Is this a reason for concern?

[Rob Williams]

For some reason, the older version of HD Tune wouldn't detect the SMART information properly on a couple of my drives, but I upgraded to 4.x and that's been fixed. But, I have a couple of warnings, and I am wondering whether it should be a reason for concern or not.





If I recall, I had a warning on the 500GB a LONG time ago, but so far nothing bad has happened to it. I do on occasion have profiles wiped out in Windows (which is on the drive), but I blame that more on Windows than anything since I've never had an HDD-related issue in Linux and that's what I use most of the time.

 

[DarkStarr]

It looks like its reading it wrong. on 05 Current and Worst are 100 meaning its perfect Threshold means if it drops to 36 or less your drive is over halfway out the door. 0A and C7 dunno for sure.

C7 seems to be UltraDMA CRC Error Count - The count of errors in data transfer via the interface cable as determined by ICRC (Interface Cyclic Redundancy Check) so check yo cables fool! I pity the fool that ain't got good cables!

As for 0A Spin Retry Count - Count of retry of spin start attempts. This attribute stores a total count of the spin start attempts to reach the fully operational speed (under the condition that the first attempt was unsuccessful). An increase of this attribute value is a sign of problems in the hard disk mechanical subsystem.

 

[Kougar]

The problem with SMART info is that it doesn't always mean anything... or it might even be normal as those results could be typical for old drives that have seen some wear.

Here's what I'd suggest. Download SpeedFan and go to the SMART tab. There's a button that will perform an online analysis of the SMART info by comparing it to a database of other drive information. This information is from all past users that self-checked their drives in this fashion, and for many models quite a large number of data samples exists now. If there are enough submissions you will be able to determine what information is normal (or atypical) compared to other people with the same exact model drive. Keep in mind the age of the drive and if the model series was discontinued or not, as this tells you something about the other drives in the database as well.



Here's an example from one of my drives... there are some issues noted in the paragraphs below the graphs, but overall no significant or critical attributes that've failed are present. The drive still gets a "good" rating (above the graphs), although I should probably run a program to force writes/remapping for the drive. A low-level format or perhaps SpinRite should, I believe, do the trick without requiring a full wipe...