HDDs playing up

[Hoofy]

Am I correct in saying that when you start getting an occasional error with a HDD, it's time to buy a replacement?

Seem to be going through one every 2-3 years as my PC is on 60% of the day.

[eeLee]

define "an occasional error". Are you talking about SMART?

I have some HDDs with over 10 years runtime with no bad sectors.

I do run SpinRite on my drives every now and again. It's not free.

[Hoofy]

eeLee said:

define "an occasional error". Are you talking about SMART?

I have some HDDs with over 10 years runtime with no bad sectors.

I do run SpinRite on my drives every now and again. It's not free.

Dunno what SMART means in this context but when it says that I have to restart to repair drive errors. I've noticed that once I get that, it's on its way out.

How come your HDDs are still working fine? This is in a desktop that hasn't moved in 2 years so it's not like I'm dropping or kicking it.

[tribbles]

SMART is a system put into hard drives (and SSDs) to allow users to monitor the drives.

Some HDD vendors supply tools for doing it, but a freeware smatmontools can be used instead.

It'll tell you how many errors the drive itself has had to have recovered, temperatures and so forth.

If your drives are failing often, then either temperature, or powering off unexpectedly are my two suspects.

[Hoofy]

tribbles said:

SMART is a system put into hard drives (and SSDs) to allow users to monitor the drives.

Some HDD vendors supply tools for doing it, but a freeware smatmontools can be used instead.

It'll tell you how many errors the drive itself has had to have recovered, temperatures and so forth.

If your drives are failing often, then either temperature, or powering off unexpectedly are my two suspects.

Thanks. The old HDD was HOT last night. Is that a symptom of something not working properly?

[eeLee]

CrystalDiskInfo is free and will tell you what it might think your drives are doing. Heat suggests thrashing which would be likely due to errors or airflow.

It will tell you whether SMART has errors reported.

I run SpinRite on my drives when I repurpose them and buy quality drives. I have a bunch of WD Green drives that are ancient without bad sectors; other makes and models have come and gone in the meantime

[Jinx]

eeLee said:

CrystalDiskInfo is free and will tell you what it might think your drives are doing. Heat suggests thrashing which would be likely due to errors or airflow.

It will tell you whether SMART has errors reported.

I run SpinRite on my drives when I repurpose them and buy quality drives. I have a bunch of WD Green drives that are ancient without bad sectors; other makes and models have come and gone in the meantime

I've had relatively new 4TB and 2TB HDDs fail on me whilst much older drives are going strong (some are over 12 years old). One of the 2 TBs was still just in warranty so I was able to get a free replacement

[Hoofy]

eeLee said:

CrystalDiskInfo is free and will tell you what it might think your drives are doing. Heat suggests thrashing which would be likely due to errors or airflow.

It will tell you whether SMART has errors reported.

I run SpinRite on my drives when I repurpose them and buy quality drives. I have a bunch of WD Green drives that are ancient without bad sectors; other makes and models have come and gone in the meantime

Thanks, useful to know.

[Polly Grigora]

Hoofy said:

Thanks. The old HDD was HOT last night. Is that a symptom of something not working properly?

You need to get the manufacturer max running temperature for the hot drive and then find what temperature its running at with a SMART tool. Obviously cooling system needs to be fully functional

[Hoofy]

Polly Grigora said:

Hoofy said:

Thanks. The old HDD was HOT last night. Is that a symptom of something not working properly?

You need to get the manufacturer max running temperature for the hot drive and then find what temperature its running at with a SMART tool. Obviously cooling system needs to be fully functional

Thanks. Already retired the drive. Lost enough knuckle skin trying to remove it.