Is my hard drive failing/almost dead? Bad sectors?

jannpl

Honorable
Nov 10, 2013
6
0
10,510
Hi, I'm not sure if this is the right place but I've been having problems.
Well... not sure how to explain this but one of my internal hard drives has been making a weird sound. It's not like a Click of Death or anything but it's weird. I don't know how to explain, and it's not constant, it only happens a few times...
I've also had some corrupt files while transferring stuff from another drive but I think I managed to fix them.
The performance had also been compromised but Windows is not that slow any more after running ScanDisk (or whatever).
The hard drive is not exactly new. It's from 2008 and I've had many headaches with it in the past but I am trying to use it again. I thought maybe the problems would be fixed. I've ran the error-checking option twice in Windows 7, made it check for bad sectors and everything, it completed successfully.
This is a clean install. I installed Windows 7 a few months ago and barely used it (since I have other computers).
I download a few tools to check my HDD's health and try to fix the bad sectors but I am not sure if I have been successful.
In CrystalDiskInfo it says "Caution" and there are three yellow "bullets".

Reallocated Sectors Count:
Current: 69
Worst: 69
Threshold: 36

Current Pending Sector Count:
Current: 91
Worst: 33
Threshold: 0

Uncorrectable Sector Count

Same thing from above.

In HDTune it says.

Health status: warning

Reallocated Sector Count:
Current: 69
Worst: 69
Threshold: 36
Data: 1271

Airflow Temperature says the threshold has been reached but I googled it and seems it is just a fluke.

Current Pending Sector:
Current: 91
Worst: 33
Threshold: 0
Data: 196

Interface CRC Error Count:

Current: 200
Worst: 25
Threshold: 0
Data: 4530

Is my hard drive dying/failing? (That seems like an obvious question but I'm clueless about this kind of thing, sorry)

I can also access data fine now with no errors (as far as I've noticed) after doing the Error-checking that came with Windows 7.
I've also opened the case and ensured that the cables were connected correctly. But maybe I need to replace them.

I also have another internal hard drive that is completely healthy.

EDIT: My HDD is a Maxtor, SATA I believe.
I also checked the Event Viewer logs and there are a bunch of Warnings/Errors saying \Device\Harddisk1\DR1 has a bad block. The last one of those is from almost 2 hours ago.
 
Solution


It is going to die. And at the worst moment possible.
Get a new drive now, before the system forces you into doing it.

jannpl

Honorable
Nov 10, 2013
6
0
10,510
I just tried listening to a song that was a little bit messed up because of the bad block and yes, I had hiccups but nothing major like the issues I've had before, where songs would freeze, or just be corrupted.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator


It is going to die. And at the worst moment possible.
Get a new drive now, before the system forces you into doing it.
 
Solution

jannpl

Honorable
Nov 10, 2013
6
0
10,510
I will.
A weird thing though, it seems the Uncorrectable Sector Count and Current Pending Sectors Count numbers are getting down.
They were 91, then 90, and it is now in 87.

EDIT: LOL, I just tried to burn Hiren's Boot CD to a spare CD-R I had here. The burning process finished rather quickly. The program (ImgBurn) I used, when verifying the disk, it said "Uncorrectable Sectors" too so I may just trash this computer and buy another one. If I only had the money.
So basically, both the HDD and the DVD drive are bad I guess.
In CrystalDiskInfo, the numbers are going down gradually. As I write the Uncorrectable Sector Count and Current Pending Sectors Count are in 83. It kinda looks like things are getting better, but I'm not sure.
Haven't got any other errors about bad blocks from Windows 7, still. They stopped a few hours ago.
Considering they used to appear from 5 to 5 minutes, that's a pretty good progress.
Thank god I haven't got much stuff now. When this drive started failing for the first time, giving me a bunch of errors (including CRC) I had lots of irreplaceable data. But that's life. Now I only have a few programs installed (mostly HDD repair tools) and music. I realise now that I should have replaced this years ago.
I'll see if I can get a new disk... though that's doubtful.

EDIT 2: The raw values in CrystalDiskInfo (decimal) are:
364 (C5 and C6)
And for (05) it is 1271. :|
 

jannpl

Honorable
Nov 10, 2013
6
0
10,510
(Sorry if I... doubleposted but... I was tired of doing edits and I think my whole computer is going to die now)
Update: I just got a few notices from Event Viewer that \Device\Harddisk2\ etc... has a controller error.
Is it the other drive connected to the computer, which is healthy? (or at least it was a few moments ago).
The OS is also hiccupping a little.
Should I take a look at the cables or anything?
Agh.
EDIT: Nevermind. That was probably just a fluke... it didn't happen again.

Yeah. I'll have to replace the drive, yeah? There is no way to fix it it seems... :(
I still haven't ran Seagate's tool, nor do I have SpinRite or HDD Regenerator...