Tom's Hardware > Forum > Storage > Hard Disks > What is a spin retry error
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superhighperf   11-25-2009 at 02:02:48 AM

i have a segate 1.5TB drive (st31500341as) that i use as a storage drive in vista 64 and use HD Sentinel to monitor the drives. i have had it for about 6 months and recently started using windows vista to turn the drive off after 20 min, i thought that would extend the life of the drive. so far i have gotten 2 spin retry errors and i am wondering if it is something i should worry about. i got the first error on 10/29 and the second on 11/20. the drive sounds fine. no loud clicking that i would associate with eminent failure.


i know a lot of people have had problems with the drive but i have not found anything about the spin retry error. should i keep the drive on all of the time, remove the drive and use for external storage or don't worry about it until i get errors more frequently.

thanks for the help.

i found this definition but it does not give enough details.

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). A decrease of this attribute value is a sign of problems in the hard disk mechanical subsystem.

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Mimoso   11-25-2009 at 02:29:00 PM

This is a hardware error which means the drive failed to spin up in two occasions.
I would certainly watch the SMART data closely to see if it becomes worse.

Hard drives are designed to spin constantly. If you don't use the drive a lot you might as well shut it down after 20min, not to increase the life but to reduce noise and save power. Shutting down and starting the drive a lot will actually reduce the life span.

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