scary results after running smartmontools on a MAXTOR STM3320620A

In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage wrote:
Hi,
~
I recently bought a MAXTOR STM3320620A (the 300Gb one) that was on
sale on compusa for some $88
~
The first thing I did with it was running smartmontools on it (http://
smartmontools.sourceforge.net)
~
sh-3.1# smartctl -a /dev/hda
smartctl version 5.36 [i686-pc-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-6 Bruce
Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/
~
and I found the results of running truly scary

Seeing that nobody gave you an interpretation, I will
provide one. Firts, VALUE WORST THRES are "coocked"
va;ues. Lower is worse. VALUE is the current value,
WORST the lowest seen by the disk so far. It may have
ageing, so may get better over time. THRESH is the
value that when reached in a pre-fail attribute will
trigger a "failed SMART status" on the disk, that can be
detected by some BIOSES and OSes. For Linux, use the
smartd (part of the smartmontools) to monitor this
and much more.

The last value is the raw data value and in some
attributes what you want to look at.

~
SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE
UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x000f 116 100 006 Pre-fail
Always - 104095144

Don;t worry about this one. If the value (116) drifts into the direction
of the threshols (006) you might be in trouble. Say from 60 or so
downwards.

3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0003 096 096 000 Pre-fail
Always - 0

Fine. How long the disk takes to start. Unless the bearing or
electronics is shot, a low value can indicate a bad PSU.

4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 100 100 020 Old_age
Always - 5

Raw: How ofteh you started the disk.

5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 100 100 036 Pre-fail
Always - 0

Now this the important one: It counts how many sectors the
disk was unable to read and had to replace. My personal
take is that 5 is fine, especially if they showed up
over a long time. 1000 is definitely bad. = 5 can be reason
for concern, primarily if the number grows. The current number
is 0, i.e. perfectly fine.

7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x000f 060 060 030 Pre-fail
Always - 1001493

Looks fine. A bad value here can again indicate a bad PSU or
excessive vibration.

9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age
Always - 9

How many hours the drive was active.

10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0013 100 100 097 Pre-fail
Always - 0

How often the disk failed to start the spindle motor. This
is serious and you see the very sensitive threshold of 097.

12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 020 Old_age
Always - 9

How often power was removed and re-applied.

187 Unknown_Attribute 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age
Always - 0

Undocumented, non -standard attribute.

189 Unknown_Attribute 0x003a 100 100 000 Old_age
Always - 0

See 197

190 Unknown_Attribute 0x0022 059 057 045 Old_age
Always - 723517481

See 187

194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 041 043 000 Old_age
Always - 41 (Lifetime Min/Max 0/32)

Current temperature. 41C is a bit much, unless the disk is
under load. Think about better cooling. The Mon/Max numbers
seem to be bogus on at least some Maxtor drives.

195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered 0x001a 068 065 000 Old_age
Always - 34277342

Not a concern. How othen reads required error correction. This
is not due to problems, but because on reads the heads are positioned
sloppily, but faster. This results in the occasional bad read that
can be recoverd from with the embedded Error Correction Code.

197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0012 100 100 000 Old_age
Always - 0

A sectro that could not be read. May indicate a serious problem
or just the normel (but rare) problem with a sector, since
modern consumer HDDs can have the occasional bad sector (say,
once per year) without something actually being broken.
Current value 0, i.e. perfectly fine.

198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0010 100 100 000 Old_age
Offline - 0

Basically 197 after the disk tried fro a while and failed.
Value is 0, i.e. fine.

199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x003e 200 200 000 Old_age
Always - 0

This is the error count on the HDD data cable, Numbers larger that
0 (raw) indicate bad cabeling, broken electronics on the HDD
or controller (mainboard) side or in some casea a PSU that
generates interference.

200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate 0x0000 100 253 000 Old_age
Offline - 0

No idea what this is. Probably not impottant.

202 TA_Increase_Count 0x0032 100 253 000 Old_age
Always - 0

Again, no idea. Probably not impottant.

~
I have heard manufactures "mean" something different by the numbers
What do these numbers actually mean for a MAXTOR?

Well, the attribute meaning is in part standardized. However the
actual values are open for interpretation. For example I once
had a Maxtor (dropped in shipping) that had 1500 reallocated
defective sectors and attribute 5 was still in the non-failed
state. The disk was dog-lsow. I call that rather optimistic
parametrization.

Which other manufacturers give a little meaning to their SMART
reports?

The manufacturer is not the one giving little meaning. It is
the query tool. However this form of report is standard and
you are expected to look into the SMART standard documents
if you use such an advanced feature.

This is probably why they were selling them with such a discount.
Should I just return the disk?

The disk is fine. One thing you can do in addition is run a long
SMART self-test (smartctl -t long device).

Arno

Whoever wrote:
On Sun, 24 Jun 2007, wrote:

Hi,
~
I recently bought a MAXTOR STM3320620A (the 300Gb one) that was on
sale on compusa for some $88
~
The first thing I did with it was running smartmontools on it
(http:// smartmontools.sourceforge.net)
~
sh-3.1# smartctl -a /dev/hda
smartctl version 5.36 [i686-pc-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-6 Bruce
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age
Always - 9

Looks like this is not a new disk.

10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0013 100 100 097 Pre-fail
Always - 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 020 Old_age
Always - 9

Once again, does not look like it is new.

195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered 0x001a 068 065 000 Old_age
Always - 34277342

Looks scary, but I don't think this is really an issue. Some disk
types seem to report very high numbers for this value.

There are no reallocated sectors reported,

Wrong, pity about

5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 100 100 036 Pre-fail
Always - 0

and IMHO, this is the key value to watch for impending failure.

It is indeed, and that many in a new drive is a real problem.

"Rod Speed" wrote in message
Whoever wrote:
On Sun, 24 Jun 2007, wrote:

Hi,
~
I recently bought a MAXTOR STM3320620A (the 300Gb one) that was on
sale on compusa for some $88
~
The first thing I did with it was running smartmontools on it
(http:// smartmontools.sourceforge.net)
~
sh-3.1# smartctl -a /dev/hda
smartctl version 5.36 [i686-pc-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-6 Bruce
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 9

Looks like this is not a new disk.

No, really? What makes you think that.


10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0013 100 100 097 Pre-fail Always - 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 020 Old_age Always - 9

Once again, does not look like it is new.

Indeed, once sold it is second hand. Very perceptive of you.


195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered 0x001a 068 065 000 Old_age Always - 34277342

Looks scary, but I don't think this is really an issue. Some disk types seem to report very high numbers for this value.

There are no reallocated sectors reported,

Wrong, pity about

5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 100 100 036 Pre-fail Always - 0

Oh, what is wrong with 0 reallocated sectors?


and IMHO, this is the key value to watch for impending failure.

It is indeed, and that many in a new drive is a real problem.

If you say so, Roddles.

In article ,
Rod Speed wrote:
:Whoever wrote:
:
: There are no reallocated sectors reported,
:
:Wrong, pity about
:
: 5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 100 100 036 Pre-fail
:Always - 0
:
: and IMHO, this is the key value to watch for impending failure.
:
:It is indeed, and that many in a new drive is a real problem.

The raw number on that parameter is zero, and I find it hard to imagine
how that equates to "that many in a new drive is a real problem." The
normalized values (current=100, worst=100) indicate the drive is in
perfect condition (higher is better, and looking at the overall report
it appears that 100 is "best"). The threshold value (36) just indicates
how low the normalized value would have to drop before the manufacturer
would consider the drive to be in a "Pre-fail" condition.

The following is an excerpt from the smartctl manpage, explaining the
meaning of these fields

========

Each Attribute has a "Raw" value, printed under the heading
"RAW_VALUE", and a "Normalized" value printed under the heading
"VALUE". [Note: smartctl prints these values in base-10.] In the
example just given, the "Raw Value" for Attribute 12 would be the
actual number of times that the disk has been power-cycled, for
example 365 if the disk has been turned on once per day for exactly
one year. Each vendor uses their own algorithm to convert this "Raw"
value to a "Normalized" value in the range from 1 to 254. Please keep
in mind that smartctl only reports the different Attribute types,
values, and thresholds as read from the device. It does not carry out
the conversion between "Raw" and "Normalized" values: this is done by
the disk's firmware.

The conversion from Raw value to a quantity with physical units is not
specified by the SMART standard. In most cases, the values printed by
smartctl are sensible. For example the temperature Attribute generally
has its raw value equal to the temperature in Celsius. However in some
cases vendors use unusual conventions. For example the Hitachi disk on
my laptop reports its power-on hours in minutes, not hours. Some IBM
disks track three temperatures rather than one, in their raw
values. And so on.

Each Attribute also has a Threshold value (whose range is 0 to 255)
which is printed under the heading "THRESH". If the Normalized value
is less than or equal to the Threshold value, then the Attribute is
said to have failed. If the Attribute is a pre-failure Attribute, then
disk failure is imminent.

Each Attribute also has a "Worst" value shown under the heading
"WORST". This is the smallest (closest to failure) value that the disk
has recorded at any time during its lifetime when SMART was
enabled. [Note however that some vendors firmware may actually
increase the "Worst" value for some "rate-type" Attributes.]

The Attribute table printed out by smartctl also shows the "TYPE" of
the Attribute. Attributes are one of two possible types: Pre-failure
or Old age. Pre-failure Attributes are ones which, if less than or
equal to their threshold values, indicate pending disk failure. Old
age, or usage Attributes, are ones which indicate end-of-product life
from old-age or normal aging and wearout, if the Attribute value is
less than or equal to the threshold. Please note: the fact that an
Attribute is of type 'Pre-fail' does not mean that your disk is about
to fail! It only has this meaning if the Attribute's current
Normalized value is less than or equal to the threshold value.

If the Attribute's current Normalized value is less than or equal to
the threshold value, then the "WHEN_FAILED" column will display
"FAILING_NOW". If not, but the worst recorded value is less than or
equal to the threshold value, then this column will display
"In_the_past". If the "WHEN_FAILED" column has no entry (indicated by
a dash: '-') then this Attribute is OK now (not failing) and has also
never failed in the past.

The table column labeled "UPDATED" shows if the SMART Attribute values
are updated during both normal operation and off-line testing, or only
during offline testing. The former are labeled "Always" and the latter
are labeled "Offline".

So to summarize: the Raw Attribute values are the ones that might have
a real physical interpretation, such as "Temperature Celsius",
"Hours", or "Start-Stop Cycles". Each manufacturer converts these,
using their detailed knowledge of the disk's operations and failure
modes, to Normalized Attribute values in the range 1-254. The current
and worst (lowest measured) of these Normalized Attribute values are
stored on the disk, along with a Threshold value that the manufacturer
has determined will indicate that the disk is going to fail, or that
it has exceeded its design age or aging limit. smartctl does not
calculate any of the Attribute values, thresholds, or types, it merely
reports them from the SMART data on the device.

========

--
Bob Nichols AT comcast.net I am "RNichols42"

So have those numbers actually changed over time? That is, are they
actually getting worse or are they static values?

"Robert Nichols" wrote in message
In article , Rod Speed wrote:
Whoever wrote:

There are no reallocated sectors reported,

Wrong, pity about

5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 100 100 036 Pre-fail Always - 0

and IMHO, this is the key value to watch for impending failure.

It is indeed, and that many in a new drive is a real problem.

The raw number on that parameter is zero, and I find it hard to imagine
how that equates to "that many in a new drive is a real problem."

Roddles never had much luck explaining S.M.A.R.T. logs.

"Vanguard" wrote in message
So have those numbers actually changed over time? That is, are they
actually getting worse or are they static values?

What a very intelligent question.

In article ,
kony wrote:

No, you just can't take some 3rd party tool and assume you are
getting useful information from it.

That tool just reports what the drive says. If you can't trust
that data, then you can't trust the drive.

--
http://www.spinics.net/lists/raid/