[teknorave]

So I figured I would add my .02 here. I have used this tool several times. Initially I found it to be a nice free tool that Seagate Offered to help diagnose hardrives by some pretty deep analytical tools.

There are several tests you can run. Advanced Scan, Quick Scan etc. In my rookie days, I tool these as accurate as it was direct from the manufacturer and when I would get a "failed" result I believed it.

Well, I have done several drives that have been deemed as failed, yet when I removed the drive and did some other formatting to it, etc and put it back on I got different results. Yes, I can see how this might be expected because the sectors have changed, but get this-

If the error codes said the drive was toast, yet I took the time to delete all sectors (like 4 hours) then it showed the drive after as being fine!

I got several results on these tests on 3 different drives and would have thrown away the drives, but instead I reformatted the entire drive by deleting and restoring all sectors. Now these drives work great, even after this tool told me to toss them!

Bottom line is, I dont trust these tools no matter who makes them. Hitachi did the same thing.

Anyone else find this or simimar experience / results?

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I beg to differ and you should throw the drives out. All you're doing is delaying the inevitable because a bad sector is a sign of physical damage to the drive which is usually caused by failing mechanics inside the unit, and the drive will pack up not too far down the line, usually at the most inconvienant time.

Bad sectors on a drive will multiply like rabbits. All the software will do is simply reallocate the bad sector(s) in question to a spare one (this typically happens automatically long before they start showing up in CHKDSK and Scandisk logs), but this cannot go on forever. Also the programs cannot determine the mechanical state of a drive to any great degree, only report what it's being told. As a general rule if a drive is showing bad sectors in a Scandisk or CHKDSK log, it needs replacing.

[Neil Jones]

I beg to differ and you should throw the drives out. All you're doing is delaying the inevitable because a bad sector is a sign of physical damage to the drive which is usually caused by failing mechanics inside the unit, and the drive will pack up not too far down the line, usually at the most inconvienant time.

Bad sectors on a drive will multiply like rabbits. All the software will do is simply reallocate the bad sector(s) in question to a spare one (this typically happens automatically long before they start showing up in CHKDSK and Scandisk logs), but this cannot go on forever. Also the programs cannot determine the mechanical state of a drive to any great degree, only report what it's being told. As a general rule if a drive is showing bad sectors in a Scandisk or CHKDSK log, it needs replacing.

[teknorave]

So then is there any fullproof way that I can run a test that will determine if a drive has any of these? My concern is buying third party drives that have been reformatted and then the conditions has been "temporarily hidden" as you stated can happen above...

[Neil Jones]

So then is there any fullproof way that I can run a test that will determine if a drive has any of these? My concern is buying third party drives that have been reformatted and then the conditions has been "temporarily hidden" as you stated can happen above...

Not really, but this demonstrates the importance of regular back-ups. All hard drives will eventually fail.
The concept of sector reallocation is such that it happens automatically, and therefore by the time the drive runs out of spare sectors, all it can do is mark them as bad without being able to reallocate them. It's then at that point they begin to start showing up in the logs of the aforementioned utilities.

This is not unique to Seagate or Hitachi drives, the principle applies to all brands of drive of all ages (even solid state drives).

[teknorave]

Thanks, looks like I will be tossing these or better yet keeping them around for the kids next science project. Nothing funner than dissecting something, lol...