ST31500341AS 1.5TB Firmware CCH1 - errors on drive...fail?

[Kenshiro]

Dear HDD Forum,

I wonder if you could point me to the correct direction here….

I was using the above mentioned HDD to store my movies and series patiently with quite some effort in organizing everything.

The other day, while I was copying over some files, I noticed that it took extremely long to copy 1GB over.

Also, when clicking on My Computer, and then double click on the Drive itself, the Computer bar “Address” on top gradually fills with green but very slow, it takes at least one minute or two to load, but never finishes.

Unfortunately each time I clicked on it, the whole pc was blocked after that and I was forced to re-start again.

I managed to format the whole drive (bye bye movie compilation ) – but the bar on top keeps indicating me that something is wrong with it.
I never partitioned the drive, I always kept it with its original partition of 1.36TB.
I never heard any clicking sounds or whatsoever from the drive.
I ran chkdsk but it never ended.
I used its power and sata cable to run on another drive and it just runs fine.
It can’t be a power problem, I built my rig in July with new components.
The drive appears and sometimes disappears (I really don't know what is happening).

I ran HD Sentinel, the screenshot attached showed lots of errors (533 bad sectors / 81 weak sectors).
Is this drive by any means dead?
Can it be saved somehow - maybe with a zero fill ?

Considering the prices of the HDD's nowadays, I really would like to rescue this one...

These are my specs:
OS: Windows 7 - 64 bits
Cpu: AMD 1090T
Graph: Nvidia gtx 560ti
HDDs : one SSD + 2 other mechanical drives (1TB + 2TB).
Psu: Seasonic X-660

Any hint or suggestion would be very helpful.
And sorry for writing so much...

Kind regards,
Ken

[loki]

Is the drive in warranty? if so i would RMA it back & get a replacement.

Loki.

[Vulcan]

@Kenshiro,

I agree with loki that the drive is probably faulty - although it seems that it has not yet triggered an actual SMART failure (threshold exceeded) yet, which might make it difficult for you to RMA the drive at the moment. Try running the Seagate SeaTools program, to see if that will confirm a drive fault - if it does, then this may allow you to get a warranty replacement (assuming that you have a warranty on that drive). A few more comments below (all IMHO)...

I used its power and sata cable to run on another drive and it just runs fine.

OK, although the HD Sentinel results suggest there may have been SATA errors in the past - that couldn't cause the reallocated sectors, but until you have used that same SATA cable for an extended period with another drive and checked the SMART data for that other drive, to confirm no SATA errors, then the SATA cable is not "known good" at this stage.

It can’t be a power problem, I built my rig in July with new components.

New components can be faulty too, so using new components does not preclude a power problem. Power problems could theoretically cause symptoms like those you're seeing. However if another drive (which has similar power requirements) runs OK using the same power cables (and obviously the same PSU) for an extended period, and assuming that power problems weren't external (i.e. repeated mains interruptions), then power problems would seem unlikely to be the cause in your case. It's just difficult to completely rule them out quickly.

I ran HD Sentinel, the screenshot attached showed lots of errors (533 bad sectors / 81 weak sectors).

You showed only the HD Sentinel interpretation of the SMART data, not the SMART data itself (notice how that is a different tab).

Can it be saved somehow - maybe with a zero fill ?

Impossible to be sure without knowing exactly why the drive has these symptoms. If this is a genuine drive problem, and not power-related, then at best, a zero-fill might reallocate some / all of those 81 pending sectors, but it can't fix any underlying problem to prevent further issues. So, as discussed at the beginning, the drive is likely to be faulty, providing you can definitely rule-out power problems.

It would be helpful if you have any previous SMART data from this system, collected between July (when the system was built) and now, for comparison - do you have that?

[northwind]

OK this drive is still under warranty as i see it, until 20-Nov-2012.

Which means, that if you do what Vulcan suggests and Seatools respond with an error code, then you can RMA the drive and get a new one.

[Vulcan]

@northwind,

Well spotted! I didn't see the drive's serial number hiding there on the screen, to be able to check the warranty

[northwind]

@northwind,

Well spotted! I didn't see the drive's serial number hiding there on the screen, to be able to check the warranty

Hehe, you spoiled the fun. I wanted to see how many questions that would raise

[Nick_CT]

Eyes like an eagle

[Kenshiro]

Thanx for your prompt replies guys - at least you made me smile yesterday night, there's still hope!

Let me be a bit more specific, maybe that allows you to get a better picture on my problem.
1. Powering: I used the same cables from the "faulty" drive on another one for several days now, no issues, performance ok, no errors.
2. I don't have any previous SMART data collected, the drive just failed one week ago without announcement....
3. Yesterday I ran a few more tests on Seatools & HDD Sentinel:
Short DST - Fail -> (Seatools)
Short Generic - Fail -> (Seatools)
SMART - Pass -> HDD-Sentinel
Short Self-Test -> Failed (Screenshot Sentinel)
Screenshot Smart Test Sentinel
I also have attached the Smart-Sentinel report for this drive, attached here (it's a mediafire link)
4. I saw that the highest temperature it achieved was 73Cº (maybe that caused the ruckus?)

Now, as the drive already failed in the Short-Test, should I try to Zero-Fill the drive?

The RMA-Question:
As it's still under warranty I can still start a RMA on this drive. Thank you the reminder!!
I acquired this drive in a computer shop in Spain in my hometown, you know, those OEM drives, with just a plastic envelope. Unfortunately I'm not finding the invoice for this....I need to contact my bank and find out the day I bought it with my credit card so that I can go back to the shop and tell them the transaction number.
Is it possible to not go through this hassle and just send the drive back to Seagate?
Is the technical service in Europe for my case? Just thinking that the shipping costs can be quite high, or? But at least lower than getting a new drive....

A few more questions:
Also, as you maybe have seen, I have another Seagate drive (2TB) which currently remains unpartitioned as well.
Should I partition it? Does HDD Guru have a free tool for this, or should I try the Discwizard from Seagate (which some people say it's really bad) or rather partition it through the integrated Shrink/Extend Volume in Windows 7?

Being a neophyte with bad sectors, errors on HDD drives... would have existent partitions on my faulty drive prevented bad sectors to jump from one partition to another? Or rather put it this way: if bad sectors exist on a drive, does it affect all of its partitions?

I'm just thinking that all happened while I was moving over some files from another drive...If the origin drive had bad sectors, can those bad sectors or whatsoever have been copied through files - affecting the destination drive - like let's say a Virus?

Maybe this is just a ridiculous assumption (I really hope so), but I need to cancel out all possible errors that I may have caused myself.

Thank you again for your patience reading me,
Kind regards,
Ken

[Vulcan]

Thanks for the info. However I don't have time to answer all your new questions.

Based on the SMART data and the failure of the Seatools tests, I cannot see anything you can do, to make this drive reliable. If it was my drive, I would replace it. Others may have different opinions.

[northwind]

The RMA-Question:
As it's still under warranty I can still start a RMA on this drive. Thank you the reminder!!
I acquired this drive in a computer shop in Spain in my hometown, you know, those OEM drives, with just a plastic envelope. Unfortunately I'm not finding the invoice for this....I need to contact my bank and find out the day I bought it with my credit card so that I can go back to the shop and tell them the transaction number.
Is it possible to not go through this hassle and just send the drive back to Seagate?

Go ahead and send them the drive without any invoice. Just follow the seagate RMA site instructions. The only case I was asked to supply a purchase invoice was when i returned a combo - drive as stand alone.

Is the technical service in Europe for my case? Just thinking that the shipping costs can be quite high, or? But at least lower than getting a new drive....

You will be prompted to send your drive to seagate europe. You can send via regular mail so the price should be no more than $6-$7. But be very careful when packing the drive because reckless packaging can cause your drive to be rejected for replacement. You can find the respective info in seagates site.

A few more questions:
Also, as you maybe have seen, I have another Seagate drive (2TB) which currently remains unpartitioned as well.
Should I partition it? Does HDD Guru have a free tool for this, or should I try the Discwizard from Seagate (which some people say it's really bad) or rather partition it through the integrated Shrink/Extend Volume in Windows 7?

Why use specialized software when you only want to the basics? You can use win7 disk management utility.

Or rather put it this way: if bad sectors exist on a drive, does it affect all of its partitions?

Bad sectors affect the file these sectors belong to.

I'm just thinking that all happened while I was moving over some files from another drive...If the origin drive had bad sectors, can those bad sectors or whatsoever have been copied through files - affecting the destination drive - like let's say a Virus?

No. Bad sectors are not a disease.

[Kenshiro]

Thank your responding to all my questions Northwind & Vulcan,
Very much appreciated.
I will start the RMA process then. I got all the packaging info, acquired an ESD bag, the box and foam...all set to initiate a happy trip - and hopefully return

Cheers,
Ken

[northwind]

Good luck!