Interpreting SpinRite Event Messages

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the_physio

Active member
Feb 15, 2023
35
10
Brisbane
Hi, I’ve run SR6.1Rel3 (on a Zimaboard cleared without memory errors) at Level 4 on a brand new 6TB HDD (Western Digital Red) & have several Event Messages (all relating to Sectors around the 36.4575% & 36.4880% points), namely:
  1. 9 x Despite many attempts, this sector of the media refused to be written and re-read.
  2. 8 x SpinRite’s rewritten data verification failed. The drive did not report any trouble, but the reread data did not match what was written!

The Graphic Status Display has a sector status of B (defective) around the 36% point.

The Final Sector Events Counts have 8 for “not recoverable” & 9 for “defective sectr”.

So my question is this, is there a reference for interpreting the Event Messages generated by SpinRite?

Yes, those messages above indicate issues were encountered but should I interpret these as “Issues were found & the offending sectors have been quarantined from use – so enjoy your HDD” or “Issues were found & this HDD should not be used”?

Like I said this is a brand new HDD so there’s no data of value on it that I need to recover. I just want to know if it’s prudent to start putting my precious data on it.

Cheers,

The Physio
 
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same setup: zima board and SR 6.1r3
I have a similar question but for a older/used drive. I get 24x unrecoverable sectors. Ran Level 2.
is there a next step or should I destroy the HDD and move on with a new one?

PS - I don't need to recover any data since this was part of a NAS RAID that has a new drive and was rebuilt. so this is a learning opportunity for me.
 
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should I destroy the HDD and move on with a new one?
Well if it's operating properly "now" that you "repaired" it... you could use it for something that is less important. (Your 4th backup copy, for example. See 3-2-1.) It may run reliably for another decade, or it may develop new bad sectors day by day. Hard to know what to expect because it's hard to know why it's suffering as it did. Was it heat build up, is it just getting old, did it get vibrated/bumped, and on and on.
 
same setup: zima board and SR 6.1r3
I have a similar question but for a older/used drive. I get 24x unrecoverable sectors. Ran Level 2.
is there a next step or should I destroy the HDD and move on with a new one?
You don't say what size the disk is, but 24 sectors on any modern disk is a very small percentage. Are they random, or all close together? The latter suggests a possible manufacturing defect which might have been there since Day 1..

Personally, I would keep using the disk, but monitor for any more unrecoverable errors.
 
You don't say what size the disk is, but 24 sectors on any modern disk is a very small percentage. Are they random, or all close together? The latter suggests a possible manufacturing defect which might have been there since Day 1..

Personally, I would keep using the disk, but monitor for any more unrecoverable errors.
my bad. it is a 4TB WD Red HDD.
 
same setup: zima board and SR 6.1r3
I have a similar question but for a older/used drive. I get 24x unrecoverable sectors. Ran Level 2.
is there a next step or should I destroy the HDD and move on with a new one?

PS - I don't need to recover any data since this was part of a NAS RAID that has a new drive and was rebuilt. so this is a learning opportunity for me.
UPDATE: I re-ran SR on Level 2 and this time no unrecoverable sectors. this drive also had SMART errors reported via the WD NAS prior to SR Level 2 (first time).
 
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The first run of SR has probably marked all the unrecoverable sectors and the disk firmware has taken them out of service so they won't be found again. However they should show up in the SMART counts although 24 out of 8 billion is a fairly small percentage.
 
The first run of SR has probably marked all the unrecoverable sectors and the disk firmware has taken them out of service so they won't be found again. However they should show up in the SMART counts although 24 out of 8 billion is a fairly small percentage.
thanks. so sounds like the HDD is a keeper thanks to SR.
 
So are there definitive definitions of the Event Messages generated by SpinRite & how to interpret & recommendations on how to act on these?

Am I missing something here as I can't seem to find any.
 
There has been much discussion about SMART statistics and messages in the past. The main problem is that there is no standard for SMART reporting. The values displayed by one make of drive may be vastly different to the equivalent values from another make, even if the underlying health of the drives are similar.

I have also noted that some makes of drive seem to report very large numbers of read errors, but little problem with the disk. My theory is that some manufacturers count errors which were recovered by ECC, and others ignore such errors when counting SMART.
 
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large numbers of read errors, but little problem with the disk
I feel like this is the difference in definition of read error. Modern disks probably have a read error on almost every read, simply because they RELY on using error detection and correction to operate at the high densities needed for modern disk sizes. Maybe it's the case that there is some threshold where they report it anyway, whereas other manufactures only report problems at a different (presumably higher) threshold.
 
Thanks for everyone’s replies, but I don’t feel like there has been a response to my original questions:
  1. Is there a reference for interpreting the Event Messages generated by SpinRite?
  2. Should I interpret the SpinRite messages as “Issues were found & the offending sectors have been quarantined from use – so enjoy your HDD” or “Issues were found & this HDD should not be used”?

I would have thought there’d be definitions of what each SpinRite error message means.

Cheers
 
I don’t feel like there has been a response to my original questions
Unfortunately @Steve has been busy and hasn't been participating here much since you initially asked. My understanding was that he was working on the doc updates, but took a detour into the email management system he has recently been building. You can wait and hope, or I guess you could query his support mechanism more directly if you choose to. https://www.grc.com/support.htm