Hard Disk with 20% health shows no bad sectors in Surface Test

[colmanhymx]

I was checking drives temps when I noticed my WD 1TB Blue drive (Steam Drive) had over 200 bad sectors and only 20% of health left, so I moved all the files to another drive (the move was ridiculously slow btw) and ran a full disk surface test with Hard Disk Sentinel, but the results of the test showed no bad sectors.. So is there something wrong? Should I RMA the drive? (It’s still under warranty)

 

Btw, one of my other drives (WD Purple 3TB) had a caution warning in CrystalDiskInfo, is there something wrong with it too? Should I also RMA this drive?

[tikker]

If they're under warranty you can always try an RMA. As for the Purple, it has two pending sectors meaning these are potentially bad. Keep an eye on it. They should disappear again after they are either remapped or become readable again.

[Dujith]

Not quite sure, but i believe it will only show new bad sectors, when they are already tagged they wont shup up again.

[colmanhymx]

2 minutes ago, tikker said:

If they're under warranty you can always try an RMA. As for the Purple, it has two pending sectors meaning these are potentially bad. Keep an eye on it. They should disappear again after they are either remapped or become readable again.

Should I do a full format before sending it in for RMA? (For privacy/security’s sake)

[tikker]

1 minute ago, igan3w_ said:

Should I do a full format before sending it in for RMA? (For privacy/security’s sake)

Not sure, ask WD what they do and/or require. Secure erasing 3 TB is going to take a while, so unless there's really sensitive data on the drives I'd leave it and just do a quick format perhaps. Completely wiping could wear it out even further as well (though maybe that helps the warranty case? ).

[colmanhymx]

4 minutes ago, tikker said:

Not sure, ask WD what they do and/or require. Secure erasing 3 TB is going to take a while, so unless there's really sensitive data on the drives I'd leave it and just do a quick format perhaps. Completely wiping could wear it out even further as well (though maybe that helps the warranty case? ).

I see. I think I will be secure erasing both drives as I’ve used both the drivers to store quite sensitive information. 

 

Oh and btw, I have two 2TB WD Greens from a WD Thunderbolt duo sometime ago, and both drives have 50% of bad sectors and since then I’ve full formatted it. Now it shows 100% health, but should I keep on using it for games or backup or should I just put the two drives in archive?

[Murasaki]

This will save you some time in the future.

[tikker]

2 minutes ago, igan3w_ said:

I see. I think I will be secure erasing both drives as I’ve used both the drivers to store quite sensitive information. 

 

Oh and btw, I have two 2TB WD Greens from a WD Thunderbolt duo sometime ago, and both drives have 50% of bad sectors and since then I’ve full formatted it. Now it shows 100% health, but should I keep on using it for games or backup or should I just put the two drives in archive?

That's pretty much half of the disk gone. I wouldn't trust those drives anymore with data that I don't want to lose.

[colmanhymx]

1 minute ago, Ross Scarlet said:

This will save you some time in the future.

Thanks??

[colmanhymx]

1 minute ago, tikker said:

That's pretty much half of the disk gone. I wouldn't trust those drives anymore with data that I don't want to lose.

Yeah... But if I just used those drives for backup? I’ve read somewhere that using a drive with bad sectors will corrupt the data, is it true?

[tikker]

22 minutes ago, igan3w_ said:

Yeah... But if I just used those drives for backup? I’ve read somewhere that using a drive with bad sectors will corrupt the data, is it true?

Especially for backups I wouldn't trust them anymore, as you'd like them to be reliable. Sometimes bad sectors can fix themselves when overwritten with 0s, but I'd still keep an eye on them. Use at your own risk I guess.

[colmanhymx]

19 minutes ago, tikker said:

Especially for backups I wouldn't trust them anymore, as you'd like them to be reliable. Sometimes bad sectors can fix themselves when overwritten with 0s, but I'd still keep an eye on them. Use at your own risk I guess.

Ah okay, thanks for your answer! Guess I’ll just archive the two greens, and send the other two back to WD.