RAW Read Errors, help!

[xkm1948]

My WD Black 1.5TB died a week ago. It only lasted a year and 3 months. it goes along with ALL OF MY DATA. Really nice, just during Christmas.

Good thing is the customer support team at WD is pretty good. I got a refurbished WD Black 2TB as replacement sending to me with next day air. I have done extensive test on the drive before installing OS since I dont wanna lose data again. The 2TB checked out both quick test and extended test with WD Data Lifeguard DOS V5.19. However, after I install Windows 7 I found that my RAW Read Errors in the SMART are really high. They were 107 right after fresh install. This morning they turned in 110.





Is this something I should be worried about? I would hate to RMA another WD drive. If this one goes bad, I will switch to Seagate for sure.

 

[95Viper]

Does not sound good...

I would run WD diagnostics on the refurb to see if it passes.
Tell them to send a new one, if it doesn't.

And, I would keep an eye on those read errors to see if they keep increasing, if it passes the WD diagnostics test.

If, you start getting others errors or S.M.A.R.T. errors... run the WD tests, again.

And, you may, also, want to try a different SATA cable and, maybe a different port.
Run a disk check (complete/full) to see if it can clean up any errors.

 

[xkm1948]

Does not sound good...

I would run WD diagnostics on the refurb to see if it passes.
Tell them to send a new one, if it doesn't.

And, I would keep an eye on those read errors to see if they keep increasing, if it passes the WD diagnostics test.

If, you start getting others errors or S.M.A.R.T. errors... run the WD tests, again.

And, you may, also, want to try a different SATA cable and, maybe a different port.
Run a disk check (complete/full) to see if it can clean up any errors.

Already passed the WD Data LifeGuard quick test and extended test.
Now the count has increased to 111 after the extened test
I am using a brand new cable after my last HDD failed.
Run a chkdsk with a full cluster scan, no error so far.


Lots of people tell me that my old 7200.11 was bad, and yet it last me a good 5 yrs. First time I try WD and I get one dead HDD in 1yr 3 months. Hopefully this RMAed one wont die.

 

[95Viper]

Lots of people tell me that my old 7200.11

Yep, some had problems with them, some were fixed with a firmware update, some bricked from a bad update was distributed out; but, they fixed the update later I believe and some were fixed through the RMA process.

I have been lucky, I guess, I have used Seagate, WD, Samsung, Hitachi, and others; however, the only drive I have had that actually died... I dropped.

If your raw read errors are continuing to increase... then, you have a problem somewhere.
Whether it is hardware, drivers, or some kind of conflict... it is there.

 

[xkm1948]

I'll keep an eye on the situation. I called WD total support. They told me unless the drive is unable to access it should be fine. Guess for now I will trust them. They promised to take care of the situation and promised to get everything fixed, provide if they break.

 

[DRDNA]

Does a different sata port on the mobo also have errors with the drives?

 

[xkm1948]

Does a different sata port on the mobo also have errors with the drives?

Yes.

 

[xkm1948]

Getting to error count 115 now. Nice....

 

[xkm1948]

Just a following up.

Within a week of getting the replacement HDD, it is AGAIN dying. Yep, current pending sectors.

WD's quality control surely is SH*ITTY here. Good thing is I didn't put much data on it so I am not worrying about losing data. But think of the time wasted trying to solve this: THREE FREAKING WEEKS.

Never buying WD products again. NEVER EVER buying WD products again.

 

[Jstn7477]

At least WD Blacks have a 5 year warranty unlike Seagate's 1-2 years. All HDD manufacurers have their issues...

 

[xkm1948]

At least WD Blacks have a 5 year warranty unlike Seagate's 1-2 years. All HDD manufacurers have their issues...

Twice in a row. I dont know what to say. Merely bad luck?

 

[DayKnight]

^ Of course. It's bad luck.

... and If I were you, I would try killing it.

 

[OneMoar]

Twice in a row. I dont know what to say. Merely bad luck?

something else is going on either the drive controller on your motherboard is failing or you have some weird power issues getting the exact same pattern of failure with two different drives tells me something else is wrong
id pull the drive and format and test it in another machine

 

[xkm1948]

something else is going on either the drive controller on your motherboard is failing or you have some weird power issues getting the exact same pattern of failure with two different drives tells me something else is wrong
id pull the drive and format and test it in another machine

Already did. Putting it into my miniITX build with Asrock Z68 mobo. I use WD Data Lifeguard to low format it before testing and it is still showing pending sectors and high Raw Read Error Rate.

It is not the SATA controller, it is the HDD itself

 

[ChristTheGreat]

it is purely bad luck :/

Just send it back. And make sure to have a backup of your data instead on only on one drive. Really hard to say when the HDD/SSD will die :/


By the way, in the smart, which software you use? can y ou screenshot it?

 

[drdeathx]

I would say your controller on your board may be going bad if it is 2 in a row.....

 

[95Viper]

Putting it into my miniITX build with Asrock Z68 mobo. I use WD Data Lifeguard to low format it before testing and it is still showing pending sectors and high Raw Read Error Rate.

This post did not exactly give the answer needed.
It will more than likely keep the same SMART data, even though you format it (low level or what); unless, you have some app that will wipe the SMART data.
When you tested it in the other system, did the Raw Read Errors, Pending Sector Count or any other errors increase?

If the error counts still increase in the other system, then , definitely RMA it.
It is, probably, partly bad luck and partly... sloppy quality control, in that case.
If you do RMA that drive again, ask them to test the replacement before sending it.

However, if, the drive does not garner more errors, then you may need to looks else where for a problem.

EDIT:
Just a couple of questions. Have you done a test on your other drive in the first system (not the miniITX)? Is it showing any errors?

 

[xkm1948]

This post did not exactly give the answer needed.
It will more than likely keep the same SMART data, even though you format it (low level or what); unless, you have some app that will wipe the SMART data.
When you tested it in the other system, did the Raw Read Errors, Pending Sector Count or any other errors increase?

If the error counts still increase in the other system, then , definitely RMA it.
It is, probably, partly bad luck and partly... sloppy quality control, in that case.
If you do RMA that drive again, ask them to test the replacement before sending it.

However, if, the drive does not garner more errors, then you may need to looks else where for a problem.

EDIT:
Just a couple of questions. Have you done a test on your other drive in the first system (not the miniITX)? Is it showing any errors?

Yes. RRER went from 215 to 368 on my ITX build.....

And now I have 5 current pending sectors. It was 1 before.

My main work station had a Seagate 7200.11 before. It had the firmware issue and bricked itself.

I have an old laptop Toshiba HDD that I am using on this mobo now. And everything works just fine. No RRER increase or Current Pending Sector increase.


I have triple checked my connectors, my SATA cables and my PSU. Everything points to the problem of the HDD.

 

[xkm1948]

I would say your controller on your board may be going bad if it is 2 in a row.....

If it is controller problem then it should show Write Error Rate Warning and Seek Error Rate Waning as well.

I am not getting I/O error in Windows event logs, so it should not be the motherboard end. Must be cluster of weak sectors on the replacement HDD.

 

[xkm1948]

it is purely bad luck :/

Just send it back. And make sure to have a backup of your data instead on only on one drive. Really hard to say when the HDD/SSD will die :/


By the way, in the smart, which software you use? can y ou screenshot it?

Using WD DataLifeguard for DOS. Which is recommended by WD for generating RMA request.

 

[drdeathx]

If it is controller problem then it should show Write Error Rate Warning and Seek Error Rate Waning as well.

I am not getting I/O error in Windows event logs, so it should not be the motherboard end. Must be cluster of weak sectors on the replacement HDD.

And how do you know this?

 

[xkm1948]

And how do you know this?

What else could be wrong to cause RRER steady increase in both systems except HDD itself has problem?

 

[drdeathx]

What else could be wrong to cause RRER steady increase in both systems except HDD itself has problem?

2 HDD's in a row? that would make most look away from a drives issue unless its a firmware issue..

 

[xkm1948]

2 HDD's in a row? that would make most look away from a drives issue unless its a firmware issue..

I suspect other problem is why I pull the WD drive and test it on my ITX build, which is also why I test an old laptop drive on my workstation mobo.

WD drive on ITX build still see steady RRER increase. I tried all 4 SATA ports on the ITX mobo and used different cables. Still seeing RRER problem.

What else can be wrong? Drivers for the ICH9R? Can Intel Rapid Storage Tech cause RRER increase?

Right now I cannot access one volume on the WD drive. It doesn't show up in Windows Explorer.

 

[drdeathx]

Try the drive on a different system