CrystalDiskInfo "caution" health status, are these issues fixable at all or am I stuck getting a new HDD?

[c0mplexx*]

[Husky]

That drive has bad sectors and is therefore probably dying. You should back up your data as soon as possible and replace the drive.

 

The S.M.A.R.T data says that the drive has encountered sectors that it struggled to read, which it then managed to relocate to a special area on the drive that is reserved for situations like this so that those sectors can simply be relocated instead of being lost forever.

 

If the reallocated sector count keeps rising and rising, then it is likely that the drive is on it's way out. If the count stays stable and does not increase, then the drive might still be usable but I would highly recommend replacing it sooner than later.

[c0mplexx*]

11 minutes ago, Husky said:

That drive has bad sectors and is therefore probably dying. You should back up your data as soon as possible and replace the drive.

 

The S.M.A.R.T data says that the drive has encountered sectors that it struggled to read, which it then managed to relocate to a special area on the drive that is reserved for situations like this so that those sectors can simply be relocated instead of being lost forever.

 

If the reallocated sector count keeps rising and rising, then it is likely that the drive is on it's way out. If the count stays stable and does not increase, then the drive might still be usable but I would highly recommend replacing it sooner than later.

Got it, thanks! Does it matter which brand I replace it with or are they all essentially the same? I think I remember on Reddit people hating on Seagate drives and instead recommending WD ones

[Husky]

6 hours ago, c0mplexx* said:

Got it, thanks! Does it matter which brand I replace it with or are they all essentially the same? I think I remember on Reddit people hating on Seagate drives and instead recommending WD ones

You can replace it with a drive from any of the major brands. Western Digital (WD), Seagate, Hitachi, Toshiba, etc... they are all great drives. I have had a mix of both WD and Seagate throughout the years and they both worked great. What you read online is mostly heavily biased as some people just get unlucky. I've seen plenty of hate for both WD and Seagate all around the web, when in reality they both make great drives. Just go and pick a drive that is the best value for you.

 

Pro-tip: some newer cheaper drives are using SMR (Shingled magnetic recording) technology, which results in much slower write speeds. You can check the datasheet of the drive you want to purchase to make sure it says either "CMR", "PMR" or "Conventional recording" if you are going to need decent speeds. Otherwise, if it's for storing media and write speed isn't too important to you then you don't have to worry.