HDD bad sectors gone after Windows 8 reset

[danz5]

Hi,

I had this problem twice in a row. I purchased an ASUS X501A with WD Scorpio Blue 320GB and it started to fail after two days, make noises, freeze, blue screens... I run the WD diagnostic tool and it couldn't even complete the quick test. The long test stopped soon and said "too many bad sectors". Then I run the HD Sentinel test and it said "many bad sectors" and 68% health out of 100% (which my old disks show perfectly well after years of use).

The weird thing is that I decided to return it and before that I reset Windows 8 to factory defaults. When I did so, I run the tests again and to my surprise there were no bad sectors detected and the HD sentinel said 100% health.

So I returned it, got a new one (same model) and everything happened again. Same symptoms, same bad sectors, same low health. So I went to return it again. This time the guy at the shop told me that it is happening to Asus laptops and that he thinks it is related to the Windows 8 driver being wrong. That if I installed Windows 7 the disk wouldn't fail.

Later, I checked on the internet about the WD Scorpio Blue and found that lots of them are failing after a short time and WD or Asus are still selling them when they are faulty. Many angry customers.

So, I'd like to ask if someone knows about this and if the driver question could be right. What makes sense to you? I know nothing about hardware, but I really would like to have exactly that laptop Asus X501A for some reasons and I wonder if this could be fixed. Unfortunately the X501A is sealed underneath and changing or removing the HDD or RAM is not possible or you lose the warranty. It can be done, many owners are doing it to use SSDs, but at the price of losing the warranty.

Does anyone know what the problem could be?

Thanks in advance.

[BlackST]

The "problem" (it's not really a problem but it is annoying) actually do exist but only the manufacturer (Asus) can deliver a solution that doesn't invalidate the warranty and makes it work properly right from the start - unless you want to use another OS and make some additional test on your own.

[danz5]

The "problem" (it's not really a problem but it is annoying) actually do exist but only the manufacturer (Asus) can deliver a solution that doesn't invalidate the warranty and makes it work properly right from the start - unless you want to use another OS and make some additional test on your own.

Hi. Thanks for the reply.

You mean you know this issue and it is about the Asus driver? 100% sure?

And it means the bad sectors are real and the disk is deffective or not?

Thanks again.

[fzabkar]

Did the bad sectors show up under the "Reallocated Sectors" SMART attribute, or were they "Current Pending Sectors"? If they were reallocated sectors, then the problem should not have gone away after a Windows 8 reinstall.

Could we see the SMART report?

[BlackST]

The "problem" (it's not really a problem but it is annoying) actually do exist but only the manufacturer (Asus) can deliver a solution that doesn't invalidate the warranty and makes it work properly right from the start - unless you want to use another OS and make some additional test on your own.

Hi. Thanks for the reply.

You mean you know this issue and it is about the Asus driver? 100% sure?

And it means the bad sectors are real and the disk is deffective or not?

Thanks again.

Disk is ok and the problem as it came it can go away (if there is no other issue).

[danz5]

Did the bad sectors show up under the "Reallocated Sectors" SMART attribute, or were they "Current Pending Sectors"? If they were reallocated sectors, then the problem should not have gone away after a Windows 8 reinstall.

Could we see the SMART report?

I only kept a screenshot, I returned the laptop. I don't know if that one helps at all.

[danz5]

Maybe I found the answer.

I forgot to mention that when reseting Windows 8, I also chose to deep wipe the drive, as I was to return it.

And here I found someone saying that formating may "mask" the bad sectors but they are still there.

http://www.datarecovery.com.sg/data_rec ... d_disk.htm

I mean, the symptoms were terrible, crashing, blue screens, system freezing, hours to copy files...

I think that the two disks got damaged, by software or by these WD Scorpio Blue being deffective.

[fzabkar]

When HD Sentinel refers to "weak" sectors, it is referring to those sectors which have been identified internally by the drive as being bad or difficult to read. These are then marked for reallocation at some future time when the OS writes to them. That's what happens when you format the drive or zero-fill it. If the "weak" sectors are retested and found to be OK, then they will be returned to service and the SMART report will be cleared. Otherwise, if they are confirmed to be bad, then they will be replaced with spares and their LBAs reallocated to these spare sectors. In the latter case the Reallocated Sector Count attribute will be affected.

[danz5]

Maybe I found the answer.

I forgot to mention that when reseting Windows 8, I also chose to deep wipe the drive, as I was to return it.

And here I found someone saying that formating may "mask" the bad sectors but they are still there.

http://www.datarecovery.com.sg/data_rec ... d_disk.htm

I mean, the symptoms were terrible, crashing, blue screens, system freezing, hours to copy files...

I think that the two disks got damaged, by software or by these WD Scorpio Blue being deffective.

Hi again !
Formating will not mask the bad sectors, it might force a realocation of the bad sectors (change for spares) but that "swap" will still be visible on the Sector Re-Alocation Count on SMART.
What you describe apears to be indeed a faulty drive, but remember that those faults might be caused by the way you use your laptop too.
Disks don't get damage by software (well, unless they access SA, or ulness you are playing with WDR, lololol) but they can be damaged if you move alot your laptop while it is working, or hit it hard while you put it down while the drive is still spinning, etc ...
If the SMART status report those damaged sectors there is no way for a "virus" to cause it, it's indeed a bad spot on the drive caused by "something else". Hopefully it will not be the laptop motherboard causing the issues (damaging drives) by incorrect power, etc ....
Best regards and hope that you don't have any further issues with the new drive.

I have had laptops for a decade and have moved them a lot, even when processing many things and never got hurt. They lasted very long.

However, I didn't move these two ones. I had the battery removed and stayed always on the table or my lap. Maybe having the battery removed caused the damage? For what I read it doesn't matter but you never know.

I was doing audio and video edition with Handbrake, FormatFactory and BeLight, but my much older laptops did that without any problem, just taking longer time. However, from the very beginning, when I did these editions, these new laptops would freeze the system a bit, while the old laptops didn't at all.

If all Asus X501A or if all WD Scorpio Blue were faulty, everyone would be commenting it on the forums or even in Amazon opinions, so I am puzzled that this has happened only to me, twice, and that is why I am thinking if it was the audio/video edition or somthing else.

In fact I ordered a third one, this time from Amazon, and I am full of doubts about it. I like the laptop a lot for being so light, fast and cheap, but it can be awful if it breaks down again, even worse if it breaks down not in the first week but in a couple of months and I can't return it anymore. I have to decide soon and might cancel it in the last moment.

What is your opinion about Dell? There is a special offer with 60€ discount for the Dell Inspiron 15 3521 with i3-3227U, Intel HD Graphics 4000, 500GB HDD, 4GB RAM and I could get it for 360€. But I am not sure about Dell and their warranty policy when they sell extra warranty for everything and reject to fix your computer with any excuse, plus they only give one year when by law in Europe they must give two years.

Thanks to all.