New WD 80GB 2.5 HDD: reallocated sector count problem

[wobbleymatter]

Hi! Here´s the report on my most recent headache, please advise:

I recently adquired a Western Digital WD800UE 80GB 2.5 ide HDD for use on a ACER Aspire 3630 laptop.
It bought from a second hand ebay-style online auction shop, but the HDD was still sealed when it reached my hands.
My main concern when receiving the HDD was the poor packaging: it came inside a small envelope with only one sheet of bubble paper.
I performed a quick test at my workplace with the win7 Disk Diagnostic Tools (CHKDSK) and it came out OK.

I later came home (carefully handled the HDD all the way), installed the HDD on the laptop, and the first thing that showed up when it booted was this:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20001143/IMG107.jpg

I was immediately awestruck. How could this be? I then tested the hdd on a different laptop (acer travelmate 4000), and the same SMART warning did not came up. But upon performing a quick test with the western digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostic tool, this happened:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/20001143/IMG105.jpg

My question now is this:
->Could this "damage" to the HDD come from the handling of the drive upon transport, or could the laptop somehow have inflicted it? (read on this thread about bad PSU causing this issue: http://www.howtofixcomputers.com/bb/ftopic158019.html)

Any help will be greatly appreciated, thanks.

[dick]

The smart report in the first image tells all.
Ignore it at your peril!!!
A second user drive from an ebay seller.......no more to say.

[BlackST]

... and of course NOT recertified with proper procedures

"CAVEAT EMPTOR" ( = buyer, beware !)

[fzabkar]

My question now is this:
->Could this "damage" to the HDD come from the handling of the drive upon transport, or could the laptop somehow have inflicted it?|

If the very first thing you did was to install the drive in your laptop and switch it on, then ISTM that the damage must have already been there.

A drive will only reallocate a sector when the host (ie your OS) writes to it. Until then, any "difficult" sector is marked as "pending reallocation". Since the drive was still at the POST screen, then, AFAIK, the only commands that the BIOS would have sent to the drive would have been the ATA Identify Device command, plus some SMART related commands. Neither of these commands involve writing to the drive.

It could be that bad "reserved" sectors (ie those used internally by the drive) are also transparently reallocated, but that's something that the data recovery people should be able to tell you.

BTW, I suggest that you avoid recertified drives, unless they come from the manufacturer. A bad sector will always be a bad sector, no matter who recertifies it. At least the manufacturer gives you a warranty ...

[wobbleymatter]

I settled the situation with the seller, i´m returning the HDD and getting a refund.
I also forgot to mention something important, that I was already using another HDD on that laptop (toshiba - 30gb) and it was working perfect, so i guess that eliminates the remote possibility of the issue being laptop related.

Thanks!

[BlackST]

A drive will only reallocate a sector when the host (ie your OS) writes to it.

Not true.

BTW, I suggest that you avoid recertified drives, unless they come from the manufacturer. A bad sector will always be a bad sector, no matter who recertifies it. At least the manufacturer gives you a warranty ...

When people have no money for a new drive or decide that it's not worth to buy a new drive they know about the risk.
Manufacturers give warranty on drive, not on data. And all harassment for RMA and change are always at end user costs.
Ask the people who need replacement for enterprise SCSI drives where a single NEW drive can cost up to 1000 EUR... and need it quickly, if they can consider a RECERT

What I find unfair is to sell drives that have been used and maybe developed some problems where the "test" or the method for... uh... "recertify" was a simple FORMAT or (at the best....) the use of MHDD-like software ...