All times are UTC - 5 hours [ DST ]




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 30 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2  Next
Author Message
 Post subject: Recover "Current Pending Sector Count" S.M.A.R.T. error
PostPosted: December 4th, 2020, 13:05 
Offline

Joined: June 25th, 2013, 10:18
Posts: 70
Yesterday my Acer laptop dating back to 2013 crashed with a blue screen, while all restart attempts failed because Windows won't load the desktop icons but only the mouse pointer could be moved.

After restarting Windows in Safe Mode I find out the cause of the problem: CrystalDiskInfo reports under "Current Pending Sector Count" a value of 216 (see image below) which remained unchanged even today. Windows logs contain multiple events that indicate a damaged file systems and a damaged block.

In Safe Mode, Windows works as usual and the disk does not emit any abnormal noise or show slowness.

I have already saved data and purchased a replacement ssd, but I was wondering if does it make sense to try to recover those sectors with a program (Victoria, HDD Regenerator ?) or with the command ATA Secure Erase (see link) ? I would like at least to use it as a secondary disk to store data.

Image


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Recover "Current Pending Sector Count" S.M.A.R.T. error
PostPosted: December 4th, 2020, 13:21 
Offline

Joined: December 5th, 2011, 5:38
Posts: 1626
Location: Italy
Your drive has physically bad sectors (damaged surface), this means that can't be fixed.
Victoria can format and fix only logical errors on sectors, the same as hdd regenerator.
Please avoid using hdd regenerator, it will insist on repairing those physically bad sectors until kills heads. Often it will give the illusion of being able to regenerate the sectors, but in reality it will not because there is no way to repair them.

If there are a lot of bad sectors also Victoria might kill heads, but chance that Victoria will do the same are higher!

P.S.
Your drive has pending sectors + G-sense error (without any reallocated), this could mean that there is already a weak/dead head.

_________________
My firmware database:
https://mega.nz/folder/O01DkBRI#MxP2J6ZNqXDcrX40I8MoQQ


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Recover "Current Pending Sector Count" S.M.A.R.T. error
PostPosted: December 4th, 2020, 17:32 
Offline

Joined: June 25th, 2013, 10:18
Posts: 70
michael chiklis wrote:
If there are a lot of bad sectors also Victoria might kill heads, but chance that Victoria will do the same are higher!

Maybe I can stop the program recovery process if it don't succed after a certain amount of time, so that I can avoid any heads damage ...

michael chiklis wrote:
Your drive has pending sectors + G-sense error (without any reallocated), this could mean that there is already a weak/dead head.

What can I do to better diagnose the problem ?

I have a TTL Converter (this device) used in the past to diagnose a problem of a Samsung HD (outcome here), connecting it to the Toshiba HD can I expect to receive more information about those errors ?


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Recover "Current Pending Sector Count" S.M.A.R.T. error
PostPosted: December 5th, 2020, 11:24 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: June 17th, 2019, 21:15
Posts: 117
Location: Homeroom
From my opinion, this SMART looks not critical to directly bin it without trying...
Often pending without reallocated means that you can restore them, and that they are maybe logical errors.
Do some tests and only then conclude if bin or re-use, maybe the defect part is only at one spot that you can exclude with right partitioning.
But yes, and depending of the results, the drive is not safe to store critical data.

So if you have time to try:
- done three full write with Victoria (+option write LBA num)
- if your drive is doing something after a write pass (noise, touch it), let it finish before starting next pass
- maybe let the drive plugged and idle for about 3-4 hours after those three erase pass
- go show SMART, look if pending is fall at 0 and if so do next
- full read it with Victoria, save the result with slow/error sectors, and show full chart (untick Grid option)

Killing head or bin it is the same result, so burn it and made it fail now... (but I doubt head fail will occur when looking at your current SMART)

I also suspect that those Toshiba are more accurate at not creating "false" errors in SMART...


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Recover "Current Pending Sector Count" S.M.A.R.T. error
PostPosted: December 5th, 2020, 15:24 
Offline

Joined: June 25th, 2013, 10:18
Posts: 70
diybit wrote:
done three full write with Victoria (+option write LBA num)

What is the difference between doing three complete writings with Victoria and doing them with ATA Secure Erase ?

Is it possible with Victoria program to read advanced diagnostic data without having to connect the disk to TTL Converter ?


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Recover "Current Pending Sector Count" S.M.A.R.T. error
PostPosted: December 5th, 2020, 17:17 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: June 17th, 2019, 21:15
Posts: 117
Location: Homeroom
There are about no diff, except that ATA Secure Erase will maybe write different data many times (or maybe it's only for the enhanced).
And this is a good thing for trying re-activated "for good" those pending sectors, I suggest you using "darik boot nuke" 3 pass instead ATA Secure Erase that you dont really know what it is doing.
I little simulate it with Victoria by 3 pass + write LBA num, but it's maybe better if random patterns will be written.

As I know you cant read this diagnostic with Victoria.
I have forgot that maybe you want to full repair it through the diag port, but sorry I dont know how for this...
And I think you will lose nothing by firstly try those writing tests.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Recover "Current Pending Sector Count" S.M.A.R.T. error
PostPosted: December 6th, 2020, 8:17 
Offline

Joined: June 25th, 2013, 10:18
Posts: 70
Since Windows started only in Safe Mode, I tried to delete the components that are loaded by the operating system at startup, in the hope that the failed sectors would be occupied by a non-essential component.

First I removed the antivirus and, after restarting the pc, Windows started normally.

Scandisk says that there are no problems on the disk, while the situation on Crystal Disk Info is unchanged.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Recover "Current Pending Sector Count" S.M.A.R.T. error
PostPosted: December 6th, 2020, 11:51 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: June 17th, 2019, 21:15
Posts: 117
Location: Homeroom
You have to plug this drive as a secondary drive or eventually by USB to execute those erase.
Or you have to prepare CD-ROM or USB to boot from, like "ultimate boot CD", that contain "Darik boot and nuke", but you can also use MHDD/HDAT2 or any other that permit you full rewriting the drive.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Recover "Current Pending Sector Count" S.M.A.R.T. error
PostPosted: December 13th, 2020, 17:31 
Offline

Joined: June 25th, 2013, 10:18
Posts: 70
diybit wrote:
You have to plug this drive as a secondary drive or eventually by USB to execute those erase.
Or you have to prepare CD-ROM or USB to boot from, like "ultimate boot CD", that contain "Darik boot and nuke", but you can also use MHDD/HDAT2 or any other that permit you full rewriting the drive.

I have always erased my disks using a Linux live cd and issuing the ATA Secure Erase command.

The laptop where the disk in question is mounted has always been sitting on a table so, what is the reason of the G-Sense errors ?


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Recover "Current Pending Sector Count" S.M.A.R.T. error
PostPosted: December 13th, 2020, 20:52 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: June 17th, 2019, 21:15
Posts: 117
Location: Homeroom
The only way you get to eventually repair those pending is by full writing the drive, so retry, and maybe with another solution than VSC Secure Erase.
Look if the pending fall to 0 just after full write, if yes, re-done 2-3 full writing.

There is something strange in your story, because you cannot be under Windows after a full erase.
So maybe you really get some bad sectors, that have re-appear pending during/after the Windows install.
You can only try multiple erase pass to try restore them in a "right" state.

After those erase, you have to full read your drive, pending or not, to really see the drive health, and for adjust your partitioning.

I don't know about G-Sense, but your seems not alarming.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Recover "Current Pending Sector Count" S.M.A.R.T. error
PostPosted: December 14th, 2020, 4:16 
Offline

Joined: November 22nd, 2017, 21:47
Posts: 309
Location: France
@michael chiklis
Quote:
Your drive has pending sectors + G-sense error (without any reallocated), this could mean that there is already a weak/dead head.

Wouldn't that point toward media damage, first and foremost ?
And no reallocation as far as I know only means that the pending sectors were not yet overwritten. Ain't that so ?


@diybit
Quote:
Often pending without reallocated means that you can restore them, and that they are maybe logical errors.

A few ones, perhaps, a couple dozens, maybe (I have a WD30EZRX with 25 “pending” sectors, all belonging to the same large video file it would seem, I moved that file to a specific directory with a name explicitly saying that there's a file with bad sectors in it, in case I forget, and it's been stable ever since), but 216 ? Unlikely. At best the bad sectors are grouped in a small area and can be bypassed by re-partitioning. Any further attempt at reading them, and even more so writing to them, is bound to expand the damage.

Quote:
But yes, and depending of the results, the drive is not safe to store critical data.

Regardless of the result, at this point, the drive is no longer safe to store critical data (unless it's a third backup).

Quote:
So if you have time to try:
- done three full write with Victoria (+option write LBA num)

Seems like over-kill — literally. A hammer blow would be quicker if the purpose is to get it over with.

Quote:
- if your drive is doing something after a write pass (noise, touch it), let it finish before starting next pass

And pray Joe Pesci.

Quote:
- maybe let the drive plugged and idle for about 3-4 hours after those three erase pass
- go show SMART, look if pending is fall at 0 and if so do next

Again, highly unlikely.

Quote:
- full read it with Victoria, save the result with slow/error sectors, and show full chart (untick Grid option)

That would be the first thing to do (I would do that with HD Sentinel, but only because I have little experience with Victoria, if it indeed allows to export the complete list of errors then it's just as good for that purpose). Then check how those errors are distributed. If there are random errors all over the surface, I would say that the drive is no longer usable for anything, period. If there's one damaged spot or strip near the beginning (which is often the case for a system drive, since odds are high that a system file is being accessed when there's a shock, and system files being written first when the O.S. is installed, they are mostly located near the beginning), then deleting the current partition(s) and creating a new one beyond the damaged area, with at least 1GB of safety margin, may allow to squeeze some more life out of it, for non-critical data (for instance : to play media files on TV, or to bring copies of files on a trip...).

Quote:
Killing head or bin it is the same result, so burn it and made it fail now... (but I doubt head fail will occur when looking at your current SMART)

200+ pending sectors is starting to be very serious, in my — admittedly limited — experience, and it can go very quickly from “serious” to “total disaster” when insisting on accessing bad sectors.

Quote:
I don't know about G-Sense, but your seems not alarming.

All your bases are definitely belong to us.


@glhd
Quote:
Scandisk says that there are no problems on the disk, while the situation on Crystal Disk Info is unchanged.

Scandisk / CHKDSK with the default “fix” mode (chkdsk /F) only analyses the MFT, which is a relatively small area (usually starting at the 3GB mark relative to the beginning of each partition, or cluster #786432 — for partitions created on recent Windows iterations, as this changed over time), it does not perform of full scan of the drive's surface.

Quote:
The laptop where the disk in question is mounted has always been sitting on a table so, what is the reason of the G-Sense errors ?

Depends how sensitive that is... I suppose that the sensitivity varies between manufacturers / models.
Perhaps you were drunk once in a while, and forgot... (Some get drunk to remember, some get drunk to forget.) Perhaps you lended the computer once to a not-so-careful friend... Perhaps you sneezed in your elbow as they recommend on the “new normal” TV, while wearing latex gloves with sticky hydroalcoolic gel residues which got stuck between the keyboard and the touchpad and pulled the computer... Perhaps you share an unfortunate congenital infirmity with the titular protagonist of the novelette Evguenie Sokolov by french singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg, who becomes a famous abstract painter because his formidable flatulences impulse a peculiar shaking on his painting strokes... God knows what happened, perhaps Joe Pesci does, too, but both are pretty quick to unleash their wrath so if I were you I wouldn't dare asking.

Quote:
Since Windows started only in Safe Mode, I tried to delete the components that are loaded by the operating system at startup, in the hope that the failed sectors would be occupied by a non-essential component.

You could determine precisely which files were allocated to each one of those bad sectors, but for what purpose, if you already have a copy (and hopefully a backup) of personal files, and if you're going to reinstall the O.S. anyway ? (You could have attempted a clone, but if you've already started deleting system files at random (by the way you describe it), chances are that the integrity of the O.S. is compromised by now...) (By the way, that's why it's a good idea to do system backups once in a while, especially with laptop computers since it's usually more difficult to find all the required drivers.)


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Recover "Current Pending Sector Count" S.M.A.R.T. error
PostPosted: April 16th, 2021, 5:21 
Offline

Joined: June 25th, 2013, 10:18
Posts: 70
diybit wrote:
The only way you get to eventually repair those pending is by full writing the drive, so retry, and maybe with another solution than VSC Secure Erase.
Look if the pending fall to 0 just after full write, if yes, re-done 2-3 full writing.

abolibibelot wrote:
Quote:
- full read it with Victoria, save the result with slow/error sectors, and show full chart (untick Grid option)

That would be the first thing to do (I would do that with HD Sentinel, but only because I have little experience with Victoria, if it indeed allows to export the complete list of errors then it's just as good for that purpose). Then check how those errors are distributed. If there are random errors all over the surface, I would say that the drive is no longer usable for anything, period. If there's one damaged spot or strip near the beginning (which is often the case for a system drive, since odds are high that a system file is being accessed when there's a shock, and system files being written first when the O.S. is installed, they are mostly located near the beginning), then deleting the current partition(s) and creating a new one beyond the damaged area, with at least 1GB of safety margin, may allow to squeeze some more life out of it, for non-critical data (for instance : to play media files on TV, or to bring copies of files on a trip...).

Only recently have I been able to deal with this drive, a few updates:

1) After a month since the 216 pending write sectors were detected, 8 reallocated sectors were added.

2) A few days ago I’ve connected the disk using a Usb > Sata adapter and after a few read-write tests copying large files, the total pending sectors count increased to 624.

3) I’ve performed a full read test with HD Sentinel that detected 3 damaged blocks: Block 0, 6804 and 8244 (see image)

4) Using the "Disk repair" function of HD Sentinel I’ve overwritten only the blocks above and the contiguous ones. After this all the pending sectors became reallocated sectors for a total of 632.

5) Connecting the disk directly to the Sata port of the laptop, I’ve performed an Ata Secure erase command using Hdparm.

6) I’ve rerun a full read test with HD Sentinel which detected 8 bad sectors in Block 6804, the very same detected and fixed before. I’ve then overwrote them again and they became reallocated sectors.

Can having the sectors marked as reallocated be enough to prevent the damage from expanding, or is it better to partition the disk to exclude the affected areas ?


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Recover "Current Pending Sector Count" S.M.A.R.T. error
PostPosted: April 16th, 2021, 6:42 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: June 17th, 2019, 21:15
Posts: 117
Location: Homeroom
It's better that you success triggering the reallocation on all those failing sectors.
Your drive can have about 16 000 reallocations, so you have a nice margin.

Are you saying that now you get 632 realloc and 0 pending?
If yes, you seems on the right way... (while this 632 count do not explode to like 10k)

Concentrate your read/write pass on those defective parts, like 6804.
If the defects keep growing, consider using partition that exclude those defects parts.
We cannot know if the damage will expand, so maybe partition it right anyway, but it might be not needed...

Right test it with many pass, unplug, retest it next day.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Recover "Current Pending Sector Count" S.M.A.R.T. error
PostPosted: April 16th, 2021, 7:12 
Offline

Joined: June 25th, 2013, 10:18
Posts: 70
diybit wrote:
Are you saying that now you get 632 realloc and 0 pending?

Yes, exactly. This is the actual disk status.
diybit wrote:
Right test it with many pass, unplug, retest it next day.

I was wondering if it is better to overwrite the entire disk surface using HD Sentinel's "Write" function (takes approximately 2 hours total, about 100 MB/s), HD Sentinel's "Reinitialize disk surface" function (takes approximately 8 hours total, about 25 MB/s) or Victoria's "Erase all data" function (takes approximately 2 hours total, about 100 MB/s).

I think they are all equivalent but I don't know if the HD Sentinel function "Reinitialize disk surface" offer any real adavantage when it says that "Overwrites the disk surface with special initialization pattern to restore the sectors to default (empty) status and reads back sector contents..." I would like to avoid it because it is much slower in completing the write of the entire disk.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Recover "Current Pending Sector Count" S.M.A.R.T. error
PostPosted: April 16th, 2021, 8:53 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: June 17th, 2019, 21:15
Posts: 117
Location: Homeroom
I do not know the HD Sentinel scans, does it tell you the LBA sectors in error?
You need this LBA infos to target firstly those bad spots. (and will be needed if you have to adjust partition)
The "Reinitialize disk surface" option seem nice as a end testing task.

I recommend you using Victoria for the moment, and done a map of where are the last defects detected.
So your next step is firstly full read to see your actual state, do this Victoria read and post the screen here, post the image as attachment because I cannot see imgur images...


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Recover "Current Pending Sector Count" S.M.A.R.T. error
PostPosted: April 16th, 2021, 9:09 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: June 17th, 2019, 21:15
Posts: 117
Location: Homeroom
@abolibibelot, why you seems to want to be careful with this drive! we have to hammer it to judge if it is re-usable.
Handling a defective drive can be done by different methods, and the one I wrote is about fine to judge if you can "safety" re-use the drive or not.
The thing I forgot to say is you have to be careful during those scans for in case you fall on big defective part that will consume all your spare, try keeping the spare for the partition you will use.
The drive can be largely re-usable while it full pass all those test without full filling the reallocation count.
Also some drive kick in their background offline scan when pending/realloc are detected, then yes I pray for long hours waiting for the new SMART status. It is useless for those drive to be even more careful as the bg scan will anyway come and read the drive entirely. (this Toshiba normally do not have bg scan)
Beginning by full writing is done to reset all, and eventually repair logical one error, but I admit that it can be eventually helpful to know the initial state by beginning with a full reading, for in case of unstable sectors. (but anyway you will normally re-detect them bad anyway later)


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Recover "Current Pending Sector Count" S.M.A.R.T. error
PostPosted: April 16th, 2021, 11:39 
Offline

Joined: June 25th, 2013, 10:18
Posts: 70
diybit wrote:
I do not know the HD Sentinel scans, does it tell you the LBA sectors in error?

Yes, you can see the scan log I've saved here
diybit wrote:
I recommend you using Victoria for the moment, and done a map of where are the last defects detected.
So your next step is firstly full read to see your actual state, do this Victoria read and post the screen here, post the image as attachment because I cannot see imgur images...

Full read with Victoria is in progress now.

If you can't see the HD Sentinel screen image or it's too small, try copying the following url directly into your browser i.imgur.com/d7wgyp3.jpg

diybit wrote:
@abolibibelot, why you seems to want to be careful with this drive! we have to hammer it to judge if it is re-usable.

I agree :)


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Recover "Current Pending Sector Count" S.M.A.R.T. error
PostPosted: April 16th, 2021, 14:22 
Offline

Joined: June 25th, 2013, 10:18
Posts: 70
Below the image with the results of the function "Full Surface Scan with Grid" of Victoria 5.36.

Sectors with access time within 100 ms increase considerably at the end of the test.


Attachments:
Victoria536 - Full Surface Scan with Grid.jpg
Victoria536 - Full Surface Scan with Grid.jpg [ 235.81 KiB | Viewed 24638 times ]
Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Recover "Current Pending Sector Count" S.M.A.R.T. error
PostPosted: April 17th, 2021, 20:31 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: June 17th, 2019, 21:15
Posts: 117
Location: Homeroom
Okay! It seems that you have already nice cured it! The result is not bad!

As you can see on the Victoria screen, one orange sector is slow, and three others green are suspect.
It's not sure that you will success triggering an auto realloc on this orange just by writing/reading...

Try to find the exact sector(s) that slow down on this part by choosing block size of 1 sector, then try doing many write/read pass on it with a little sector margin. You can resign if no change after about 50 pass.

If not a success and you spotted the exact sector culprit, retry as before with no margin this time, so scan only one sector culprit by pass, and you check the Victoria option "Remap", if you are lucky it will maybe finish by realloc it. (try also with reducing the timeout to a tiny, that perhaps will force Victoria to remap...)

I would propose you the hdparm --make-bad-sector, but it finally seems that it will not trigger a true reallocation, you can anyway try it if no success before. (it seems that the UNC it create will be removed by a simple write)

The HD Sentinel report is showing about 100 bad sectors, so there are about 500 previous that we dont know where they are.
You have to at least target with multi pass those three zones 0, 6804 and 8244 for further tests.
Do it with the HD Sentinel "Reinitialize disk surface" if you can, and also reduce the retry to 0 if you can.
I recommend you this option because it will be less headache for you than Victoria if it really do what it say, this option seems like Write-Read-Compare-Write0, so it correspond to 4 or 6hours Victoria full scan, but Victoria will not compare anything.

If you do not success to trigger a realloc on this orange, you will have to live with it, with the risk that it become full bad a day, so maybe consider bypassing it with right re-partition.

Check the Victoria option tab "Test options" for adding the green sectors position. And I said UNcheck grid, so to show the chart instead grid, but your chart seems fine.

And the tiny increased time all along the drive is normal.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Recover "Current Pending Sector Count" S.M.A.R.T. error
PostPosted: April 19th, 2021, 5:39 
Offline

Joined: June 25th, 2013, 10:18
Posts: 70
Before your last post I performed a full disk write with Victoria, this is the result:
Attachment:
aaa.jpg
aaa.jpg [ 233.73 KiB | Viewed 24334 times ]

diybit wrote:
Try to find the exact sector(s) that slow down on this part by choosing block size of 1 sector ...

If I choose Victoria's "Block size 1" option, the read/write speed becomes excessively slow (727 KB/s) and the time to complete the operation impractical (see screenshot below). I don't know if I can choose the "Block size 1" option at the end of the full disk read/write ...
Attachment:
aaaa.jpg
aaaa.jpg [ 200.92 KiB | Viewed 24334 times ]

diybit wrote:
The HD Sentinel report is showing about 100 bad sectors, so there are about 500 previous that we dont know where they are.
You have to at least target with multi pass those three zones 0, 6804 and 8244 for further tests.
Do it with the HD Sentinel "Reinitialize disk surface" if you can, and also reduce the retry to 0 if you can.

Yesterday I wrote blocks 0, 6804, 8244 and 5 other adjacent blocks (for a total of 11) using the "Reinitialize disk surface" function of HD Sentinel, performing 50 passes for each block. No errors were reported and the reallocated SMART blocks remained the same.


Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 30 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2  Next

All times are UTC - 5 hours [ DST ]


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 43 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group