[dhthwy]

I just bought a western digital hard drive for my laptop 3 months ago and noticed some performance problems lately. I ran speedfan and it said my hd reallocated sector count is 181, then 2 days later it said 184, now 3 days and it says 187. I was gonna ask you guys if this could be normal. speedfan says that my reallocated sector count is very high and my hd should be replaced. is this true? according to western digital's diagnostic program my hard drive is "normal" so contacting them about a replacement probably wouldn't get me anywhere until my hd is dead in the water. Unfortunetly I don't have my receipt, so im not even sure If i qualify under the warranty. So what I should I do? wait for my hd to die? do you think I can get it replaced without a receipt?

I provided the SMART data below from speedfans analysis report. It's a bit of a mess.

If anyone has any advice I'd appreciate it. I'm particularly interested in other people's experiances in regards to western digital's warranty.


Attribute Current Raw Overall
10 Raw Read Error Rate 200 4 Very good
7 Spin Up Time 193 1333 Good
10 Start/Stop Count 100 137 Very good
0 Reallocated Sector Count 176 187 Watch
Warning: Reallocated Sector Count is below the average limits (189-200).
10 Seek Error Rate 200 0 Very good
8 Power On Hours Count 98 1919 Very good
10 Spin Retry Count 100 0 Very good
10 Calibration Retry Count 100 0 Very good
10 Power Cycle Count 100 116 Very good
10 Power Off Retract Count 200 114 Very good
10 Load Cycle Count 183 53249 Very good
0 Reallocated Event Count 173 27 Watch
Warning: Reallocated Event Count is below the average limits (189-200).
10 Current Pending Sector 200 0 Very good
1 Offline Uncorrectable Sector Count 100 0 Normal
10 Ultra DMA CRC Error Rate 200 0 Very good
1 Write Error Rate 100 0 Normal


NOTE : your hard disk has 187 reallocated sectors (this value is very large and your hard disk should be replaced).

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If you can see your way to doing a format of the disk and it completes without repeated references to bad clusters, that's a fairly safe bet it's ok.
Or if you don't want to format it again, run the disk defragmenter and see if that flags up a lot of bad (red) clusters which are marked as unsafe for data. I must say it's very unusual (but not unheard of) for a new WD HD to have faults almost straight away but I don't rate your chances of a refund or replacement without the receipt, not over here anyway, but maybe they are a bit more sympathetic and understanding in the US.

Edited by pip22, 17 July 2007 - 02:54 AM.

[pip22]

If you can see your way to doing a format of the disk and it completes without repeated references to bad clusters, that's a fairly safe bet it's ok.
Or if you don't want to format it again, run the disk defragmenter and see if that flags up a lot of bad (red) clusters which are marked as unsafe for data. I must say it's very unusual (but not unheard of) for a new WD HD to have faults almost straight away but I don't rate your chances of a refund or replacement without the receipt, not over here anyway, but maybe they are a bit more sympathetic and understanding in the US.

Edited by pip22, 17 July 2007 - 02:54 AM.

[dhthwy]

thanks for your quick response.

ya, I think I'm pretty much screwed out of a replacement. their website does state in the policy that you must have a receipt "for the extended warranty". it didn't say anything about the regular warranty. Maybe Ill try calling best buy where i got it from and see if they can do something but I doubt it without a receipt.

the thing is, I just bought this laptop just over a year ago. the original hd died right after the warranty expired, and now this one. I'm running an hp pavilion zd8000. the laptop does run hot, but it's well ventilated and the fans are fine. speedfan also shows the hd's temp as being normal. It did get hot for a little while, my roommate had the house temp set to 80 degree's and the laptop itself heats up this room another 5 degree's i'd say lol.

oh well, if this laptop is gonna kill hd every few months i might as well sell it on ebay, i cant afford to keep buying hd's for this piece of crap. very nice laptop tho, I'll miss it if i have to sell it