HDD 1 Current Pending Sector! What does this mean?

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welchriley332

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Hi, I was watching a video the other day and saw a program that checks hard drive status. I was curious, as I am using my older hard drive in my new PC build. After running the program, everything said "ok" but something labeled "(C5)." Which said "Current Pending Sector" followed by these values: current: 200 // worst: 200 // threshold: 0 // data: 1 // status: warning. What does that mean? I want to be ready for anything, and I'm new to the PC world so this is a bit confusing. I'm just thinking should I ditch this drive, or is alright for a while? I am using a WD 1TB HDD WD10EZEX. Thanks for any help!
 
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RealBeast
One pending sector is okay, what you need to watch for is an ever increasing value. The reallocated sector count is also important if rising.

HERE is a great short read to understand SMART values and their predictive use. This is from actual recent data on large numbers of drives and focuses on 5 SMART values, the more bad values increases likelihood for failure. But, as they note drives also fail with no SMART warnings.

Bottom line, you should be fine for now -- just keep an eye out for any trend and use good backup always.
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RealBeast

RealBeast

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One pending sector is okay, what you need to watch for is an ever increasing value. The reallocated sector count is also important if rising.

HERE is a great short read to understand SMART values and their predictive use. This is from actual recent data on large numbers of drives and focuses on 5 SMART values, the more bad values increases likelihood for failure. But, as they note drives also fail with no SMART warnings.

Bottom line, you should be fine for now -- just keep an eye out for any trend and use good backup always.
 
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welchriley332

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I will be sure to monitor it. According to the program, my reallocated sector count is the same as what I said for the pending counter, only the data is listed as "0." I am using "HDTune." Do you know if this program is trusted/accurate?
 
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RealBeast

RealBeast

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Something like 100(ish), particularly if the value is rising along with reallocated sectors rising -- those are probably the two key values. Hard drives are made to reallocate bad sectors due to manufacturing flaws or whatever, the key is a trending increase.
 
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panathas

panathas

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I agree with RealBeast but in order to be more safe, use the WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostics tool. Run both tests. The extended test will take some time (2-3 hours), but will also try to repair the bad sectors that your drive has developed. It will also try to reallocate those bad sectors. If you manage to reach the end of the test, the software will tell you that it has found some bad sectors and it will try to repair them. Click yes and let it do its magic. If your drive passes both tests successfully without developing more bad sectors, then you'll be in the safe side for now. But you should keep an eye on your drive for 1-2 weeks just to make sure. Finally it is recommended to back up your important files before running those tests.
 
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welchriley332

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What do you mean by "if i manage to reach the end?" Would it stop if there was some type of problem? Thanks!
 
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panathas

panathas

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Yes I mean that the test could fail anytime during the whole process due to an error, thus the drive won't be able to complete it. The quick test checks the drive's connection to the motherboard and the extended, checks the surface of the hard drive's platters. So if you aren't able to complete a test it means that the drive has a serious issue somewhere, isn't reliable anymore and you need to get a new one. That said you may complete the test, click the option to repair the drive (if such a message pops-up at the end of the extended test) and then get a message that the repair has failed which is also not a good sign for your drive. Just make sure that you back-up all your important files before running the extended test, because it may make changes to (or delete) some of your files thus losing access to them.
 
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welchriley332

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Appreciate the answer. Will look into it. When I run the test, should I leave my computer alone and not do anything on it?
 
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panathas

panathas

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If the hard drive you are testing is your main drive that has your operating system on it, you won't be able to do anything. You should leave alone until it completes the test. If that's a secondary drive you can still use your system as long as you don't try to access that drive. It goes without saying that you should not restart or power down your system while the drive is being tested.
 
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welchriley332

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I ran the test, and it found the sector that is causing problems. It gave me the option to repair, but was unable to. After looking into things, I'm just going to order a new HDD. They're not expesnive at all and the one I'm using is a few years old.

Is it possible to transfer all my files over when I get the new drive? Any programs that you might know of that could do the job? Thanks for all your help :)
 
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panathas

panathas

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Western Digital does offer cloning/back software => https://support.wdc.com/product.aspx?ID=606#WD_downloads
Just download the Acronis True Image WD Edition Software and you'll be able to clone your current drive to the new one. It also gives other options and it is very versatile. Keep in mind that you need to have at least one WD hard drive in your system (you currently have one) in order for the software to work. Good luck.
 
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welchriley332

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Appreciate it! Since the drive has these pending sectors, do you think it could potentially fail the drive clone?
 
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panathas

panathas

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It depends on the location of that bad sector and how badly it's damaged. It may contain files or not and if it does you don't know if it can read them or not and what the actual files might be. There is only one way to find out and that's to proceed with the cloning process. If it fails, then it will display a warning message which will give you more info about the bad files. Good luck.
 
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welchriley332

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Thanks again. I'm not sure if I mentioned this but according to CrystalDiskInfo under "C6" the "uncorrectable sector count" is one. Probably should have mentioned it, but I probably didn't notice it.

https://imgur.com/a/u0QN0
 
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panathas

panathas

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Yes it means that this specific sector has serious damage that can't be corrected. Usually a bad sector contains files on it but sometimes it may not and even if it does contain some files they may not be important. It may even contain temp/cache files which are useless. As I told you there is only one way to find it. Also the fact the OS is booting normally is a good sign. Give it a try. Good luck.
 
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