bad blocks found but SMART reports zero reallocated sectors

This is a bit puzzling: I have two 160G ATA drives is soft RAID0
under Windows XP with 4k stipe. Both have SMART enabled, and both
report 0 reallocated sectors. But chkdsk /r/x found and reported 4k in
bad blocks. Do ATA drives reallocate bad sectors automatically, or do
I need to scan both with manufacturer's (Samsung) utility? Thanks.

IronFelix wrote

This is a bit puzzling: I have two 160G ATA drives is soft
RAID0 under Windows XP with 4k stipe. Both have
SMART enabled, and both report 0 reallocated sectors.

What is the full SMART report ? There
aint just reallocated sectors with bads.

Show the Everest report
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4181

But chkdsk /r/x found and reported 4k in bad blocks.

That's likely just one bad sector.

Do ATA drives reallocate bad sectors automatically,

Yes, but only in specific situations, where the data
can be retrieved to put in the reallocated sector.

or do I need to scan both with manufacturer's (Samsung) utility?

Yes.

"IronFelix" wrote in message
This is a bit puzzling: I have two 160G ATA drives is soft RAID0
under Windows XP with 4k stipe.

Both have SMART enabled, and both report 0 reallocated sectors.

But

No, that is why.

chkdsk /r/x found and reported 4k in bad blocks.
(actually that is badblocks in 4k )

So they aren't reallocated yet.
If they were, chkdsk obviously wouldn't be able to find them.

Do ATA drives reallocate bad sectors automatically,

Only on writes.
Only not yet bad sectors are automatically reassigned on reads.

or do I need to scan both with manufacturer's (Samsung) utility?

Depends on how smart it is.
If it can single out only the bad sectors and write over them, then sure.

Thanks.

In article ,
IronFelix wrote:
:This is a bit puzzling: I have two 160G ATA drives is soft RAID0
:under Windows XP with 4k stipe. Both have SMART enabled, and both
:report 0 reallocated sectors. But chkdsk /r/x found and reported 4k in
:bad blocks. Do ATA drives reallocate bad sectors automatically, or do
:I need to scan both with manufacturer's (Samsung) utility? Thanks.

Does SMART report any "pending" sectors? Those are sectors that the
drive has found to be unreadable and will be reallocated the next time
they are written. Of course, since the OS has flagged that area of the
disk as "bad" it will never _be_ rewritten, and thus the drive will
never reallocate the bad sectors. Any utility that performs a surface
analysis by writing to every sector will trigger the reallocation,
and thereafter the OS will see a disk with no bad blocks.

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

On Sat, 28 Jan 2006 09:24:16 +1100, "Rod Speed"
wrote:

IronFelix wrote

This is a bit puzzling: I have two 160G ATA drives is soft
RAID0 under Windows XP with 4k stipe. Both have
SMART enabled, and both report 0 reallocated sectors.

What is the full SMART report ? There
aint just reallocated sectors with bads.

Show the Everest report
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4181

But chkdsk /r/x found and reported 4k in bad blocks.

That's likely just one bad sector.

Do ATA drives reallocate bad sectors automatically,

Yes, but only in specific situations, where the data
can be retrieved to put in the reallocated sector.

or do I need to scan both with manufacturer's (Samsung) utility?

Yes.



Thanks for all replies. Here's the full SMART report:
the 1st-4th data fields are "threshold", "Value","Worst" and "Data",
respectively.

--------[ EVEREST Home Edition (c) 2003-2005 Lavalys, Inc.
]------------------------------------------------------------

Version EVEREST
v2.01.347
Homepage
http://www.lavalys.com/
Report Type Quick Report
Computer CARCASS
(CARCASS)
Generator vlad
Operating System Microsoft
Windows XP Professional 5.1.2600 (WinXP Retail)
Date 2006-01-27
Time 21:02


--------[ SMART
]-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[ SAMSUNG SP1604N (0651J1FW513334) ]

01 Raw Read Error Rate 51 100 100 0
OK: Value is normal
03 Spin Up Time 0 59 48 6912
OK: Always passing
04 Start/Stop Count 0 96 96 4249
OK: Always passing
05 Reallocated Sector Count 10 253 253 0
OK: Value is normal
07 Seek Error Rate 51 253 253 0
OK: Value is normal
08 Seek Time Performance 0 253 253 0
OK: Always passing
09 Power-On Time Count 0 98 98 1407531
OK: Always passing
0A Spin Retry Count 49 100 100 1
OK: Value is normal
0C Power Cycle Count 0 100 100 519
OK: Always passing
C2 Temperature 0 163 112 25
OK: Always passing
C3 Hardware ECC Recovered 0 100 100 411199259
OK: Always passing
C4 Reallocation Event Count 0 253 253 0
OK: Always passing
C5 Current Pending Sector Count 10 253 253 0
OK: Value is normal
C6 Off-Line Uncorrectable Sector Count 10 253 253 0
OK: Value is normal
C7 Ultra ATA CRC Error Rate 0 100 100 0
OK: Always passing
C8 Write Error Rate 51 100 100 0
OK: Value is normal
C9 vendor-specific 51 100 100 0
OK: Value is normal

[ SAMSUNG SV1604N (S01FJ10W401594) ]

01 Raw Read Error Rate 51 100 100 0
OK: Value is normal
04 Start/Stop Count 0 97 97 3912
OK: Always passing
05 Reallocated Sector Count 10 253 253 0
OK: Value is normal
07 Seek Error Rate 51 253 253 0
OK: Value is normal
08 Seek Time Performance 0 253 253 0
OK: Always passing
09 Power-On Time Count 0 98 98 1636365
OK: Always passing
0C Power Cycle Count 0 100 100 539
OK: Always passing
C2 Temperature 0 160 106 26
OK: Always passing
C5 Current Pending Sector Count 10 253 253 0
OK: Value is normal
C6 Off-Line Uncorrectable Sector Count 10 253 253 0
OK: Value is normal
C7 Ultra ATA CRC Error Rate 0 100 100 0
OK: Always passing
C8 Write Error Rate 51 100 100 0
OK: Value is normal
C9 vendor-specific 51 100 100 0
OK: Value is normal


So reallocation is triggered under a narrow set of circumstances, and
I suppose running chkdsk isn't one of them? I guess running a
manufacturer's utility should help. Both of these disks are nearly 4
years old with very heavy use history, so they should be nearing their
EOL. Thanks again!

IronFelix wrote
Rod Speed wrote
IronFelix wrote

This is a bit puzzling: I have two 160G ATA drives is
soft RAID0 under Windows XP with 4k stipe. Both have
SMART enabled, and both report 0 reallocated sectors.

What is the full SMART report ? There
aint just reallocated sectors with bads.

Show the Everest report
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4181

But chkdsk /r/x found and reported 4k in bad blocks.

That's likely just one bad sector.

Do ATA drives reallocate bad sectors automatically,

Yes, but only in specific situations, where the data
can be retrieved to put in the reallocated sector.

or do I need to scan both with manufacturer's (Samsung) utility?

Yes.

Thanks for all replies. Here's the full SMART report:
the 1st-4th data fields are "threshold", "Value","Worst" and "Data",
respectively.

--------[ EVEREST Home Edition (c) 2003-2005 Lavalys, Inc.
]------------------------------------------------------------

Version EVEREST
v2.01.347
Homepage
http://www.lavalys.com/
Report Type Quick Report
Computer CARCASS
(CARCASS)
Generator vlad
Operating System Microsoft
Windows XP Professional 5.1.2600 (WinXP Retail)
Date 2006-01-27
Time 21:02


--------[ SMART
]-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[ SAMSUNG SP1604N (0651J1FW513334) ]

01 Raw Read Error Rate 51 100 100 0
OK: Value is normal
03 Spin Up Time 0 59 48 6912
OK: Always passing
04 Start/Stop Count 0 96 96 4249
OK: Always passing
05 Reallocated Sector Count 10 253 253 0
OK: Value is normal
07 Seek Error Rate 51 253 253 0
OK: Value is normal
08 Seek Time Performance 0 253 253 0
OK: Always passing
09 Power-On Time Count 0 98 98 1407531
OK: Always passing
0A Spin Retry Count 49 100 100 1
OK: Value is normal
0C Power Cycle Count 0 100 100 519
OK: Always passing
C2 Temperature 0 163 112 25
OK: Always passing
C3 Hardware ECC Recovered 0 100 100 411199259
OK: Always passing
C4 Reallocation Event Count 0 253 253 0
OK: Always passing
C5 Current Pending Sector Count 10 253 253 0
OK: Value is normal
C6 Off-Line Uncorrectable Sector Count 10 253 253 0
OK: Value is normal
C7 Ultra ATA CRC Error Rate 0 100 100 0
OK: Always passing
C8 Write Error Rate 51 100 100 0
OK: Value is normal
C9 vendor-specific 51 100 100 0
OK: Value is normal

[ SAMSUNG SV1604N (S01FJ10W401594) ]

01 Raw Read Error Rate 51 100 100 0
OK: Value is normal
04 Start/Stop Count 0 97 97 3912
OK: Always passing
05 Reallocated Sector Count 10 253 253 0
OK: Value is normal
07 Seek Error Rate 51 253 253 0
OK: Value is normal
08 Seek Time Performance 0 253 253 0
OK: Always passing
09 Power-On Time Count 0 98 98 1636365
OK: Always passing
0C Power Cycle Count 0 100 100 539
OK: Always passing
C2 Temperature 0 160 106 26
OK: Always passing
C5 Current Pending Sector Count 10 253 253 0
OK: Value is normal
C6 Off-Line Uncorrectable Sector Count 10 253 253 0
OK: Value is normal
C7 Ultra ATA CRC Error Rate 0 100 100 0
OK: Always passing
C8 Write Error Rate 51 100 100 0
OK: Value is normal
C9 vendor-specific 51 100 100 0
OK: Value is normal

No sign of any bad sector on either drive.

Looks like chkdsk has decided that there is are bad
blocks at the data level, nothing to do with the drives.

So reallocation is triggered under a narrow set of circumstances,

Yes.

and I suppose running chkdsk isn't one of them?

Yes, particularly when its just bad data, not a bad sector.

I guess running a manufacturer's utility should help.

It should show both drives as fine.

Both of these disks are nearly 4 years old with very
heavy use history, so they should be nearing their EOL.

No evidence of any problem with either drive.

Thanks again!

No problem.