As per their recommendation i got a new HDD and they said they were not able to backup data as the drive changed to "dynamic" and to take it to data recovery experts for safe recovery. I eventually did that part myself using opensource tools (testdrive) and converted the old harddisk to an external USB hdd. Primarily it is not showing an error. But on SMART test (using HDD Scan) it shows fault with these two parameteres

a) Reallocation Sector Count and b) UltraDMA CRC Errors

How bad are these??


Full Scan report is as shown in attachment. Would like to know whether this HDD can be used for storage? Was it right from the service guy's part to say that it is faulty ( he said it got major errors as per his diagnosis). Or was I fooled to buy a new one?

 

[patkim]

Your data shows that there are 1D68 reallocated sectors. I suggest you use CrystalDiskInfo tool and set the raw values data type to 10[Dec] 2 Byte. This option is available under menu Functions --> Advanced Features --> Raw Values.

The Hex format is slightly difficult to interpret. Plainly it says that 1D68 = 7528 sectors have been reallocated. But to get the correct & more simpler to understand decimal based value use above mentioned data format. This will split the Hex format to Max Min & Actual values as expected.

Moreover look for Current Pending Sector Count & UnCorrectable Sector count. A high value here is a clear indicator of failure.
What surprises me is that despite high number of reallocated sectors, the Normalized Value for that parameter has not fallen.
CrystalDiskInfo shall report the overall status as Good, Bad or Caution. In your case it might be Caution or Bad.

If my disk had so many reallocated sectors, I would not trust it anymore.

HDD bad sectors is one of the reasons for OS not booting or OS not installing in the first place.

UltraDMA CRC errors could result because of faulty SATA ports I suppose. In your case there's no cable involved but it might mean some issue with SATA port at HDD or where it connects to motherboard. Watch this parameter going forward. If you still get high errors even after replacing HDD it might mean some fault with motherboard SATA end or the attachment adapter between HDD and mobo.

 

[windchimes]

Thanks Patkim. Will check this