I have a laptop from a neighbour which didn't work very well.
Windows Vista was very slowed up etc. HDD activity enormous... but system frozen....

After boot the system warns also for a Smart Failure.
I already thought a defect HDD. And that seems to be...
I maked a perfect ghost image of the drive without any problems!

Now, I test everything, LOW level format the drive. Write Zeros to the drive.
Did DoD wipe. Also I scanned with MHDD and did remap test etc...

The WD drive seems to be perfect.
Also DatalifeGuard tools from WD say the drive is good. 0 errors!

Only the drive still give the SMART error Reallocated Sector Count.
Is there a way to fix this?
I read something about to clear the g-list en p-list.

Are there some freeware tools out there to clear?

Is there away to go really to factory defaults which will also clears de SMART settings?

Tnx.

There can be many possible reasons for a drive to report a SMART failure.

* What data did you collect at this point (e.g. output from any tool which collects SMART data), before you did anything else, that you can show us now?


SMART data collection & reporting has limitations, but how do you know that it is wrong and needs to be "fixed"?

Just because DataLifeGuard shows no errors during a test, does not mean that the drive has no problems - you are not running tests all the time, so (unlike SMART) you are not doing continuous monitoring.

* Please supply the full SMART data (including raw values) from this drive now. It would be especially useful if you installed smartmontools (open source) and collected the output of "smartctl -a" for that drive.


I hope not!

There is no method defined in the ATA spec for clearing SMART counters like the Reallocated Sector Count, for the exact reason that they are supposed to be a record of the counts over the lifetime of the drive (excluding those companies who refurbs etc.). Outside of very specialised situations, users do not know enough about the disk drive, to declare that it is "OK" and therefore do not know enough to judge that the SMART counters should be cleared.

Edited to add: You edited your posting while (and/or after) I started to reply - my quotations of your posting were accurate at the time I quoted them, despite your later changes.

I will post a smartmontools log probably 17 hours later

As you can see above I'm now scanning the drive again with some remap functions on... takes me almost 2 hours now...

At the beginning, you said: "The WD drive seems to be perfect."- so what has made you decide that this new work is now needed?

I see that you didn't answer my question about any SMART data collected before you started work on the drive, so I expect that none was collected. Obviously the lack of that SMART data will prevent any comparison between "then" and "now" (i.e. we can't look for changes), but when you supply the current "smartctl -a" output, then people can look at that.

Another useful source of data on disk health, which cannot be directly seen in SMART data, is getting a read benchmark graph from HD Tach Pro (or an equivalent tool of your choice). I'm suggesting this, based on some concerns in the MHDD screenshot that you showed, and because a graph is easier to interpret than the raw MHDD counters. But it's up to you how much effort you are willing to spend, to get help in reviewing the health of the disk.

To answer your questions:



&



I can show you this screenshot what is given after the BIOS POST before O/S will start....




I didn't log smart scan results....

because Western Digital Life guard tools doesn't show bad sectors also chkdsk and other HDD scan programs...




I tried, but failed...i get ACCESS DENIED... also on windows based Live CD disks!

See screenshot...


Or do i something wrong?
The drive was totally clean... so i thought i need to make partition. I did. But still access denied.
Do you know what i do wrong or what command exactly to give?




I hope to offerflow the sector counter or something and maybe the smart failure resets itselfs
I don't know anything about that anyway...

Thanks for the info - comments below.


That just means that one of the SMART "pre-fail" attributes is below it's threshold value - it doesn't tell us which attribute, which is why I recommended getting the full SMART data.


OK - that's a shame, because it stops the "before" and "now" comparison that I explained before, but the situation and the limitations are clearer now.


That sounds like you ran the "Extended Test". The "good" read test result from DLG just means that all LBAs are currently readable - it does not mean that the drive has no internal problems. You are being told that the drive believes it has a problem, by that SMART failure reported by the BIOS.

Different manufacturer's tools have different criteria for pass/fail. Since your drive is reporting a SMART failure (from your screenshot), I'm surprised that the DLG test doesn't fail for that reason - but we don't control what criteria WD use for their testing... What SMART status did the drive show on the first DLG page - pass or fail? Did you try running the "Quick Test"? That option (at least on my version of DLG) says it runs the drive's internal SMART short test - so it doesn't take a long time to read all the sectors, but I would expect it to fail, on a drive which is already reporting a SMART status of fail.


You did something wrong. If you read the instructions for smartmontools for Linux, you'll see that you need to be root - and looking at your Ubuntu prompt, you were not root - that is confirmed by the error message on the screen when you tried to run "smartctl -a /dev/sda" which was: "Permission Denied".

I'm assuming that you have correctly identified /dev/sda as the device node for this drive, of course. This is another reason why it's impossible to give you a definitely correct command line - I don't know the configuration of your system, in order to identify the device node, but we can check the make, model & serial number in the output text, when you successfully run the command. Or you can check the dmesg output, etc. etc.

You should redirect the smartctl command output to a writable location, because there will be a few pages of it. I don't know a writable location for your choice of Linux boot disk (that's why i can't give exact commands for you - you know your system, I don't know it!), but let's try using /tmp (which is typically a ramdisk for a Live CD), so you would su to root and run: "smartctl -a /dev/sda > /tmp/smartctl.txt"

Then copy /tmp/smartctl.txt off that machine (via USB memory stick or whatever you choose) and attach it to your reply. As usual (like with most *nix sys admin) there are many ways to achieve any end-result, so alternative methods also exist.

Also, there is a binary of smartmontools for Windows available for download, if you'll find that easier to use - again, you have to run it with Admin rights. I don't anticipate a problem, but I have never used smartmontools with a Windows live CD, so I cannot comment on that.

FYI, the advantage of smartmontools over other SMART utilities is that it extracts & displays the SMART error log - I haven't seen any other free utility which does that, and that info helps to identify certain types of problems.


Thanks for explaining. You're wasting time with guesses, but since it's your time you are wasting, then it's up to you. Just don't expect me to analyse results of guesses.

When you have that output from running smartctl as I explain above, we can see why the drive is reporting a SMART failure. I expect there is a real problem, and even though the disk is readable at the moment, that is just your good luck that the SMART system has correctly predicted a failure, before it happens, and not that the SMART warning is wrong. But let's see what the SMART data says...

---------------------------
DLGDIAG for Windows
---------------------------
Quick Test on drive 1 did not complete!
Status code = 04 (Unknown failed test element), Failure Checkpoint = 64 (SMART Attribute Test)
SMART self-test did not complete on drive 1!
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

smartctl 5.40 2010-10-16 r3189 [i686-w64-mingw32-xp] (sf-win32-5.40-1)
Copyright (C) 2002-10 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: Western Digital Scorpio Blue Serial ATA family
Device Model: WDC WD800BEVS-07RST0
Serial Number: WD-WXE208H13787
Firmware Version: 04.01G04
User Capacity: 80,026,361,856 bytes
Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is: 7
ATA Standard is: Exact ATA specification draft version not indicated
Local Time is: Tue Apr 12 02:11:23 2011
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: FAILED!
Drive failure expected in less than 24 hours. SAVE ALL DATA.
See vendor-specific Attribute list for failed Attributes.

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status: (0x00) Offline data collection activity
was never started.
Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.
Self-test execution status: ( 73) The previous self-test completed having
a test element that failed and the test
element that failed is not known.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection: (3600) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
Suspend Offline collection upon new
command.
Offline surface scan supported.
Self-test supported.
Conveyance Self-test supported.
Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
power-saving mode.
Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported.
General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 49) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 6) minutes.
SCT capabilities: (0x103f) SCT Status supported.
SCT Error Recovery Control supported.
SCT Feature Control supported.
SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x000f 200 200 051 Pre-fail Always - 35
3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0003 160 158 021 Pre-fail Always - 1000
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 099 099 000 Old_age Always - 1265
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 130 130 140 Pre-fail Always FAILING_NOW 557
7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x000f 200 200 051 Pre-fail Always - 0
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 099 099 000 Old_age Always - 1347
10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0013 100 100 051 Pre-fail Always - 0
11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0012 100 100 051 Old_age Always - 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 099 099 000 Old_age Always - 1062
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 31
193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 187 187 000 Old_age Always - 39397
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 108 093 000 Old_age Always - 35
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032 173 173 000 Old_age Always - 27
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0012 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0010 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x003e 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate 0x0009 100 253 051 Pre-fail Offline - 0

SMART Error Log Version: 1
Warning: ATA error count 21589 inconsistent with error log pointer 1

ATA Error Count: 21589 (device log contains only the most recent five errors)
CR = Command Register [HEX]
FR = Features Register [HEX]
SC = Sector Count Register [HEX]
SN = Sector Number Register [HEX]
CL = Cylinder Low Register [HEX]
CH = Cylinder High Register [HEX]
DH = Device/Head Register [HEX]
DC = Device Command Register [HEX]
ER = Error register [HEX]
ST = Status register [HEX]
Powered_Up_Time is measured from power on, and printed as
DDd+hh:mm:SS.sss where DD=days, hh=hours, mm=minutes,
SS=sec, and sss=millisec. It "wraps" after 49.710 days.

Error 21589 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 1254 hours (52 days + 6 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
04 61 40 25 09 49 e0 Device Fault; Error: ABRT 64 sectors at LBA = 0x00490925 = 4786469

Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
c8 00 40 25 09 49 00 00 06:05:46.075 READ DMA
c8 00 38 c5 70 43 00 00 06:05:46.044 READ DMA
ca 00 08 a3 a8 9e 00 00 06:05:45.841 WRITE DMA
c8 00 40 25 09 49 00 00 06:05:45.062 READ DMA
c8 00 38 c5 70 43 00 00 06:05:45.031 READ DMA

Error 21588 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 1254 hours (52 days + 6 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
04 61 38 c5 70 43 e0 Device Fault; Error: ABRT 56 sectors at LBA = 0x004370c5 = 4419781

Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
c8 00 38 c5 70 43 00 00 06:05:46.044 READ DMA
ca 00 08 a3 a8 9e 00 00 06:05:45.841 WRITE DMA
c8 00 40 25 09 49 00 00 06:05:45.062 READ DMA
c8 00 38 c5 70 43 00 00 06:05:45.031 READ DMA
ca 00 08 a3 a8 9e 00 00 06:05:44.828 WRITE DMA

Error 21587 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 1254 hours (52 days + 6 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
04 61 08 a3 a8 9e e0 Device Fault; Error: ABRT at LBA = 0x009ea8a3 = 10397859

Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
ca 00 08 a3 a8 9e 00 00 06:05:45.841 WRITE DMA
c8 00 40 25 09 49 00 00 06:05:45.062 READ DMA
c8 00 38 c5 70 43 00 00 06:05:45.031 READ DMA
ca 00 08 a3 a8 9e 00 00 06:05:44.828 WRITE DMA
c8 00 40 25 09 49 00 00 06:05:44.049 READ DMA

Error 21586 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 1254 hours (52 days + 6 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
04 61 40 25 09 49 e0 Device Fault; Error: ABRT 64 sectors at LBA = 0x00490925 = 4786469

Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
c8 00 40 25 09 49 00 00 06:05:45.062 READ DMA
c8 00 38 c5 70 43 00 00 06:05:45.031 READ DMA
ca 00 08 a3 a8 9e 00 00 06:05:44.828 WRITE DMA
c8 00 40 25 09 49 00 00 06:05:44.049 READ DMA
c8 00 40 25 09 49 00 00 06:05:44.033 READ DMA

Error 21585 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 1254 hours (52 days + 6 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
04 61 38 c5 70 43 e0 Device Fault; Error: ABRT 56 sectors at LBA = 0x004370c5 = 4419781

Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
c8 00 38 c5 70 43 00 00 06:05:45.031 READ DMA
ca 00 08 a3 a8 9e 00 00 06:05:44.828 WRITE DMA
c8 00 40 25 09 49 00 00 06:05:44.049 READ DMA
c8 00 40 25 09 49 00 00 06:05:44.033 READ DMA
c8 00 38 c5 70 43 00 00 06:05:44.018 READ DMA

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num Test_Description Status Remaining LifeTime(hours) LBA_of_first_error
# 1 Short offline Completed: unknown failure 90% 1347 -
# 2 Short offline Completed: unknown failure 90% 1347 -
# 3 Short offline Completed: unknown failure 90% 1254 -

SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
1 0 0 Not_testing
2 0 0 Not_testing
3 0 0 Not_testing
4 0 0 Not_testing
5 0 0 Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

Great, that confirms a problem is being reported by the disk. The extended read test was doing a different test, so the pass result from that didn't mean that everything was OK.

The limited SMART data which you can also get from DLG, would tell us which attribute is the "trigger" of that failure. However (at least on the version I've seen) DLG doesn't report the raw attribute values to allow any more analysis than that - hence the recommendation for using smartmontools (smartctl).

Fail



This test fails indead.

Here is screenshot off HD Tach



Finally I created a log file of smartctl... in windows live cd... since linux is not for me
I downloaded a Linux Rescuedisc but don't have control about linux jet.

Here you can find the log file since i post the logfile here and needs to be approve...

http://www.euronet.nl/users/gnhhom/GoT/log.txt

Tnx for the help!

Done that but everything needs to be approve what a post from now!

*edit

Here you can find the logfile...

http://www.euronet.nl/users/gnhhom/GoT/log.txt

Thanks - your postings got approved now (and thanks for the PM with the data too).

So we can see several things in that data... The smartmontools (smartctl) output shows that the attribute triggering the SMART failure status, is indeed the Reallocated Sector Count (557 sectors) and that the drive has actually been rejecting I/Os with a Device Fault status as recently as (almost) 100 drive power-on hours ago. In total up to now, there have been 21589 commands where the drive reported an error to the host, instead of completing the I/O normally. So there is lots of evidence that the drive really is sick.

Also that benchmark graph is clearly abnormal. The small dips before ~5GB could be due to seeks to spare sectors, but the significant dip at ~6GB is probably showing a difficult-to-read area. The much slower speed after ~66GB is also abnormal.

In summary - everything I can see confirms this is a sick drive, and SMART has worked as designed to warn you of that situation, with enough time to get the data off the drive (as you have done), before it became totally unreadable.

This isn't a "glitch" where you might consider trying remove any warning and carry on using the drive - just replace the drive. Good luck!

Tnx for the explanation! And your time...

I'll surf to http://www.tweakers.net/pricewatch and search for a cheap replacement

You're very welcome - thanks for supplying the data that was needed to reach a confident conclusion. Glad you got the data off the disk successfully!