Hi! I'm a newbie. Before I start, I'll tell that I've read the DIY: What's the big deal? post, and I'm aware that:

- repairing HDDs could be very more complex than expected

- what I want to do is not the most safe idea, it would be better to let this HDD go if I don't want to get deeper in the technnical part

And my valuable data is in good HDDs and one SSD, and I have all the important stuff in two physical units. This HDD has just a testing OS with nothing to keep.

This is a Seagate ST500DM002 HDD that I replaced by myself from another user's computer several years ago because a bad SMART status that appears in the BIOS boot (with less than 1000 hours of use). But you know, my father and I don't feel that respect to it, thanks to an IDE HDD in a secondary computer that we have. It has that bad status as well... for more than three years and moderate use, and still working. It hasn't anything important stored. And this ST500DM002 is walking the same path. I used it as a external drive with a USB 2.0 case these years and, except the heads contacts thing (I had to file them down once several months after I got it), it shows no problem (apart from the SMART report, obviously).



Well, after reading tons of forums of people asking how to reset the SMART flags and other people answering that it's impossible, forget about it and replace it, I found this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PPmbxNAWyg

So I want to try that. But I have some doubts:

1) What is exactly "reallocated sectors count"? Does it mean that the SMART found too much reallocations, or it appears with just one? I haven't experience any data lost with it at the moment. Reallocations mean that it found bad sectors and had to move data to other sectors?
2) What does the raw data means? I mean, 7F28 in the "reallocated" narrow is a hexadecimal number that means exactly what? (Just to control it and check if it goes up)
3) If I succeed, will the SMART function report new detected errors?
4) I've never set a RAID yet in a RAID capable mob. The SMART warnings work in the same ways as with non-RAID setup, right? (For RAID0, RAID1 and, if I'm able to, RAID10)
5) I have computers with UART ports, so I think I won't buy a USB converter like the video, but a serial port to TTL one like this one for this. Do you think it's a good idea? And do you know if there is a male connector (I mean, has it name? ) for the TTL port in the Seagate HDDs to buy it and make a DIY cable, or already made ones? Because you know, the female plugs of the included cable I think that won't fit (plastic cover too big). Or any idea of the name of that kind of female connector that the dude uses in the video to plug in the HDD?

Cheers,

Hello have you any equipment to do it work? i also Im newbie and would to buy any tool,,, but i think any board need software on serial Key, But most have the license limited for some period ....
maybe I get unlimited some specific model?? how olds Pc3000 or MRT ??
Any idea where to buy second hand?

No, what I want to do is to buy a UART converter like the one I mentioned with a link ($0.99) and make my own cable with connectors that I need to do what the dude in the video did with free software (RealTerm, but it just communicate commands and messages via UART ports, it's not a specialized HDD repairing tool).



Sorry, I can't help you with that, because I'm not interested in "big" tools for now... I just want to play around with "little toys" at the moment.

@OP, clearing SMART on Seagate drives is very easy, but most people here are unwilling to share that info because the only non-data recovery related reason to do this is to re-sell bad drives on ebay. Clearing SMART isn't fixing anything, it's just hiding the problem. In professional data recovery, there are times when clearing SMART becomes necessary to get the drive functional, but if you don't have any professional equipment like PC-3000 you really aren't going to be able to handle into that anyway. As to your drive, there is no fix, the drive is dying. It belongs in the trash and will only continue to get worse if you keep using it. That was a defective series of models.

@juniocruz02 You really can't buy PC-3000 used for two reasons, one no one who owns one is likely to be selling it, and the licensing strictly prohibits license transfers. You can however buy MRT brand new on their "online version" where you only make payments as you need to use the system. So you could pay a few hundred bucks and have it for just a month or so then stop using it until you need it again.

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Data Medics - Hard Drive, SSD, and RAID Data Recovery Service Company

I see, there's fear about using that information for re-selling HDDs as if they're ok. I have no intention to do that, but I understand to those who doesn't want to share. My intention is to play with it until it definitely dies without the SMART old warnings (I need new warnings to make RAID tests). When I want a reliable HDD, I'll buy one (and this one won't be sold, I'll destroy by myself and trash it to the recycle point). I like to play and learn walking the path. Just buying I learn too little...

Sorry, Spildit, I don't know what is the G-list and what do you mean with that. And what brands do you recommend then?

If anyone can answer any of my doubts listed above, I'll be thankful (even months later or via private message).

Thank you, Spildit! I thought that "G-list" was a general idiom

Ok, but according to what you said in the Translator, Defect Lists and Bad Sectors post (and if I understood right), if I reset the G-list, then the HDD will try to read the original physical sectors marked as "bad" instead the spare ones, won't it? In that case, HDD will re-create the G-list and, therefore, the SMART will show warnings again. What I would like to do is to keep the actual self-detected errors (great that there's a "spare zone"! Let it do its work), but tell SMART to warn only for new ones. Is this possible?

And thank you very much for your HDDs' brands recommendations! Do you have for SSDs' brands as well?

(for any Internet user that drops here, thanks to the Spildit's post, I found that "reallocated sectors count" is the number of sectors detected as "bad" -probably because failing to try to write in them- and have been re-mapped to a "spare sectors" zone that HDDs have set from factory. RAW data for reallocated sectors count I found that it's, actually, the actual re-mapped sectors. In my case, I have 7F28 -in hexadecimal- re-mapped sectors, it means 32552 sectors <-- can be automatically calculated with the Windows calculator in programmer mode, if available)