• Hard drive diagnostics

    From Stan Brown@3:633/10 to All on Sat Oct 11 12:02:09 2025
    I have a (hopefully) new portable 2 TB Western Digital Elements hard
    drive from Amazon. I'd like to do some kind of diagnostics on it to
    make sure the surface is good. In Windows, File Explorer??
    Properties?? Tools?? Error Checking gets an instant response that
    there are no problems on the drive, so obviously that doesn't
    actually check the disk surface. I went to WD's site and downloaded
    their software, but when I run it I just get a message to connect a
    compatible drive.

    What's a good way to check the health of the disk, bad sectors
    included? I have a dim memory that a regular Format (not Quick
    Format) checks for bad sectors, but I could be hallucinating.


    --
    "The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by
    those who don't have it." --George Bernard Shaw

    --- PyGate Linux v1.0
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Alan K.@3:633/10 to All on Sat Oct 11 15:07:23 2025
    On 10/11/25 3:02 PM, Stan Brown wrote:
    I have a (hopefully) new portable 2 TB Western Digital Elements hard
    drive from Amazon. I'd like to do some kind of diagnostics on it to
    make sure the surface is good. In Windows, File Explorer˙¯
    Properties˙¯ Tools˙¯ Error Checking gets an instant response that
    there are no problems on the drive, so obviously that doesn't
    actually check the disk surface. I went to WD's site and downloaded
    their software, but when I run it I just get a message to connect a compatible drive.

    What's a good way to check the health of the disk, bad sectors
    included? I have a dim memory that a regular Format (not Quick
    Format) checks for bad sectors, but I could be hallucinating.


    If you do a full format on a 2tb disk, make sure you don't mind keeping the PC on for days
    and don't have power brown outs. Damn that would take a good bit of time.

    --
    Linux Mint 22.2, Thunderbird 128.14.0esr, Mozilla Firefox 143.0.4
    Alan K.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.0
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From VanguardLH@3:633/10 to All on Sat Oct 11 15:11:15 2025
    Stan Brown <someone@example.com> wrote:

    I have a (hopefully) new portable 2 TB Western Digital Elements hard
    drive from Amazon. I'd like to do some kind of diagnostics on it to
    make sure the surface is good. In Windows, File Explorer??
    Properties?? Tools?? Error Checking gets an instant response that
    there are no problems on the drive, so obviously that doesn't
    actually check the disk surface. I went to WD's site and downloaded
    their software, but when I run it I just get a message to connect a compatible drive.

    What's a good way to check the health of the disk, bad sectors
    included? I have a dim memory that a regular Format (not Quick
    Format) checks for bad sectors, but I could be hallucinating.

    chkdsk c: /r

    HD Sentinel
    Show SMART data of drives, and record history.
    Free version has no testing.
    Standard version ($22) only has surface testing.
    Pro version ($33) has a lot more testing, some of which is destructive,
    so run those before you start storing files on the drive.
    Feature comparison: https://www.hdsentinel.com/store.php

    HD Tune
    Shows SMART data. Been way too long since I last used to remember if it records a history which is really needed with SMART data for predicting degradation. Don't recall it has any surface testing. It's a benchmark
    tool.

    https://alternativeto.net/software/hard-disk-sentinel/

    That lists alternatives, but geared to benchmarking tools. Some have
    SMART history recording, so, for example, you could check if pending bad
    sector reallocations go down to zero (they get remapped) or if the count stabilizes meaning there are sectors that are bad and always remain so
    because there are no more reserve sectors for remapping. Just be aware
    that SMART isn't really that smart.

    HDDScan is another SMART monitor. Not for testing a new drive, but for monitoring them to hopefully alert of problems beforehand.

    GRC's Spinrite is an oldie, but still viable. It does surface testing,
    and will remap bad and iffy sectors to reserve sectors. The more
    remapping there is, the slower the HDD for those sectors (try to read
    the bad sector, get remapped to the reserve, read the reserve).

    --- PyGate Linux v1.0
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From J. P. Gilliver@3:633/10 to All on Sat Oct 11 23:35:14 2025
    On 2025/10/11 21:11:15, VanguardLH wrote:
    Stan Brown <someone@example.com> wrote:

    I have a (hopefully) new portable 2 TB Western Digital Elements hard
    drive from Amazon. I'd like to do some kind of diagnostics on it to
    make sure the surface is good. In Windows, File Explorer˙¯
    Properties˙¯ Tools˙¯ Error Checking gets an instan
    t response that
    there are no problems on the drive, so obviously that doesn't
    actually check the disk surface. I went to WD's site and downloaded
    their software, but when I run it I just get a message to connect a
    compatible drive.

    What's a good way to check the health of the disk, bad sectors
    included? I have a dim memory that a regular Format (not Quick
    Format) checks for bad sectors, but I could be hallucinating.

    Nothing the _computer_ can do will directly tell you about surface
    errors, because the electronics in the drive itself will substitute
    spare sectors for any known to be bad - so anything the computer does
    will get back "no bad sectors here" - until the drive runs out of spare sectors, by which time it's time to replace it anyway.

    The only thing that will show you when swapping is happening is
    something that checks the _speed_ of access to all of the drive:
    although all sectors will read back as OK, if the drive has to
    substitute sectors from the spare pool, and has to move the heads to do
    so, it will take longer for those particular sectors.

    The only tool I know of that will do this is the old free version of
    HDTune (and I don't know if that will work under W10, though I think it
    will - Paul?). The free one is well down the download page, and many
    years old. (If you can't find it, ask here, and one of us may be able to
    send it to you.)

    If it works, you should get a smooth curve, similar to https://255soft.uk/temp/HDTune_1.png and
    https://255soft.uk/temp/HDTune_2.png, showing the speed of access across
    the disc surface - it's fastest at the start (outside of the platters).
    Any dud sectors will be shown as a downward spike in the curve. But
    don't worry when you get some such spikes! Because it is ancient
    software, its speed test gets interrupted by any activity that Windows
    does while it's running - which shows as a dip in speed at whatever
    sector HDTune is checking at that moment. So you save the plot (click on
    the picture of the floppy), and run it a second time and save _that_ -
    then flick back and forth between the two saved images. (I find
    IrfanView ideal for this, but use whatever you use to look at images, as
    long as it can flick back and forth easily between two.) Any downward
    spikes should be in _different places_ on the two plots, because if
    HDTune was interrupted by Windows doing something, that shouldn't happen
    at the same point both times. (Compare my two samples to see what I mean.
    )

    You need to do this with the drive being tested actually plugged into
    the motherboard, not in an external USB enclosure. (I presume it's a
    SATA drive.) HDTune will ignore any partitioning - it tests the whole
    drive, regardless; I don't even _think_ it has to be formatted. (Make
    sure - drop-down list top left - that it's testing the right drive,
    though, not your existing drive. Though if that's a real HDD, you could
    always check that too! It doesn't corrupt what's on the drive, if anythin
    g.)

    Good luck, and hope it works for you!

    If anyone else knows any other way to actually check for bad sectors
    that won't be fooled by the drive's electronics into not seeing any,
    please share. (HDTune doesn't see bad sectors either, but its test of
    the speed of access to them gives an _indication_ when swapping is
    happening.)


    --
    J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()ALIS-Ch++(p)Ar++T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

    "Grammar is there to help, not hinder."
    -- Mark Wallace, APIHNA, 2nd December 2000 (quoted by John Flynn 2000-12
    -6)

    --- PyGate Linux v1.0
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Paul@3:633/10 to All on Sat Oct 11 20:18:33 2025
    On Sat, 10/11/2025 3:07 PM, Alan K. wrote:
    On 10/11/25 3:02 PM, Stan Brown wrote:
    I have a (hopefully) new portable 2 TB Western Digital Elements hard
    drive from Amazon. I'd like to do some kind of diagnostics on it to
    make sure the surface is good. In Windows, File Explorer˙¯
    Properties˙¯ Tools˙¯ Error Checking gets an instant response that
    there are no problems on the drive, so obviously that doesn't
    actually check the disk surface. I went to WD's site and downloaded
    their software, but when I run it I just get a message to connect a
    compatible drive.

    What's a good way to check the health of the disk, bad sectors
    included? I have a dim memory that a regular Format (not Quick
    Format) checks for bad sectors, but I could be hallucinating.


    If you do a full format on a 2tb disk, make sure you don't mind keeping
    the PC on for days and don't have power brown outs.˙˙ Damn that would take
    a good bit of time.

    If you're talking about the old days "where if a LLF formatting drive
    lost power it would brick", drives no longer work that way. Yes, I lost
    one drive at work, one of the 10MB ones, when the power went off right after
    we started an LLF on one. Grrr. About $1500 down the toilet. One reason
    for doing an LLF, was to change the interleave factor if you happened
    to purchase a spiffy new controller board at the time (that drive may
    have been changed from Interleave 3 to Interleave 1). The drives were
    as dumb as a floppy drive, and the controller was the smart part.

    As engineers, we were really aware of the LLF, and before you started
    one, you looked outdoors at the weather. Thunderclouds? No LLF for you.
    The building had many UPS -- it was just the dev labs that had no UPS
    or I would have connected one if there had been one sitting there.

    For the most part, you can interrupt the power any time you feel like
    on a modern rotating HDD and it will survive. In the following diagram,
    you can see that only a certain part of the platter is write-able, and
    there is careful control to make sure you can't damage anything critical
    while doing so. If the power goes off in this diagram, only the
    current sector being written is affected, and since the file system
    still considers that to be a "fragment", it is removed from the file system
    at the next boot (playback journal, to recognize a fragment).

    Modern Drives (Note: not all drives use Headers):

    ... Header Write-Splice 4096 byte data section
    Header Write-Splice 4096 byte data section
    Header Write-Splice 4096 byte data section Servo-wedge (high clock content) ...
    ^ ^ \----------+---------/ and/or location info
    | | | (for headerless)
    | | |
    | Fast acquisition PLL This is the *only* part you get to use.
    | Lock-in, then write
    |
    These don't get written

    Legacy drives looked nothing like that diagram. Legacy drives
    were a "desert" compared to what we have today in terms of fixed
    features on the platter surface.

    Summary: Go ahead. Carry out an operation that writes the 4096 byte areas (512e drive).
    If the power goes off, it's no big deal. Start the operation again
    and go make a three course meal while it runs.

    Very seldom do the heads crash land on the platter, instead of resting on
    the plastic landing ramps. But there is a small possibility of that happening.
    And if that happens, that is not good for the heads or for the platter
    surface (if a stiction were to happen as a result). They now know how
    to "laser pattern" the area near the hub, to make a landing zone, but if
    a drive is designed that way, it only lasts for around 10,000 hours instead
    of 50,000 hours. The plastic landing ramp then, is our friend. The platter
    surface is pretty robust -- only the head "sticking" to it, is bad for it.
    A glancing blow to the platter, it resists that pretty well compared to the
    old days. the platter has a kind of polymer finish, perfect for glancing
    blows.

    Paul

    --- PyGate Linux v1.0
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Paul@3:633/10 to All on Sat Oct 11 20:41:48 2025
    On Sat, 10/11/2025 6:35 PM, J. P. Gilliver wrote:
    On 2025/10/11 21:11:15, VanguardLH wrote:
    Stan Brown <someone@example.com> wrote:

    I have a (hopefully) new portable 2 TB Western Digital Elements hard
    drive from Amazon. I'd like to do some kind of diagnostics on it to
    make sure the surface is good. In Windows, File Explorer˙¯
    Properties˙¯ Tools˙¯ Error Checking gets an instant response that
    there are no problems on the drive, so obviously that doesn't
    actually check the disk surface. I went to WD's site and downloaded
    their software, but when I run it I just get a message to connect a
    compatible drive.

    What's a good way to check the health of the disk, bad sectors
    included? I have a dim memory that a regular Format (not Quick
    Format) checks for bad sectors, but I could be hallucinating.

    Nothing the _computer_ can do will directly tell you about surface
    errors, because the electronics in the drive itself will substitute
    spare sectors for any known to be bad - so anything the computer does
    will get back "no bad sectors here" - until the drive runs out of spare sectors, by which time it's time to replace it anyway.

    The only thing that will show you when swapping is happening is
    something that checks the _speed_ of access to all of the drive:
    although all sectors will read back as OK, if the drive has to
    substitute sectors from the spare pool, and has to move the heads to do
    so, it will take longer for those particular sectors.

    The only tool I know of that will do this is the old free version of
    HDTune (and I don't know if that will work under W10, though I think it
    will - Paul?). The free one is well down the download page, and many
    years old. (If you can't find it, ask here, and one of us may be able to
    send it to you.)

    If it works, you should get a smooth curve, similar to https://255soft.uk/temp/HDTune_1.png and https://255soft.uk/temp/HDTune_2.png, showing the speed of access across
    the disc surface - it's fastest at the start (outside of the platters).
    Any dud sectors will be shown as a downward spike in the curve. But
    don't worry when you get some such spikes! Because it is ancient
    software, its speed test gets interrupted by any activity that Windows
    does while it's running - which shows as a dip in speed at whatever
    sector HDTune is checking at that moment. So you save the plot (click on
    the picture of the floppy), and run it a second time and save _that_ -
    then flick back and forth between the two saved images. (I find
    IrfanView ideal for this, but use whatever you use to look at images, as
    long as it can flick back and forth easily between two.) Any downward
    spikes should be in _different places_ on the two plots, because if
    HDTune was interrupted by Windows doing something, that shouldn't happen
    at the same point both times. (Compare my two samples to see what I mean.)

    You need to do this with the drive being tested actually plugged into
    the motherboard, not in an external USB enclosure. (I presume it's a
    SATA drive.) HDTune will ignore any partitioning - it tests the whole
    drive, regardless; I don't even _think_ it has to be formatted. (Make
    sure - drop-down list top left - that it's testing the right drive,
    though, not your existing drive. Though if that's a real HDD, you could always check that too! It doesn't corrupt what's on the drive, if anything.)

    Good luck, and hope it works for you!

    If anyone else knows any other way to actually check for bad sectors
    that won't be fooled by the drive's electronics into not seeing any,
    please share. (HDTune doesn't see bad sectors either, but its test of
    the speed of access to them gives an _indication_ when swapping is happening.)

    I have a secret method for this.

    Anyone who regularly uses the free version of HDTune, knows that
    the constant OS activity, screws up the trace. The OS is noisy,
    and the I/O noise affects the HDTUne plot.

    If you prepare a Macrium Reflect Rescue CD (a WinPE environment)
    and the type of installation is 32-bit (x86), you get to make
    a 32 bit rescue disk. (The way to do this today, is install
    a Win10 32-bit OS, install a 32-bit Macrium [must match the bitness
    for the installer to work], then you can make your rescue disc.)

    When you boot the Macrium Rescue disc, there is a command prompt available.
    You cd to your C: drive on the HDD you are benching. Navigate with
    the cd, to the HDTune folder. There is one DLL missing, and the DLL
    needed, is in the C: partition on the HDD you are testing. Using the
    Macrium File Explorer, transfer a copy of the missing DLL, into the
    folder in the Program Files on C: where the HDTune lives. Then, when
    you run HDTune from the Macrium environment, you have

    A QUIET OS ENVIRONMENT SUITED TO BENCHMARKING!!!

    Now, run your HDTune scan, such as it is. The free version of
    HDTune is most appropriate for drives 2TB or less. The paid version
    likely supports any size of drive properly.

    [Picture]

    https://i.postimg.cc/FstVY0y2/Macriumx86-versus-Win7-for-HDTune-scanning.gif

    Paul



    --- PyGate Linux v1.0
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From VanguardLH@3:633/10 to All on Sun Oct 12 03:26:56 2025
    "J. P. Gilliver" <G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:

    On 2025/10/11 21:11:15, VanguardLH wrote:
    Stan Brown <someone@example.com> wrote:

    I have a (hopefully) new portable 2 TB Western Digital Elements hard
    drive from Amazon. I'd like to do some kind of diagnostics on it to
    make sure the surface is good. In Windows, File Explorer??
    Properties?? Tools?? Error Checking gets an instant response that
    there are no problems on the drive, so obviously that doesn't
    actually check the disk surface. I went to WD's site and downloaded
    their software, but when I run it I just get a message to connect a
    compatible drive.

    What's a good way to check the health of the disk, bad sectors
    included? I have a dim memory that a regular Format (not Quick
    Format) checks for bad sectors, but I could be hallucinating.

    Nothing the _computer_ can do will directly tell you about surface
    errors, because the electronics in the drive itself will substitute
    spare sectors for any known to be bad - so anything the computer does
    will get back "no bad sectors here" - until the drive runs out of spare sectors, by which time it's time to replace it anyway.

    If you see pending allocations in SMART that don't reduce to zero after
    a reboot then the spare sectors have been used up.

    Current Pending Sector Count are those that have been found to be iffy.
    All that means is 1 in 5 retries failed. Subsequent testing may not
    find the sectors are bad. Transient errors happens. What you want to
    see is Current Pending Sector Count go to zero.

    HD Sentinel, for example, told me there was a large reallocation event.
    I think 40 sectors suddenly tested bad, and got reallocated. However,
    it was a one-time event, and the drive remained usable for well over 3
    years despite HD Sentinel flagging it as a bad drive. Their claim is
    the event was for a large number of sectors, but they never tell you how
    many of the current usable remapping sectors got used; i.e., how much of
    the pool got used. No more bad sectors showed up afterward. There was
    a jump, they all got remapped, nothing more happened, but it gave an
    alert that the drive /might/ be bad despite everything got remapped, and
    no more baddies showed up. I tried to find out how many reserve sectors
    are available per brand and model to know if 40 was something huge. The
    drive makers don't publish that info, and it cannot be determined via
    SMART data, so is 40 a lot or little? Depends on how many total reserve
    there are (after the mfr already used some), how many free are currently available in the reserve, and if the problem recurs or not.

    The surface tests are a bit iffy. The OS allows 5 retries, but the
    drive's firmware permits 3, or more, retries per error, so there could
    be 15 retries before a sector is considering bad, but later no such
    failure is found (i.e., transient errors). The extended tests in HD
    Sentinal (paid) go beyond surface testing, but several are destructive
    so you don't run them on a populated drive unless you're willing to lose
    all that data.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.0
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Carlos E.R.@3:633/10 to All on Sun Oct 12 15:15:51 2025
    On 2025-10-12 10:26, VanguardLH wrote:
    If you see pending allocations in SMART that don't reduce to zero after
    a reboot then the spare sectors have been used up.

    Huh, no.

    Reallocation happens when writing to a bad sector. If you only read to
    it, the bad sector remains active.

    --
    Cheers, Carlos.
    ES??, EU??;

    --- PyGate Linux v1.0
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Carlos E.R.@3:633/10 to All on Sun Oct 12 15:24:14 2025
    On 2025-10-11 21:02, Stan Brown wrote:
    I have a (hopefully) new portable 2 TB Western Digital Elements hard
    drive from Amazon. I'd like to do some kind of diagnostics on it to
    make sure the surface is good. In Windows, File Explorer˙¯
    Properties˙¯ Tools˙¯ Error Checking gets an instant response that
    there are no problems on the drive, so obviously that doesn't
    actually check the disk surface. I went to WD's site and downloaded
    their software, but when I run it I just get a message to connect a compatible drive.

    That's because there is an USB chipset in the middle. The software
    doesn't see the disk, it sees the chipset.

    If the box is actually from WD, you should report this. It is a bug.


    What's a good way to check the health of the disk, bad sectors
    included? I have a dim memory that a regular Format (not Quick
    Format) checks for bad sectors, but I could be hallucinating.

    Run the long SMART test, then check the disk log about it. This test
    actually runs in the disk firmware, doesn't involve the computer. And
    you can continue using the disk while it runs. However, the usb chipset
    can interfere.

    For example, some boxes power down the disk at 10 minutes,
    even if the test is running. You have in those cases to keep
    the disk active with a script and a timer.

    There are several tools to do it. I would recommend the open source smartmontools.

    https://www.smartmontools.org/
    https://www.smartmontools.org/wiki/Download

    --
    Cheers, Carlos.
    ES??, EU??;

    --- PyGate Linux v1.0
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Paul@3:633/10 to All on Sun Oct 12 12:37:19 2025
    On Sun, 10/12/2025 9:15 AM, Carlos E.R. wrote:
    On 2025-10-12 10:26, VanguardLH wrote:
    If you see pending allocations in SMART that don't reduce to zero after
    a reboot then the spare sectors have been used up.

    Huh, no.

    Reallocation happens when writing to a bad sector. If you only read to it, the bad sector remains active.


    We don't know exactly how it works, because it isn't an honest
    reporting system to begin with.

    Reallocated isn't a linear reporting system. To make up
    an example, say a disk has room for 103500 reallocations.
    The disk might decide, for the first 100000 reallocations,
    it will report... nothing. The raw data field will read 0.
    Then, for the remaining 3500 reallocations, the raw data
    will increment from 0..3500 . The reason for doing this,
    is to prevent customers from "cherry picking" drives and
    doing retail returns "until they get a good one".

    It means you could send a worn out disk to a customer as
    a "refurb" on a warranty return, and the indicator still
    reads 0. And it reads 0 without resetting any statistics
    or cheating.

    The thing is, there are a number of bad sectors during
    surface certification. These will obviously be spared out.
    If there are too many, the product will be rejected, and
    maybe the robot will put a new stack on the thing or something.
    It's unlikely they just shred drives which don't pass. And the
    disk manufacturer has things like robots for taking drives
    apart (recycling disassembly).

    The platters are certified somehow, when made at the platter
    factory. The platter factory can be a separate facility from
    the disk drive factory, and they polish plated-up platters
    and do some sort of scan so that only "perfect discs" with
    a blemish free surface, are sent to Seagate, WD, and Tosh. There
    are thick platters for 4TB drives and thin platters for 24TB drives.
    The materials could be different. Al substrate in one, glass
    in the other type. The active layers are established via plating.
    They try not to have too many platter types in production,
    so it doesn't become a zoo. It's hard to say how many platter
    types are in the factory (unlikely they're still making the
    nice three platter 2TB drives for example).

    My mental image of how it works, is if a sector is bad (minor
    correctable error), it is put on the Pending queue. Yet, the
    Current Pending statistic does NOT report it. As you say, on
    the next Write attempt, the controller sees a sector in the
    path that is dodgy. It does the write to it, then it
    does a read verify. If the sector is "perfect", and passes
    the test, the sector is taken off the Pending queue. If
    the sector still has correctable errors or if the sector
    is completely blown, it is put on reallocation, and a spare
    sector is marked for usage in the table. The drive keeps the
    map stored in the cache RAM, for quick access.

    OK, so when does the Current Pending get used. It *seems* to
    start honestly reporting Pending activity, right around
    the time that the Reallocated statistic comes off 0. You
    might see a burst of Current Pending after some lengthy
    disk activity, followed by the Current Pending number
    dropping to 0 again as it is processed. And the
    sickly Reallocated climbs by roughly the amount of
    Current Pending that got processed.

    Some errors are High Fly errors. A percentage of drives,
    have High Fly detection (DSP hooked to Write Current and
    the current flow waveform tells you how high the head
    is on the Z axis). That can flag a problem using
    something other than a CRC error. If a High Fly error happens,
    the sector can still have "good CRC" but the sector also
    contains stale data. I did the forensics to see the *results*
    of a High Fly on a WD Blue, while knowing the drive itself
    did not sense the incident while it was happening (a
    WD Blue would not have High Fly detection). A drive which
    is making a High Fly error and has the detector, can process
    the sector on the next rotation, put it on the Pending Queue
    or in fact, just Reallocate it right on the spot. I think
    the High Fly on the WD Blue on mine, is repeatable, which
    means a speck of fly shit is on the platter at that location.

    ______X____________ fly shit plot

    X_____X_____X_____X sector layout

    CRCE stale OK sector status

    spared stale OK after paving the drive
    the CRCE one got spared out
    Surface scan now "good" <cough> .
    Stale sector could still be a problem
    as a place to store my data (not tested).

    I'm still not clear on the exact treatment of Pending materials,
    and when exactly the processing of them happens, and how much
    effort goes into evaluation. The processing of them, if there is
    just one of them (low frequency), the write bandwidth should have
    a small "glitch" in it. But in a computer, there are so many potential
    causes of thruput issues, you might never notice one caused by hardware.

    Paul

    --- PyGate Linux v1.0
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From J. P. Gilliver@3:633/10 to All on Sun Oct 12 18:21:00 2025
    On 2025/10/12 14:24:14, Carlos E.R. wrote:
    On 2025-10-11 21:02, Stan Brown wrote:
    I have a (hopefully) new portable 2 TB Western Digital Elements hard

    []

    My apologies; I didn't spot the word "portable" first time, when I
    recommended HDTune. I don't _think_ HDTune will detect errors through a
    (USB I presume) portable interface: it will run, but I think the speed
    will be sufficiently slow via that that any drop in speed due to
    swapping out bad sectors may not be visible. Though no harm in trying!

    --
    J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()ALIS-Ch++(p)Ar++T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

    "Flobalob" actually means "Flowerpot" in Oddle-Poddle.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.0
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Carlos E.R.@3:633/10 to All on Sun Oct 12 19:46:30 2025
    On 2025-10-12 18:37, Paul wrote:
    On Sun, 10/12/2025 9:15 AM, Carlos E.R. wrote:
    On 2025-10-12 10:26, VanguardLH wrote:
    If you see pending allocations in SMART that don't reduce to zero after
    a reboot then the spare sectors have been used up.

    Huh, no.

    Reallocation happens when writing to a bad sector. If you only read to it, the bad sector remains active.


    We don't know exactly how it works, because it isn't an honest
    reporting system to begin with.

    Reallocated isn't a linear reporting system. To make up
    an example, say a disk has room for 103500 reallocations.
    The disk might decide, for the first 100000 reallocations,
    it will report... nothing. The raw data field will read 0.
    Then, for the remaining 3500 reallocations, the raw data
    will increment from 0..3500 .

    I have noticed this.

    The reason for doing this,
    is to prevent customers from "cherry picking" drives and
    doing retail returns "until they get a good one".

    Ah! :-D


    It means you could send a worn out disk to a customer as
    a "refurb" on a warranty return, and the indicator still
    reads 0. And it reads 0 without resetting any statistics
    or cheating.

    The thing is, there are a number of bad sectors during
    surface certification. These will obviously be spared out.
    If there are too many, the product will be rejected, and
    maybe the robot will put a new stack on the thing or something.
    It's unlikely they just shred drives which don't pass. And the
    disk manufacturer has things like robots for taking drives
    apart (recycling disassembly).

    The platters are certified somehow, when made at the platter
    factory. The platter factory can be a separate facility from
    the disk drive factory, and they polish plated-up platters
    and do some sort of scan so that only "perfect discs" with
    a blemish free surface, are sent to Seagate, WD, and Tosh. There
    are thick platters for 4TB drives and thin platters for 24TB drives.
    The materials could be different. Al substrate in one, glass
    in the other type. The active layers are established via plating.
    They try not to have too many platter types in production,
    so it doesn't become a zoo. It's hard to say how many platter
    types are in the factory (unlikely they're still making the
    nice three platter 2TB drives for example).

    My mental image of how it works, is if a sector is bad (minor
    correctable error), it is put on the Pending queue. Yet, the
    Current Pending statistic does NOT report it. As you say, on
    the next Write attempt, the controller sees a sector in the
    path that is dodgy. It does the write to it, then it
    does a read verify. If the sector is "perfect", and passes
    the test, the sector is taken off the Pending queue. If
    the sector still has correctable errors or if the sector
    is completely blown, it is put on reallocation, and a spare
    sector is marked for usage in the table. The drive keeps the
    map stored in the cache RAM, for quick access.

    OK, so when does the Current Pending get used. It *seems* to
    start honestly reporting Pending activity, right around
    the time that the Reallocated statistic comes off 0. You
    might see a burst of Current Pending after some lengthy
    disk activity, followed by the Current Pending number
    dropping to 0 again as it is processed. And the
    sickly Reallocated climbs by roughly the amount of
    Current Pending that got processed.

    Some errors are High Fly errors. A percentage of drives,
    have High Fly detection (DSP hooked to Write Current and
    the current flow waveform tells you how high the head
    is on the Z axis). That can flag a problem using
    something other than a CRC error. If a High Fly error happens,
    the sector can still have "good CRC" but the sector also
    contains stale data. I did the forensics to see the *results*
    of a High Fly on a WD Blue, while knowing the drive itself
    did not sense the incident while it was happening (a
    WD Blue would not have High Fly detection). A drive which
    is making a High Fly error and has the detector, can process
    the sector on the next rotation, put it on the Pending Queue
    or in fact, just Reallocate it right on the spot. I think
    the High Fly on the WD Blue on mine, is repeatable, which
    means a speck of fly shit is on the platter at that location.

    ______X____________ fly shit plot

    X_____X_____X_____X sector layout

    CRCE stale OK sector status

    spared stale OK after paving the drive
    the CRCE one got spared out
    Surface scan now "good" <cough> .
    Stale sector could still be a problem
    as a place to store my data (not tested).

    I'm still not clear on the exact treatment of Pending materials,
    and when exactly the processing of them happens, and how much
    effort goes into evaluation. The processing of them, if there is
    just one of them (low frequency), the write bandwidth should have
    a small "glitch" in it. But in a computer, there are so many potential
    causes of thruput issues, you might never notice one caused by hardware.

    That's an interesting job to get, at the disk factory :-)

    --
    Cheers, Carlos.
    ES??, EU??;

    --- PyGate Linux v1.0
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Paul@3:633/10 to All on Sun Oct 12 15:29:23 2025
    On Sun, 10/12/2025 9:24 AM, Carlos E.R. wrote:
    On 2025-10-11 21:02, Stan Brown wrote:
    I have a (hopefully) new portable 2 TB Western Digital Elements hard
    drive from Amazon. I'd like to do some kind of diagnostics on it to
    make sure the surface is good. In Windows, File Explorer˙¯
    Properties˙¯ Tools˙¯ Error Checking gets an instant response that
    there are no problems on the drive, so obviously that doesn't
    actually check the disk surface. I went to WD's site and downloaded
    their software, but when I run it I just get a message to connect a
    compatible drive.

    That's because there is an USB chipset in the middle. The software doesn't see the disk, it sees the chipset.

    If the box is actually from WD, you should report this. It is a bug.


    What's a good way to check the health of the disk, bad sectors
    included? I have a dim memory that a regular Format (not Quick
    Format) checks for bad sectors, but I could be hallucinating.

    Run the long SMART test, then check the disk log about it. This test actually runs in the disk firmware, doesn't involve the computer. And you can continue using the disk while it runs. However, the usb chipset can interfere.

    ˙˙ For example, some boxes power down the disk at 10 minutes,
    ˙˙ even if the test is running. You have in those cases to keep
    ˙˙ the disk active with a script and a timer.

    There are several tools to do it. I would recommend the open source smartmontools.

    https://www.smartmontools.org/
    https://www.smartmontools.org/wiki/Download


    HDTune doesn't show a SMART entry for my ASM2106 controller.

    [Picture]

    https://i.postimg.cc/0QbVfjwM/Not-cooperating-with-HDTune.gif

    Smartmontools 7.5 shows it OK.

    https://sourceforge.net/projects/smartmontools/files/smartmontools/7.5/

    # Download delivered by mirror
    ( https://cytranet-dal.dl.sourceforge.net/project/smartmontools/smartmontools/7.5/smartmontools-7.5.win32-setup.exe?viasf=1 )

    That is a retired drive, to show an unhealthy specimen (which likely rates "GOOD"
    for tools like this).

    ******* WD Blue 250GB SATA with high fly error on ASM2106 ********

    C:\WINDOWS\system32>smartctl -a /dev/sdb
    smartctl 7.5 2025-04-30 r5714 [x86_64-w64-mingw32-w10-22H2] (AppVeyor) Copyright (C) 2002-25, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

    === START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
    Model Family: Western Digital Blue (CMR)
    Device Model: WDC WD2500AAKX-75U6AA0
    Serial Number: WD-WCC2H1156026
    LU WWN Device Id: 5 0014ee 20810c5d0
    Firmware Version: 19.01H19
    User Capacity: 250,059,350,016 bytes [250 GB]
    Sector Size: 512 bytes logical/physical
    Device is: In smartctl database
    ATA Version is: ATA8-ACS (minor revision not indicated)
    SATA Version is: SATA 3.0, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)
    Local Time is: Sun Oct 12 14:03:34 2025 EDT
    SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
    SMART support is: Enabled

    === START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
    SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED <=== Um, OK, I guess :-)

    General SMART Values:
    Offline data collection status: (0x82) Offline data collection activity
    was completed without error.
    Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled. Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed
    without error or no self-test has ever
    been run.
    Total time to complete Offline
    data collection: ( 4380) seconds.
    Offline data collection
    capabilities: (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
    Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
    Suspend Offline collection upon new
    command.
    Offline surface scan supported.
    Self-test supported.
    Conveyance Self-test supported.
    Selective Self-test supported.
    SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
    power-saving mode.
    Supports SMART auto save timer.
    Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported.
    General Purpose Logging supported. Short self-test routine
    recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes.
    Extended self-test routine
    recommended polling time: ( 47) minutes.
    Conveyance self-test routine
    recommended polling time: ( 5) minutes.
    SCT capabilities: (0x3037) SCT Status supported.
    SCT Feature Control supported.
    SCT Data Table supported.

    SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
    Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
    ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
    1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x002f 200 200 051 Pre-fail Always - 127
    3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0027 142 141 021 Pre-fail Always - 3875
    4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 098 098 000 Old_age Always - 2210
    5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 200 200 140 Pre-fail Always - 0 <=== not in trouble
    7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x002e 100 253 000 Old_age Always - 0
    9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 081 081 000 Old_age Always - 14381
    10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
    11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
    12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 098 098 000 Old_age Always - 2199
    192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 71
    193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 2140
    194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 112 096 000 Old_age Always - 31
    196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
    197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0 <=== not in trouble
    198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0030 200 200 000 Old_age Offline - 0
    199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
    200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate 0x0008 200 200 000 Old_age Offline - 0
    240 Head_Flying_Hours 0x0032 082 082 000 Old_age Always - 13433
    241 Total_LBAs_Written 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 26563592285
    242 Total_LBAs_Read 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 55111517177

    SMART Error Log Version: 1
    ATA Error Count: 67 (device log contains only the most recent five errors)
    CR = Command Register [HEX]
    FR = Features Register [HEX]
    SC = Sector Count Register [HEX]
    SN = Sector Number Register [HEX]
    CL = Cylinder Low Register [HEX]
    CH = Cylinder High Register [HEX]
    DH = Device/Head Register [HEX]
    DC = Device Command Register [HEX]
    ER = Error register [HEX]
    ST = Status register [HEX]
    Powered_Up_Time is measured from power on, and printed as
    DDd+hh:mm:SS.sss where DD=days, hh=hours, mm=minutes,
    SS=sec, and sss=millisec. It "wraps" after 49.710 days.

    Error 67 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 14332 hours (597 days + 4 hours)
    When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

    After command completion occurred, registers were:
    ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
    -- -- -- -- -- -- --
    40 51 01 84 fc de e3 Error: UNC 1 sectors at LBA = 0x03defc84 = 64945284

    Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
    CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
    -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
    c8 00 01 84 fc de e3 08 02:21:16.534 READ DMA
    ec 00 00 00 00 00 a0 08 02:21:16.531 IDENTIFY DEVICE
    ef 03 46 00 00 00 a0 08 02:21:16.529 SET FEATURES [Set transfer mode]

    Error 66 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 14332 hours (597 days + 4 hours)
    When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

    After command completion occurred, registers were:
    ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
    -- -- -- -- -- -- --
    40 51 01 63 bc db e3 Error: UNC 1 sectors at LBA = 0x03dbbc63 = 64732259

    Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
    CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
    -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
    c8 00 01 63 bc db e3 08 02:21:14.733 READ DMA
    ec 00 00 00 00 00 a0 08 02:21:14.730 IDENTIFY DEVICE
    ef 03 46 00 00 00 a0 08 02:21:14.728 SET FEATURES [Set transfer mode]

    Error 65 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 14332 hours (597 days + 4 hours)
    When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

    After command completion occurred, registers were:
    ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
    -- -- -- -- -- -- --
    40 51 01 93 f2 3a e3 Error: UNC 1 sectors at LBA = 0x033af293 = 54194835

    Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
    CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
    -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
    c8 00 01 93 f2 3a e3 08 02:21:12.921 READ DMA
    ec 00 00 00 00 00 a0 08 02:21:12.919 IDENTIFY DEVICE
    ef 03 46 00 00 00 a0 08 02:21:12.917 SET FEATURES [Set transfer mode]

    Error 64 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 14332 hours (597 days + 4 hours)
    When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

    After command completion occurred, registers were:
    ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
    -- -- -- -- -- -- --
    40 51 01 9b 79 fc e2 Error: UNC 1 sectors at LBA = 0x02fc799b = 50100635

    Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
    CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
    -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
    c8 00 01 9b 79 fc e2 08 02:21:11.120 READ DMA
    ec 00 00 00 00 00 a0 08 02:21:11.117 IDENTIFY DEVICE
    ef 03 46 00 00 00 a0 08 02:21:11.115 SET FEATURES [Set transfer mode]

    Error 63 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 14332 hours (597 days + 4 hours)
    When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

    After command completion occurred, registers were:
    ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
    -- -- -- -- -- -- --
    40 51 01 c3 9d f6 e2 Error: UNC 1 sectors at LBA = 0x02f69dc3 = 49716675

    Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
    CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
    -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
    c8 00 01 c3 9d f6 e2 08 02:21:09.321 READ DMA
    ec 00 00 00 00 00 a0 08 02:21:09.318 IDENTIFY DEVICE
    ef 03 46 00 00 00 a0 08 02:21:09.316 SET FEATURES [Set transfer mode]

    SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
    Num Test_Description Status Remaining LifeTime(hours) LBA_of_first_error
    # 1 Short offline Completed: read failure 50% 14329 4824868
    # 2 Short offline Completed without error 00% 14266 - # 3 Short offline Completed without error 00% 0 -

    SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
    SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
    1 0 0 Not_testing
    2 0 0 Not_testing
    3 0 0 Not_testing
    4 0 0 Not_testing
    5 0 0 Not_testing
    Selective self-test flags (0x0):
    After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
    If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

    The above only provides legacy SMART information - try 'smartctl -x' for more

    ******* End: WD Blue 250GB SATA with high fly error on ASM2106 ********

    So apparently that software knows how to do SMART passthru.

    And if the software doesn't accept vanilla treatment,
    you can add more parameters to the invocation to fix that.

    https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=276203

    An HDTune "Error Scan" still works over USB. It does not
    depend on SMART capability.

    A thorough test of a drive, is a write followed by a read-verify.
    Since the drive is brand new, it doesn't matter what gets written
    to it. For example, you could do a Macrium backup to it, as long
    as the size of the Macrium backup will fit on the drive and use
    most of the surface. A Macrium Verify then read-verifies the
    image and compares to the recorded checksum.

    You can craft your own test with a script. A little checksum
    here and there, tells you whether the files you write,
    are being recorded properly.

    The SMART output includes a temperature. The drive was 31C early
    in the run when the drive had not really warmed up. It's not
    in an enclosure, and sits on the table on rubber mounts.

    Paul

    --- PyGate Linux v1.0
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Paul@3:633/10 to All on Sun Oct 12 19:36:30 2025
    On Sun, 10/12/2025 1:21 PM, J. P. Gilliver wrote:
    On 2025/10/12 14:24:14, Carlos E.R. wrote:
    On 2025-10-11 21:02, Stan Brown wrote:
    I have a (hopefully) new portable 2 TB Western Digital Elements hard

    []

    My apologies; I didn't spot the word "portable" first time, when I recommended HDTune. I don't _think_ HDTune will detect errors through a
    (USB I presume) portable interface: it will run, but I think the speed
    will be sufficiently slow via that that any drop in speed due to
    swapping out bad sectors may not be visible. Though no harm in trying!


    You should still be able to bench with the HDTune.

    But as I pointed out in another post, the OS activity level can
    sometimes interfere with C: at least, or with the disk that C:
    rests on. The USB drive could be quieter during a test. If you see
    "downward spikes", those probably aren't a drive problem. I have
    this discussion with someone in another group all the time.

    USB works right up to the limits of the protocol. You might be
    able to get to 535MB/sec when the SATA does 560MB/sec and the USB
    chip is a 10Gbit/sec one (equals 1GB/sec of goodput). For benching
    of UASP protocol, you might try one of these. Or, find an enclosure
    where this is the controller used (so you can then bench internal HDD
    or 2.5" SSDs).

    "USB 3.1 Gen 2 10Gbps with UASP External HDD/SSD Storage Converter"

    https://www.startech.com/en-us/hdd/usb312sat3cb

    ASMedia - ASM235CM

    There was a previous one (that I've got), that is 5Gbit/sec
    and that equals 500MB/sec max so that chops the top off
    SATAIII SSD transfer rates a bit.

    *******

    Where the conversion factor comes from (and a number of Quora answers
    are wrong on this), is the wire protocol.

    "USB 3.2 Gen 1 ( 5Gb/s) is encoded using 8b/10b encoding.

    USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gb/s) is encoded using 128b/132b encoding.
    "

    When you plug in the USB3 first generation product, you get

    5000 * 8 <=== the goodput * 1 byte = 500MB/sec
    -- ------
    10 <=== total bits 8 bits

    Whereas the ASM235CM second generation USB at 10gbit/sec gets

    10000 * 128 <=== the goodput * 1 byte = 1212MB/sec (which for SATAIII is irrelevant
    -- ------ and just has to be faster than
    132 <=== total bits 8 bits 600 to impress us)

    The adapters have crap like 8 bit processors that function
    as command interpreters. Weak designs use inadequate processing
    which can "prevent wirespeed operation". But at least some
    of the companies care enough about that, to not be doing
    that to the design.

    Whereas your SSD drive, can have a 3 core or a 4 core ARM
    processor for its operation, and it is a better match
    for the job it has to do. Most of the horsepower is for
    error correction at wire speed.

    The USB3 ports on motherboards, are not all honest ones. They
    can have PCIe low-rate lanes connected to early (add-on) USB
    controller chips, making the chip run at half the speed
    it was supposed to produce. Once the USB3 controller was
    put inside the Southbridge (Intel), then we were getting
    the legit 500MB/sec value. The USB 3.2 10Gbit, those are
    generally all inside a decent chipset (at least four PCIe
    lanes to the host), so there is little danger of starvation
    of those.

    If you use a USB2 to SATA chip for benchmarking, that should
    give on the order of 35MB/sec and will chop the top off
    just about all SSDs. And make most HDDs look sad too.

    the 8B10B encoding is venerable and is for DC balance and
    the ability for a hardware device to be AC coupled. It includes
    out of band codes for synchronization (the JK codes). You might
    notice that video cards have ceramic caps for the PCIe lanes, which
    means PCIe is AC coupled for some of it. The 8B10B also has high
    clock content for your PLL.

    The 128B/xxxB codes are more efficient, have some clock content,
    don't know about DC balance (who knows, could be fixed with
    a scrambler before that stage).

    Paul


    --- PyGate Linux v1.0
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From ...winston@3:633/10 to All on Mon Oct 13 01:32:27 2025
    Paul wrote:
    On Sat, 10/11/2025 6:35 PM, J. P. Gilliver wrote:
    On 2025/10/11 21:11:15, VanguardLH wrote:
    Stan Brown <someone@example.com> wrote:

    I have a (hopefully) new portable 2 TB Western Digital Elements hard
    drive from Amazon. I'd like to do some kind of diagnostics on it to
    make sure the surface is good. In Windows, File Explorer˙¯
    Properties˙¯ Tools˙¯ Error Checking gets an instant response that
    there are no problems on the drive, so obviously that doesn't
    actually check the disk surface. I went to WD's site and downloaded
    their software, but when I run it I just get a message to connect a
    compatible drive.

    What's a good way to check the health of the disk, bad sectors
    included? I have a dim memory that a regular Format (not Quick
    Format) checks for bad sectors, but I could be hallucinating.

    Nothing the _computer_ can do will directly tell you about surface
    errors, because the electronics in the drive itself will substitute
    spare sectors for any known to be bad - so anything the computer does
    will get back "no bad sectors here" - until the drive runs out of spare
    sectors, by which time it's time to replace it anyway.

    The only thing that will show you when swapping is happening is
    something that checks the _speed_ of access to all of the drive:
    although all sectors will read back as OK, if the drive has to
    substitute sectors from the spare pool, and has to move the heads to do
    so, it will take longer for those particular sectors.

    The only tool I know of that will do this is the old free version of
    HDTune (and I don't know if that will work under W10, though I think it
    will - Paul?). The free one is well down the download page, and many
    years old. (If you can't find it, ask here, and one of us may be able to
    send it to you.)

    If it works, you should get a smooth curve, similar to
    https://255soft.uk/temp/HDTune_1.png and
    https://255soft.uk/temp/HDTune_2.png, showing the speed of access across
    the disc surface - it's fastest at the start (outside of the platters).
    Any dud sectors will be shown as a downward spike in the curve. But
    don't worry when you get some such spikes! Because it is ancient
    software, its speed test gets interrupted by any activity that Windows
    does while it's running - which shows as a dip in speed at whatever
    sector HDTune is checking at that moment. So you save the plot (click on
    the picture of the floppy), and run it a second time and save _that_ -
    then flick back and forth between the two saved images. (I find
    IrfanView ideal for this, but use whatever you use to look at images, as
    long as it can flick back and forth easily between two.) Any downward
    spikes should be in _different places_ on the two plots, because if
    HDTune was interrupted by Windows doing something, that shouldn't happen
    at the same point both times. (Compare my two samples to see what I mean.) >>
    You need to do this with the drive being tested actually plugged into
    the motherboard, not in an external USB enclosure. (I presume it's a
    SATA drive.) HDTune will ignore any partitioning - it tests the whole
    drive, regardless; I don't even _think_ it has to be formatted. (Make
    sure - drop-down list top left - that it's testing the right drive,
    though, not your existing drive. Though if that's a real HDD, you could
    always check that too! It doesn't corrupt what's on the drive, if anything.) >>
    Good luck, and hope it works for you!

    If anyone else knows any other way to actually check for bad sectors
    that won't be fooled by the drive's electronics into not seeing any,
    please share. (HDTune doesn't see bad sectors either, but its test of
    the speed of access to them gives an _indication_ when swapping is
    happening.)

    I have a secret method for this.

    Anyone who regularly uses the free version of HDTune, knows that
    the constant OS activity, screws up the trace. The OS is noisy,
    and the I/O noise affects the HDTUne plot.

    If you prepare a Macrium Reflect Rescue CD (a WinPE environment)
    and the type of installation is 32-bit (x86), you get to make
    a 32 bit rescue disk. (The way to do this today, is install
    a Win10 32-bit OS, install a 32-bit Macrium [must match the bitness
    for the installer to work], then you can make your rescue disc.)

    When you boot the Macrium Rescue disc, there is a command prompt available. You cd to your C: drive on the HDD you are benching. Navigate with
    the cd, to the HDTune folder. There is one DLL missing, and the DLL
    needed, is in the C: partition on the HDD you are testing. Using the
    Macrium File Explorer, transfer a copy of the missing DLL, into the
    folder in the Program Files on C: where the HDTune lives. Then, when
    you run HDTune from the Macrium environment, you have

    A QUIET OS ENVIRONMENT SUITED TO BENCHMARKING!!!

    Now, run your HDTune scan, such as it is. The free version of
    HDTune is most appropriate for drives 2TB or less. The paid version
    likely supports any size of drive properly.

    [Picture]

    https://i.postimg.cc/FstVY0y2/Macriumx86-versus-Win7-for-HDTune-scanning.gif

    Paul


    Have you even found a portable(usb2, usb3, or usbC)Western Digital
    Elements Hard Drive to fail diagnosis using HDTune?

    Imo, everyone is sending Stan on a goose chase.
    Copy any included WD folders on the drive to another media(or
    device/disk folder or usb stick)
    Format the drive as NTFS(if desired partition using Windows or 3rd
    party tools)
    Use the drive.

    --
    ...w­¤?ņ?¤

    --- PyGate Linux v1.0
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From J. P. Gilliver@3:633/10 to All on Mon Oct 13 07:31:51 2025
    On 2025/10/13 0:36:30, Paul wrote:
    On Sun, 10/12/2025 1:21 PM, J. P. Gilliver wrote:
    On 2025/10/12 14:24:14, Carlos E.R. wrote:
    On 2025-10-11 21:02, Stan Brown wrote:
    I have a (hopefully) new portable 2 TB Western Digital Elements hard


    []

    My apologies; I didn't spot the word "portable" first time, when I
    recommended HDTune. I don't _think_ HDTune will detect errors through
    a
    (USB I presume) portable interface: it will run, but I think the speed

    will be sufficiently slow via that that any drop in speed due to
    swapping out bad sectors may not be visible. Though no harm in trying!



    You should still be able to bench with the HDTune.

    []


    USB works right up to the limits of the protocol. You might be
    able to get to 535MB/sec when the SATA does 560MB/sec and the USB
    chip is a 10Gbit/sec one (equals 1GB/sec of goodput). For benching


    [huge snip of detail that's beyond us mere mortals]


    If you use a USB2 to SATA chip for benchmarking, that should
    give on the order of 35MB/sec and will chop the top off
    just about all SSDs. And make most HDDs look sad too.

    [more snippage]


    Granted, using HDTune to check sector access speed will give "sad"
    results for the _actual_ speed of the drive (especially if the drive or
    port is only USB2).

    But the purpose of this thread was to answer Stan's question - how can
    he check his new portable drive? Not how can he check how fast it is.

    So: getting an HDTune speed plot may give a far lower curve than the
    actual drive is capable of, if it's being done via USB.

    But will that much lower level be so low that any downward spikes due to
    sector swapping because of bad sectors are no longer visible?

    I thought, especially if only USB2 was being used, that it would (i. e.
    there's no point in doing it _for this purpose_); are you saying that
    they _will_ still be visible, even via USB2?


    --
    J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()ALIS-Ch++(p)Ar++T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

    And thus we meet, we spinsters twain, to dine and to make merry. No
    politesse must we endure, no bath cubes and no Sherry; indulge we now
    our heart's desire, and for that gratifying reason, I propose a
    heartfelt toast to friendship and the yuletide season. - "Miss Higgins"
    in "Call the Midwife"

    --- PyGate Linux v1.0
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Philip Herlihy@3:633/10 to All on Mon Oct 13 10:27:34 2025
    In article <5u489b3f725r.dlg@v.nguard.lh>, V@nguard.LH says...


    HD Sentinel
    Show SMART data of drives, and record history.
    Free version has no testing.
    Standard version ($22) only has surface testing.
    Pro version ($33) has a lot more testing, some of which is destructive,
    so run those before you start storing files on the drive.
    Feature comparison: https://www.hdsentinel.com/store.php

    HD Sentinel is excellent, and well worth the modest cost.


    GRC's Spinrite is an oldie, but still viable. It does surface testing,
    and will remap bad and iffy sectors to reserve sectors. The more
    remapping there is, the slower the HDD for those sectors (try to read
    the bad sector, get remapped to the reserve, read the reserve).


    GRC recently released an updated version of Spinrite (6.1) which has
    guidance for SSD users. They say that an occasional "rewrite" run can
    speed up an SSD significantly, though there is a cost in terms of
    'wear'. A new version (7.0) is in the pipeline, but is not imminent.
    I've had good success with Spinrite recovering data.



    --
    --
    Phil, London

    --- PyGate Linux v1.0
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Anssi Saari@3:633/10 to All on Mon Oct 13 12:31:52 2025
    "J. P. Gilliver" <G6JPG@255soft.uk> writes:

    Nothing the _computer_ can do will directly tell you about surface
    errors, because the electronics in the drive itself will substitute
    spare sectors for any known to be bad - so anything the computer does
    will get back "no bad sectors here" - until the drive runs out of spare sectors, by which time it's time to replace it anyway.

    Actually, from experience and this page: https://www.smartmontools.org/wiki/BadBlockHowto it seems this is not
    the case or drives routinely lie about remapping sectors. For example, I
    had an unreadable sector on one drive recently and a small bunch of them
    on another. They kept showing up as "Current_Pending_Sector" and "Offline_Uncorrectable" in the SMART status and the long SMART self test
    would fail due to the unreadable sectors.

    The fix was to zero out the specific sectors. (Once you figure out which
    sector to actually zero since it seems the number SMART reports and what
    you actually need to zero isn't the same. So since also some files may
    end up broken there are fun hoops to jump through to find out which
    files will have a block of zeros in them all of a sudden.)

    Neither drive I had this situation on reported any change in the number
    of remapped sectors, it remained zero. It seems to me read errors are
    not a cause for remapping and since those sectors were writable, there
    was no reason to remap! Which seems weird but the alternate explanation
    is the drives just lie about the remapping.

    So, being curious about this, has anyone seen a drive that actually
    reports a non-zero number of remapped sectors? Excluding SCSI drives
    since those apparently have an actual command to remap sectors.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.0
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Paul@3:633/10 to All on Mon Oct 13 05:56:51 2025
    On Mon, 10/13/2025 1:32 AM, ...winston wrote:


    Have you even found a portable(usb2, usb3, or usbC)Western Digital Elements Hard Drive to fail diagnosis using HDTune?

    Imo, everyone is sending Stan on a goose chase.
    ˙ Copy any included WD folders on the drive to another media(or device/disk folder or usb stick)
    ˙Format the drive as NTFS(if desired partition using Windows or 3rd party tools)
    ˙Use the drive.


    The benchmark curve, is to find concentrated bad spots on a drive.

    Bad spots are typically caused by the presence of an OS partition,
    where the drive has a "wear problem" and drives begin to have issues
    at the three or four year mark. Not all drives wear. The drive in
    the photo, is the 57000 hour drive, and if you look at the transfer
    curve, that drive is in very good shape. Similar drives to that
    one have not been nearly so lucky.

    I located such a problem on a WinXP drive. SMART said the drive was "Jim-Dandy", when I was using WinXP and transfers in that swath
    of disk were running at 10MB/sec. After I ran a benchmark curve
    and saw the actual damage, the drive was taken out of service and
    retired. That was a Seagate, not a Maxtor. It might be nice to
    pop that drive in the adapter and give it a spin, but I don't know
    exactly where it went. It wasn't thrown out, or disassembled.

    So yes, the benchmarking curve can detect situations where SMART
    says a drive is OK, and anecdotal evidence ("gee this thing
    seems slow") can be backed up by doing a benchmark to see
    if there are any suspicious responses.

    SMART works best, when defects are uniformly distributed
    across the entire disk surface.

    I think I may have one drive here, that SMART agrees the drive
    is "Bad" :-) It has about 300 re-allocations showing. That drive
    was retired, based on the rate the reallocations were growing,
    but infrequent tests of the drive, aren't showing any significant
    changes in drive health. I don't generally attempt to ride
    hard drives into the ground. I have backups, for catastrophic
    failures, like dropping a drive on the basement floor and
    ruining it, would be a catastrophe I might not have predicted.
    For drives that are auguring in, it is simpler to just
    replace them with something a bit better. The Seagate with the
    300 reallocations, it had presented some pretty weird symptoms
    on a previous occasion, so describing me as nervous about
    that piece of crap would be an understatement. But I can't chuck
    something, unless it crosses a red line.

    Some of the retired drives have a black X in marker pen on
    them, but not all are marked that way. The retired ones
    are a bit hard to spot.

    *******

    In the following picture, are three drives.

    The first row, is a drive which is the sister of an identical drive.
    The identical drive became defective enough, I pulled the lid off
    and inside of the drive and the filter pack, was clean. It's not
    clear why the sister died. Well, the drive in the top row, the
    reallocations started to grow rather rapidly and while the disk
    was doing reads. It's now marked on the lid as DNU and has a X on it.
    The benchmark did not finish and stopped on a CRC error.

    [Picture]

    https://i.postimg.cc/vT0g29Sq/A-Bad-Disk-And-Two-Good-Disks.gif

    The second two rows, the benchmark plots on the right, are done
    under Macrium WinPE CD, and some of the spike artifacts are missing
    and the plot is a little more realistic.

    When you are attempting to bench C: (the one you're booted off),
    that is very noisy compared to these graphs, and using the
    Macrium CD is more important for evaluating C: if C: was the only
    disk you had handy and had nothing else to boot from.

    Summary: Stan doesn't have to do anything really.

    As a result, I showed various ideas for test, which can be
    used or not used as you wish. Copying files to any storage
    device, and reading them back, covers cases where the operator
    does not understand the setup has a fatal flaw (like the dude with
    the 3TB sized array, where an address rollover occurred at 2.2TB
    fill and the array was ruined). If you have any suspicion about
    a drive or a RAID setup, SMART does not answer all the questions.
    If you bought a "2TB USB stick for $15 from Ebay", the storage
    fill test is very important for proving the fraud you received.

    But if the drive does not successfully carry out a "fill-from-end-to-end"
    test, you want to find out now, before you put any important
    files on it.

    The SMART is useful as a second opinion, when
    you have other evidence (clicking, poor performance, excessive
    heat) that make you want to gather some evidence or check the
    drive internal log. And since the benchmark is in the same tool,
    if you have a concern about a visibly slow part of a disk
    (10MB/sec transfer rate over a 50-70GB wide area), then the
    bench will quantify your concern.

    Paul




    --- PyGate Linux v1.0
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Carlos E.R.@3:633/10 to All on Mon Oct 13 12:41:16 2025
    On 2025-10-12 21:29, Paul wrote:
    On Sun, 10/12/2025 9:24 AM, Carlos E.R. wrote:
    On 2025-10-11 21:02, Stan Brown wrote:

    ...

    That is a retired drive, to show an unhealthy specimen (which likely rates "GOOD"
    for tools like this).

    ******* WD Blue 250GB SATA with high fly error on ASM2106 ********

    C:\WINDOWS\system32>smartctl -a /dev/sdb
    smartctl 7.5 2025-04-30 r5714 [x86_64-w64-mingw32-w10-22H2] (AppVeyor) Copyright (C) 2002-25, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
    The above only provides legacy SMART information - try 'smartctl -x' for more

    ******* End: WD Blue 250GB SATA with high fly error on ASM2106 ********

    Don't forget "smartctl -l farm ..."

    FARM Log Page 3: Error Statistics
    Unrecoverable Read Errors: 0
    Unrecoverable Write Errors: 0
    Number of Reallocated Sectors: 0
    Number of Read Recovery Attempts: 0
    Number of Mechanical Start Failures: 0
    Number of Reallocated Candidate Sectors: 0
    Number of ASR Events: 0
    Number of Interface CRC Errors: 0
    Spin Retry Count: 0
    Spin Retry Count Normalized: 100
    Spin Retry Count Worst: 100
    Number of IOEDC Errors (Raw): 0
    CTO Count Total: 0
    CTO Count Over 5s: 0
    CTO Count Over 7.5s: 0
    Total Flash LED (Assert) Events: 0
    Index of the last Flash LED: 0
    Flash LED Event 0:
    Event Information: 0x0000000000000000
    Timestamp of Event 0 (hours): 0
    Power Cycle Event 0: 0
    Flash LED Event 1:
    Event Information: 0x0000000000000000
    Timestamp of Event 1 (hours): 0
    Power Cycle Event 1: 0
    ...
    Uncorrectable errors: 0
    Cumulative Lifetime Unrecoverable Read errors due to ERC: 0
    Cum Lifetime Unrecoverable by head 0:
    Cumulative Lifetime Unrecoverable Read Repeating: 0
    Cumulative Lifetime Unrecoverable Read Unique: 0
    Cum Lifetime Unrecoverable by head 1:
    ...
    FARM Log Page 4: Environment Statistics
    Current Temperature (Celsius): 24
    Highest Temperature: 0
    Lowest Temperature: 0
    Average Short Term Temperature: 0
    Average Long Term Temperature: 0
    Highest Average Short Term Temperature: 0
    Lowest Average Short Term Temperature: 0
    Highest Average Long Term Temperature: 0
    Lowest Average Long Term Temperature: 0
    Time In Over Temperature (minutes): 0
    Time In Under Temperature (minutes): 0
    Specified Max Operating Temperature: 60
    Specified Min Operating Temperature: 5
    Current Relative Humidity: 0
    Current Motor Power: 6320
    Current 12 volts: 12.013
    Minimum 12 volts: 12.013
    Maximum 12 volts: 12.013
    Current 5 volts: 4.963
    Minimum 5 volts: 4.963
    Maximum 5 volts: 4.963
    12V Power Average: 0.000
    12V Power Minimum: 0.000
    12V Power Maximum: 0.000
    5V Power Average: 0.000
    5V Power Minimum: 0.000
    5V Power Maximum: 0.000


    There is so much data that makes my head spin.



    So apparently that software knows how to do SMART passthru.

    I often have to do "smartctl -d sat ..."



    --
    Cheers, Carlos.
    ES??, EU??;

    --- PyGate Linux v1.0
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Carlos E.R.@3:633/10 to All on Mon Oct 13 12:47:53 2025
    On 2025-10-13 11:31, Anssi Saari wrote:
    "J. P. Gilliver" <G6JPG@255soft.uk> writes:

    Nothing the _computer_ can do will directly tell you about surface

    ...


    So, being curious about this, has anyone seen a drive that actually
    reports a non-zero number of remapped sectors? Excluding SCSI drives
    since those apparently have an actual command to remap sectors.

    Yes, I have seen that, but I don't remember specifics.

    --
    Cheers, Carlos.
    ES??, EU??;

    --- PyGate Linux v1.0
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From ...winston@3:633/10 to All on Mon Oct 13 11:52:03 2025
    Paul wrote:
    On Mon, 10/13/2025 1:32 AM, ...winston wrote:


    Have you even found a portable(usb2, usb3, or usbC)Western Digital Elements Hard Drive to fail diagnosis using HDTune?

    Imo, everyone is sending Stan on a goose chase.
    ˙ Copy any included WD folders on the drive to another media(or device/disk folder or usb stick)
    ˙Format the drive as NTFS(if desired partition using Windows or 3rd party tools)
    ˙Use the drive.


    The benchmark curve, is to find concentrated bad spots on a drive.

    Bad spots are typically caused by the presence of an OS partition,
    where the drive has a "wear problem" and drives begin to have issues
    at the three or four year mark. Not all drives wear. The drive in
    the photo, is the 57000 hour drive, and if you look at the transfer
    curve, that drive is in very good shape. Similar drives to that
    one have not been nearly so lucky.

    I located such a problem on a WinXP drive. SMART said the drive was "Jim-Dandy", when I was using WinXP and transfers in that swath
    of disk were running at 10MB/sec. After I ran a benchmark curve
    and saw the actual damage, the drive was taken out of service and
    retired. That was a Seagate, not a Maxtor. It might be nice to
    pop that drive in the adapter and give it a spin, but I don't know
    exactly where it went. It wasn't thrown out, or disassembled.

    So yes, the benchmarking curve can detect situations where SMART
    says a drive is OK, and anecdotal evidence ("gee this thing
    seems slow") can be backed up by doing a benchmark to see
    if there are any suspicious responses.

    SMART works best, when defects are uniformly distributed
    across the entire disk surface.

    I think I may have one drive here, that SMART agrees the drive
    is "Bad" :-) It has about 300 re-allocations showing. That drive
    was retired, based on the rate the reallocations were growing,
    but infrequent tests of the drive, aren't showing any significant
    changes in drive health. I don't generally attempt to ride
    hard drives into the ground. I have backups, for catastrophic
    failures, like dropping a drive on the basement floor and
    ruining it, would be a catastrophe I might not have predicted.
    For drives that are auguring in, it is simpler to just
    replace them with something a bit better. The Seagate with the
    300 reallocations, it had presented some pretty weird symptoms
    on a previous occasion, so describing me as nervous about
    that piece of crap would be an understatement. But I can't chuck
    something, unless it crosses a red line.

    Some of the retired drives have a black X in marker pen on
    them, but not all are marked that way. The retired ones
    are a bit hard to spot.

    *******

    In the following picture, are three drives.

    The first row, is a drive which is the sister of an identical drive.
    The identical drive became defective enough, I pulled the lid off
    and inside of the drive and the filter pack, was clean. It's not
    clear why the sister died. Well, the drive in the top row, the
    reallocations started to grow rather rapidly and while the disk
    was doing reads. It's now marked on the lid as DNU and has a X on it.
    The benchmark did not finish and stopped on a CRC error.

    [Picture]

    https://i.postimg.cc/vT0g29Sq/A-Bad-Disk-And-Two-Good-Disks.gif

    The second two rows, the benchmark plots on the right, are done
    under Macrium WinPE CD, and some of the spike artifacts are missing
    and the plot is a little more realistic.

    When you are attempting to bench C: (the one you're booted off),
    that is very noisy compared to these graphs, and using the
    Macrium CD is more important for evaluating C: if C: was the only
    disk you had handy and had nothing else to boot from.

    Summary: Stan doesn't have to do anything really.

    As a result, I showed various ideas for test, which can be
    used or not used as you wish. Copying files to any storage
    device, and reading them back, covers cases where the operator
    does not understand the setup has a fatal flaw (like the dude with
    the 3TB sized array, where an address rollover occurred at 2.2TB
    fill and the array was ruined). If you have any suspicion about
    a drive or a RAID setup, SMART does not answer all the questions.
    If you bought a "2TB USB stick for $15 from Ebay", the storage
    fill test is very important for proving the fraud you received.

    But if the drive does not successfully carry out a "fill-from-end-to-end"
    test, you want to find out now, before you put any important
    files on it.

    The SMART is useful as a second opinion, when
    you have other evidence (clicking, poor performance, excessive
    heat) that make you want to gather some evidence or check the
    drive internal log. And since the benchmark is in the same tool,
    if you have a concern about a visibly slow part of a disk
    (10MB/sec transfer rate over a 50-70GB wide area), then the
    bench will quantify your concern.

    Paul



    Not questioning the method, or looking for examples of what a utility
    may find...only the value and effort for a new WD Elements portable disk
    and whether or not anyone(I, you, others) has found a new WD elements
    disk sufficient to warrant incapable or use(or returning for refund or replacement)


    --
    ...w­¤?ņ?¤

    --- PyGate Linux v1.0
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Paul@3:633/10 to All on Mon Oct 13 12:32:04 2025
    On Mon, 10/13/2025 11:52 AM, ...winston wrote:

    Not questioning the method, or looking for examples of what a utility may find...only the value and effort for a new WD Elements portable disk and whether or not anyone(I, you, others) has found a new WD elements disk sufficient to warrant incapable or use(or returning for refund or replacement)



    Of all the hard drives I've ever owned, I only had one
    infant mortality, and it was within the last two years.
    It was a WD Black 1TB and the motor refused to spin
    when I received it. I took it back to the computer store,
    to the build-desk, and the guy there tested it, was
    a bit surprised it wouldn't spin at all, and I got a swap
    for it, which did work.

    Normally, every disk drive is 100% tested. It's part of
    the manufacturing process, for them to spend time in the
    chamber. There were no signs that the drive had been
    dropped (like, at my fine computer store while
    the drive was being unpacked from the crate they
    come in).

    You could have an Elements dropped on the floor, except
    that it's not possible to damage a drive when it has
    that much plastic around it. To damage a drive well,
    you need to drop the housing onto a metal plate, to
    achieve a 1000G shock.

    I would guess then, that one symptom Stan could expect
    (out of many symptoms) would be a refusal to be
    recognized when the USB cable is plugged in. Listening
    for humming at startup, might give some idea whether
    the thing is ready to start.

    There was one reported case of a motherboard arriving
    with no firmware in it. That too, implies the 100% functional
    test (every motherboard checked for correct activity, the
    "two minute test"), that test might not have been carried
    out. But another possibility, is the irradiation machine
    they use for import/export, a unit big enough to drive
    a truck through, that perhaps the motherboard was
    inadvertently exposed to it. Maybe if a hard drive was
    exposed like that, it would have no firmware in it
    to start with.

    But if a drive is "detect-able" (the conversion chip
    gets the disk ID OK), then the amount of disk operation
    it takes to achieve that state, is proof the drive
    really works. Just responding and seeing the drive ID
    in the BIOS or the OS, is normally sufficient proof it
    works. And if it is a brand new drive, it should have
    few enough defects to have been shipped by the manufacturer.
    You can run SMART passthru if you want (smartctl if HDTune
    does not work for you).

    Everyone should learn some basic skills and become familiar
    with their storage. I'm sick of hearing stories about
    "I heard clicking", as if the clicking is the only thing
    the operator knows about storage :-) You should be a
    tiny bit more aware than that, so your worn-out storage
    can be replaced promptly. It would be the same for a person
    who has exceeded the wear life on their SSD by 50%, and
    was totally oblivious to that fact (they didn't know
    you should check for that, or that the OS or BIOS should
    report this). Some SSD drives will last up to twice their
    rating... before the critical data storage area is
    corrupted and the thing just bricks. No clicking :-)

    Paul

    --- PyGate Linux v1.0
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Paul@3:633/10 to All on Mon Oct 13 13:07:15 2025
    On Mon, 10/13/2025 5:27 AM, Philip Herlihy wrote:
    In article <5u489b3f725r.dlg@v.nguard.lh>, V@nguard.LH says...


    HD Sentinel
    Show SMART data of drives, and record history.
    Free version has no testing.
    Standard version ($22) only has surface testing.
    Pro version ($33) has a lot more testing, some of which is destructive,
    so run those before you start storing files on the drive.
    Feature comparison: https://www.hdsentinel.com/store.php

    HD Sentinel is excellent, and well worth the modest cost.


    GRC's Spinrite is an oldie, but still viable. It does surface testing,
    and will remap bad and iffy sectors to reserve sectors. The more
    remapping there is, the slower the HDD for those sectors (try to read
    the bad sector, get remapped to the reserve, read the reserve).


    GRC recently released an updated version of Spinrite (6.1) which has guidance for SSD users. They say that an occasional "rewrite" run can
    speed up an SSD significantly, though there is a cost in terms of
    'wear'. A new version (7.0) is in the pipeline, but is not imminent.
    I've had good success with Spinrite recovering data.

    The drive firmware in an SSD, can also have a "refresh" function
    that runs in it. TLC or QLC drives can have this. But since this
    isn't documented in any effective way, we don't know the details.

    Samsung had a problem with a TLC drive becoming "too mushy"
    at one point, and they issued a firmware fix to correct it. And
    that is the evidence that there is some sort of refresh, if a
    sector gets too mushy.

    And if you don't want to run HDTune to estimate what is going on,
    the Perfmon.msc in the OS can chart the performance too (with
    the right stimulus applied by the user).

    [Picture]

    https://i.postimg.cc/JhYYn3Zf/Perfmon-msc-versus-HDTune.gif

    Paul

    --- PyGate Linux v1.0
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Paul@3:633/10 to All on Mon Oct 13 13:31:55 2025
    On Mon, 10/13/2025 2:31 AM, J. P. Gilliver wrote:


    I thought, especially if only USB2 was being used, that it would (i. e. there's no point in doing it _for this purpose_); are you saying that
    they _will_ still be visible, even via USB2?

    What kind of idiot company, would ship a SATA III drive in a USB2 housing ? :-)

    There has to be a honest effort to come close to giving full performance.

    What we're looking for here, is *10MB/sec areas of a disk indicating surface failure*.
    This is not some sort of fucking lark. When you "feel" your drive is letting you down, *measure it* and see exactly what failure pattern is present, solidifying your decision to replace it. On the WinXP drive, I could
    feel that things were not working properly, it was taking way too long
    for trivial things to complete. Running the HDTune, indicated exactly
    how bad it was, and that if I did not replace the drive soon, I would
    lose the current data on the drive. Sure, you can move the partition
    to the unaffected area, but the drive housing could be full of crud
    for all you know. Reallocated was 0. SMART was "OK".

    [Picture] The top row, is the drive that was on its way out.
    That's a scratch drive that just sits in the pile of scratch drives.
    That is probably the worst defect growth rate I've ever seen.
    Reallocated growing while the test runs!

    https://i.postimg.cc/vT0g29Sq/A-Bad-Disk-And-Two-Good-Disks.gif

    If you saw the plot for the drive that failed right in front
    of my face yesterday, you'd get some idea of the effect I'm
    interested in. The plot was mostly at 0MB/sec, except for
    the occasional *upward* spike. And the Reallocated counter
    was incrementing as the bench was running (you can flip between
    the bench trace and the Health page while it runs). That
    is the top trace in that picture. The benchmark stopped on
    a read error.

    That drive is now marked off as a DNU, and taking the lid off
    for a look, will be done... some day. Since the sister drive
    to that one, had no visual evidence inside to account for
    failure, this one won't either. I wasn't even *expecting* this
    failure, I just scanned a stack of drives, and there was no
    real indication that drive was in trouble. Until the bench
    started and I'm like "uh oh".

    By the way, I think that drive model, is the one where the
    heads park on the landing zone near the hub. It doesn't
    have the plastic landing ramp next to the platter. A 250GB drive
    using 1990's technology. Hmmm. I would expect 9.5mm laptop
    drives to be doing it that way too. As there is no room for
    us to reasonably expect a ramp landing. I could understand it,
    if a laptop drive was done that way. But a 3.5" drive should
    not be landing the heads on the platter, like that drive does.
    We know the value and benefits, of $0.10 plastic landing ramps.

    Paul



    --- PyGate Linux v1.0
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Carlos E.R.@3:633/10 to All on Mon Oct 13 19:38:30 2025
    On 2025-10-13 18:32, Paul wrote:
    On Mon, 10/13/2025 11:52 AM, ...winston wrote:

    Not questioning the method, or looking for examples of what a utility may find...only the value and effort for a new WD Elements portable disk and whether or not anyone(I, you, others) has found a new WD elements disk sufficient to warrant incapable or use(or returning for refund or replacement)



    Of all the hard drives I've ever owned, I only had one
    infant mortality, and it was within the last two years.
    It was a WD Black 1TB and the motor refused to spin
    when I received it. I took it back to the computer store,
    to the build-desk, and the guy there tested it, was
    a bit surprised it wouldn't spin at all, and I got a swap
    for it, which did work.


    I recently (last June) had an enterprise class seagate disk fail early. It was replaced by the seller.


    === START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
    SMART Status not supported: Incomplete response, ATA output registers missing SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: FAILED!
    Drive failure expected in less than 24 hours. SAVE ALL DATA.
    Warning: This result is based on an Attribute check.
    Failed Attributes:
    ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
    1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x000f 044 043 044 Pre-fail Always FAILING_NOW 7221570

    Device Model: ST10000NT001-3LY101

    9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 099 099 000 Old_age Always - 1742



    --
    Cheers, Carlos.
    ES??, EU??;

    --- PyGate Linux v1.0
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Stan Brown@3:633/10 to All on Mon Oct 13 11:11:43 2025
    On Mon, 13 Oct 2025 11:52:03 -0400, ...winston wrote:
    Not questioning the method, or looking for examples of what a utility
    may find...only the value and effort for a new WD Elements portable disk
    and whether or not anyone(I, you, others) has found a new WD elements
    disk sufficient to warrant incapable or use(or returning for refund or replacement)


    I apologize: I had meant to mention the source of my suspicions, but
    I forgot. Here is why I wrote "(hopefully)" before "new".

    The drive is sold in a pasteboard box, and has a molded plastic shell
    inside. Inside that sit, from bottom to top, the USB cable. the
    owner's manual, and the drive. The USB cable was not coiled inside a
    little plastic sleeve, as it was with the previous four of these
    drives that I bought. As for the pasteboard box, the top has one of
    those sticky plastic circles to make tampering evident, but if the
    bottom ever had one it doesn't now. And the bottom is four flaps of
    different sizes that fit into each other. When I took the box out of
    the shipping bag, those four flaps were wide open, and only friction
    was keeping the plastic shell from sliding out. Maybe that happened
    during shipping, maybe not.

    The drive was sold by and shipped from Amazon. But it's not uncommon
    with tech products and DVDs to see in a review that Amazon shipped as
    new a product that was clearly not new, most likely a return that was
    just put back on the shelf. The symptoms I see with this drive are
    odd, but not a real smoking gun that proves the drive is used. That's
    why I wanted a recommendation for some diagnosis. Again, I'm sorry
    that in composing my original query I left that out.

    BTW, used space on the drive is about 1.2 MB in the form of WD
    Discover. WD's website says of this software:

    WD Discovery features the ability to:
    Manage connected external drives
    Set a password and manage drive settings
    Stay up-to-date with software offered by WD and WD partners
    Register drive

    so I think installing it wouldn't be useful.

    As I mentioned in my original, WD's diagnostic software is not
    compatible with a WD Elements drive. WD's software page lists several
    products for download, but only WD Discovery is listed as compatible,
    none of the useful ones.

    If I could test the drive, that would help me decide whether to keep
    it or to return it to Amazon under the principle of better safe than
    sorry.

    --
    "The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by
    those who don't have it." --George Bernard Shaw

    --- PyGate Linux v1.0
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From knuttle@3:633/10 to All on Mon Oct 13 14:18:56 2025
    On 10/13/2025 11:52 AM, ...winston wrote:
    Paul wrote:
    On Mon, 10/13/2025 1:32 AM, ...winston wrote:


    Have you even found a portable(usb2, usb3, or usbC)Western Digital
    Elements Hard Drive to fail diagnosis using HDTune?

    Imo, everyone is sending Stan on a goose chase.
    ˙˙ Copy any included WD folders on the drive to another media(or
    device/disk folder or usb stick)
    ˙˙Format the drive as NTFS(if desired partition using Windows or 3rd
    party tools)
    ˙˙Use the drive.


    SHIP

    Not questioning the method, or looking for examples of what a utility
    may find...only the value and effort for a new WD Elements portable disk
    and whether or not anyone(I, you, others) has found a new WD elements
    disk sufficient to warrant incapable or use(or returning for refund or replacement)


    In my opinion, that chances that a brand new unused drive has
    significant bad spot to not use, it is so low, that it is not worth the
    effort to find a program to use that will find them. We are talking
    about hours to scan the drive with a extremely low probability that
    there are bad spot in the first place.

    If this is a solid state drive, I don't know if the traditional programs
    will work any way.



    --- PyGate Linux v1.0
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From knuttle@3:633/10 to All on Mon Oct 13 14:23:02 2025
    On 10/13/2025 1:31 PM, Paul wrote:
    What kind of idiot company, would ship a SATA III drive in a USB2 housing ? ?
    All of them. It is called an external drive, most now are SSD, but have
    USB, USB2 on older drives, and USb3 on most new drives.


    --- PyGate Linux v1.0
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From knuttle@3:633/10 to All on Mon Oct 13 14:28:13 2025
    On 10/13/2025 2:11 PM, Stan Brown wrote:
    On Mon, 13 Oct 2025 11:52:03 -0400, ...winston wrote:
    Not questioning the method, or looking for examples of what a utility
    may find...only the value and effort for a new WD Elements portable disk
    and whether or not anyone(I, you, others) has found a new WD elements
    disk sufficient to warrant incapable or use(or returning for refund or
    replacement)


    I apologize: I had meant to mention the source of my suspicions, but
    I forgot. Here is why I wrote "(hopefully)" before "new".

    The drive is sold in a pasteboard box, and has a molded plastic shell
    inside. Inside that sit, from bottom to top, the USB cable. the
    owner's manual, and the drive. The USB cable was not coiled inside a
    little plastic sleeve, as it was with the previous four of these
    drives that I bought. As for the pasteboard box, the top has one of
    those sticky plastic circles to make tampering evident, but if the
    bottom ever had one it doesn't now. And the bottom is four flaps of
    different sizes that fit into each other. When I took the box out of
    the shipping bag, those four flaps were wide open, and only friction
    was keeping the plastic shell from sliding out. Maybe that happened
    during shipping, maybe not.

    The drive was sold by and shipped from Amazon. But it's not uncommon
    with tech products and DVDs to see in a review that Amazon shipped as
    new a product that was clearly not new, most likely a return that was
    just put back on the shelf. The symptoms I see with this drive are
    odd, but not a real smoking gun that proves the drive is used. That's
    why I wanted a recommendation for some diagnosis. Again, I'm sorry
    that in composing my original query I left that out.

    BTW, used space on the drive is about 1.2 MB in the form of WD
    Discover. WD's website says of this software:

    WD Discovery features the ability to:
    Manage connected external drives
    Set a password and manage drive settings
    Stay up-to-date with software offered by WD and WD partners
    Register drive

    so I think installing it wouldn't be useful.

    As I mentioned in my original, WD's diagnostic software is not
    compatible with a WD Elements drive. WD's software page lists several products for download, but only WD Discovery is listed as compatible,
    none of the useful ones.

    If I could test the drive, that would help me decide whether to keep
    it or to return it to Amazon under the principle of better safe than
    sorry.

    If there is a question, return it! It is not worth the effort to find
    a program that will check it, and then the time that will take to run a
    full scan. You would then have a unquestionable drive and spend the
    time of checking this drive fishing, playing cards, or weight lifting
    what ever is your hobby.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.0
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Carlos E.R.@3:633/10 to All on Mon Oct 13 20:43:14 2025
    On 2025-10-13 20:11, Stan Brown wrote:
    On Mon, 13 Oct 2025 11:52:03 -0400, ...winston wrote:
    Not questioning the method, or looking for examples of what a utility
    may find...only the value and effort for a new WD Elements portable disk
    and whether or not anyone(I, you, others) has found a new WD elements
    disk sufficient to warrant incapable or use(or returning for refund or
    replacement)


    I apologize: I had meant to mention the source of my suspicions, but
    I forgot. Here is why I wrote "(hopefully)" before "new".

    The drive is sold in a pasteboard box, and has a molded plastic shell
    inside. Inside that sit, from bottom to top, the USB cable. the
    owner's manual, and the drive. The USB cable was not coiled inside a
    little plastic sleeve, as it was with the previous four of these
    drives that I bought. As for the pasteboard box, the top has one of
    those sticky plastic circles to make tampering evident, but if the
    bottom ever had one it doesn't now. And the bottom is four flaps of
    different sizes that fit into each other. When I took the box out of
    the shipping bag, those four flaps were wide open, and only friction
    was keeping the plastic shell from sliding out. Maybe that happened
    during shipping, maybe not.

    The drive was sold by and shipped from Amazon. But it's not uncommon
    with tech products and DVDs to see in a review that Amazon shipped as
    new a product that was clearly not new, most likely a return that was
    just put back on the shelf. The symptoms I see with this drive are
    odd, but not a real smoking gun that proves the drive is used. That's
    why I wanted a recommendation for some diagnosis. Again, I'm sorry
    that in composing my original query I left that out.

    The SMART log will tell you instantly if the disk is used. So any tool that reads it is good. I repeat my recommendation:

    Open source smartmontools.

    https://www.smartmontools.org/
    https://www.smartmontools.org/wiki/Download


    You need to look at this line:

    9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 055 055 000 Old_age Always - 39438



    nitpicker warning:

    Factory and maybe some hackers might be able to reset that number. But Amazon would not do that. Anyway, you can make sure by accessing the more detailed internal FARM log.


    --
    Cheers, Carlos.
    ES??, EU??;

    --- PyGate Linux v1.0
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Frank Slootweg@3:633/10 to All on Mon Oct 13 18:49:01 2025
    Stan Brown <someone@example.com> wrote:
    On Mon, 13 Oct 2025 11:52:03 -0400, ...winston wrote:
    Not questioning the method, or looking for examples of what a utility
    may find...only the value and effort for a new WD Elements portable disk and whether or not anyone(I, you, others) has found a new WD elements
    disk sufficient to warrant incapable or use(or returning for refund or replacement)


    I apologize: I had meant to mention the source of my suspicions, but
    I forgot. Here is why I wrote "(hopefully)" before "new".

    The drive is sold in a pasteboard box, and has a molded plastic shell inside. Inside that sit, from bottom to top, the USB cable. the
    owner's manual, and the drive. The USB cable was not coiled inside a
    little plastic sleeve, as it was with the previous four of these
    drives that I bought.

    That - missing plastic sleeve for the USB cable - is IMO the dead
    giveaway! I have three WD Elements drives and they all had/have the
    plastic sleeve.

    As for the pasteboard box, the top has one of
    those sticky plastic circles to make tampering evident, but if the
    bottom ever had one it doesn't now.

    For my drives, the bottom does not have a sticky plastic circle.

    And the bottom is four flaps of
    different sizes that fit into each other. When I took the box out of
    the shipping bag, those four flaps were wide open, and only friction
    was keeping the plastic shell from sliding out. Maybe that happened
    during shipping, maybe not.

    Is there a large rectangular paper sticker with bar codes, etc. on
    one of the two large flaps? If that's missing, that's another giveaway.

    The drive was sold by and shipped from Amazon. But it's not uncommon
    with tech products and DVDs to see in a review that Amazon shipped as
    new a product that was clearly not new, most likely a return that was
    just put back on the shelf. The symptoms I see with this drive are
    odd, but not a real smoking gun that proves the drive is used. That's
    why I wanted a recommendation for some diagnosis. Again, I'm sorry
    that in composing my original query I left that out.

    BTW, used space on the drive is about 1.2 MB in the form of WD
    Discover. WD's website says of this software:

    WD Discovery features the ability to:
    Manage connected external drives
    Set a password and manage drive settings
    Stay up-to-date with software offered by WD and WD partners
    Register drive

    so I think installing it wouldn't be useful.

    As I mentioned in my original, WD's diagnostic software is not
    compatible with a WD Elements drive. WD's software page lists several products for download, but only WD Discovery is listed as compatible,
    none of the useful ones.

    If I could test the drive, that would help me decide whether to keep
    it or to return it to Amazon under the principle of better safe than
    sorry.

    If I was in your position, I would return the drive, based on the
    missing plastic sleeve for the USB cable. That clearly indicates that it
    has been unpacked and probably used.

    --- PyGate Linux v1.0
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Stan Brown@3:633/10 to All on Mon Oct 13 12:14:03 2025
    On Sun, 12 Oct 2025 15:29:23 -0400, Paul wrote:
    C:\WINDOWS\system32>smartctl -a /dev/sdb

    Are those three "pre-fail" statuses in the attributes listing not a
    sign of concern? And what about the fact that all the rest say "old
    age"?

    I googled and found smartctl as part of
    <https://www.smartmontools.org/ >. I downloaded smartmontools as well
    as the GUI, GSmartControl, which I used in preference to the command
    line. As you suggested, it had no trouble finding the USB drive.

    I displayed the attributes, three of which are labeled
    "pre-failure" -- namely, Raw_Read_Error_Rate, Spin_Up_Time, and Reallocated_Sector_Ct, the same three as in your display. And, also
    as in your display, all the rest were labeled "old age".

    I'm currently running the extended test, which includes a surface
    scan. ETA is 2 hours 8 minutes. I'll post the full attributes and
    full results of the extended test when it finishes.

    But in the meantime, what about those "pre-failure" and "old age"
    notations. Do they mean that this disk is well into its useful life
    period? If not, what do they mean?

    --
    "The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by
    those who don't have it." --George Bernard Shaw

    --- PyGate Linux v1.0
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Carlos E.R.@3:633/10 to All on Mon Oct 13 21:41:05 2025
    On 2025-10-13 21:14, Stan Brown wrote:
    On Sun, 12 Oct 2025 15:29:23 -0400, Paul wrote:
    C:\WINDOWS\system32>smartctl -a /dev/sdb

    Are those three "pre-fail" statuses in the attributes listing not a
    sign of concern? And what about the fact that all the rest say "old
    age"?

    that's "type", not a flag.


    I googled and found smartctl as part of
    <https://www.smartmontools.org/ >. I downloaded smartmontools as well
    as the GUI, GSmartControl, which I used in preference to the command
    line. As you suggested, it had no trouble finding the USB drive.

    I displayed the attributes, three of which are labeled
    "pre-failure" -- namely, Raw_Read_Error_Rate, Spin_Up_Time, and Reallocated_Sector_Ct, the same three as in your display. And, also
    as in your display, all the rest were labeled "old age".

    I'm currently running the extended test, which includes a surface
    scan. ETA is 2 hours 8 minutes. I'll post the full attributes and
    full results of the extended test when it finishes.

    But in the meantime, what about those "pre-failure" and "old age"
    notations. Do they mean that this disk is well into its useful life
    period? If not, what do they mean?



    No, it means that if the attribute reaches the threshold, it is a pre-failure warning.

    ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
    1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x000f 116 099 006 Pre-fail Always - 107887024
    3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0003 094 094 000 Pre-fail Always - 0
    5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 100 100 010 Pre-fail Always - 0


    Look at the "THRESH" values. Notice that the "WORST" are far from "THRESH". Notice that "Pre-fail" is a "type".

    The value that you have to look at for your use case is this:

    ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
    9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 055 055 000 Old_age Always - 39438


    and look at it the instant you connect the disk for the first minute. RAW_VALUE should be zero. You have already used the disk, so have to calculate how many of those hours are yours and how many of the possible first user before return.


    This is an example of a failed disk (in Linux, so the command call is different):

    Isengard:~ # smartctl --health -d sat /dev/sdb
    smartctl 7.4 2023-08-01 r5530 [x86_64-linux-6.4.0-150600.23.47-default] (SUSE RPM)
    Copyright (C) 2002-23, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

    === START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
    SMART Status not supported: Incomplete response, ATA output registers missing SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: FAILED!
    Drive failure expected in less than 24 hours. SAVE ALL DATA.
    Warning: This result is based on an Attribute check.
    Failed Attributes:
    ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
    1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x000f 044 043 044 Pre-fail Always FAILING_NOW 7221570

    Isengard:~ # smartctl -a /dev/sdb



    Notice the column "WHEN_FAILED".
    Also notice that "WORST" has surpassed "THRESH". Some values bad is smaller than, some bigger than.



    --
    Cheers, Carlos.
    ES??, EU??;

    --- PyGate Linux v1.0
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From ...winston@3:633/10 to All on Mon Oct 13 16:28:30 2025
    Stan Brown wrote:
    On Mon, 13 Oct 2025 11:52:03 -0400, ...winston wrote:
    Not questioning the method, or looking for examples of what a utility
    may find...only the value and effort for a new WD Elements portable disk
    and whether or not anyone(I, you, others) has found a new WD elements
    disk sufficient to warrant incapable or use(or returning for refund or
    replacement)


    I apologize: I had meant to mention the source of my suspicions, but
    I forgot. Here is why I wrote "(hopefully)" before "new".

    Thanks for the clarification.

    The drive is sold in a pasteboard box, and has a molded plastic shell
    inside. Inside that sit, from bottom to top, the USB cable. the
    owner's manual, and the drive. The USB cable was not coiled inside a
    little plastic sleeve, as it was with the previous four of these
    drives that I bought. As for the pasteboard box, the top has one of
    those sticky plastic circles to make tampering evident, but if the
    bottom ever had one it doesn't now. And the bottom is four flaps of
    different sizes that fit into each other. When I took the box out of
    the shipping bag, those four flaps were wide open, and only friction
    was keeping the plastic shell from sliding out. Maybe that happened
    during shipping, maybe not.

    The drive was sold by and shipped from Amazon. But it's not uncommon
    with tech products and DVDs to see in a review that Amazon shipped as
    new a product that was clearly not new, most likely a return that was
    just put back on the shelf. The symptoms I see with this drive are
    odd, but not a real smoking gun that proves the drive is used. That's
    why I wanted a recommendation for some diagnosis. Again, I'm sorry
    that in composing my original query I left that out.

    In this case, since the packaging based on expectation(box and usb coil sleeve, etc.) and the option to replace exists...the latter is a no
    brainer would easily meet Amazon return/replace requirements with 'new'
    stock.

    If I could test the drive, that would help me decide whether to keep
    it or to return it to Amazon under the principle of better safe than
    sorry.


    Based on my comment above(in this reply), I see know reason to waste any effort on testing the disk, just return and request replacement with 'new'.

    --
    ...w­¤?ņ?¤

    --- PyGate Linux v1.0
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From ...winston@3:633/10 to All on Mon Oct 13 16:49:40 2025
    Stan Brown wrote:
    WD Discovery features the ability to:
    Manage connected external drives
    Set a password and manage drive settings
    Stay up-to-date with software offered by WD and WD partners
    Register drive

    so I think installing it wouldn't be useful.

    Correct. WD Discovery would not be useful for diagnostics


    As noted in another reply...
    The as-received device was packaged incorrectly or previously opened providing sufficient suspicion to return and replace with a 'new' device.
    I really don't see a benefit to test a product that was not in the
    expected 'new' as received condition.


    As I mentioned in my original, WD's diagnostic software is not
    compatible with a WD Elements drive. WD's software page lists several products for download, but only WD Discovery is listed as compatible,
    none of the useful ones.

    The above statement implies WD's software(most likely WD Drive Utility software) for diagnosis is not compatible since its a new budget
    friendly type disk(not the older SE or AE disk).

    If I could test the drive, that would help me decide whether to keep
    it or to return it to Amazon under the principle of better safe than
    sorry.

    Imo, save the effort, just return and request replacement with new
    unopended stock.


    --
    ...w­¤?ņ?¤

    --- PyGate Linux v1.0
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Stan Brown@3:633/10 to All on Mon Oct 13 15:42:54 2025
    On Mon, 13 Oct 2025 12:14:03 -0700, Stan Brown wrote:

    I'm currently running the extended test, which includes a surface
    scan. ETA is 2 hours 8 minutes. I'll post the full attributes and
    full results of the extended test when it finishes.

    The first extended scan failed at 70% because the computer kicked
    into its normal time for hibernation after idle time. I don't
    understand why, since other running programs have prevented
    hibernation in the past. Anyway, I disabled hibernate based on idle
    time and ran a short self test. It found no errors. I then re-ran the
    extended self test, and it too found no errors.

    Although the GUI has separate panes for General, Attributes, Self-
    Test, and so on, selecting Show Output or Save As in any of them puts
    all classes of data into the output. I was able to get the output in
    text form before running the Self-Test. After the Self-Test finished,
    I could only get JSON form. I'm appending both/

    Thank goodness for the GUI. It had no trouble displaying information,
    but no matter what I tried on the command line I got an error that
    boiled down to not accepting the pass-through and suggesting the
    -device=TYPE option. None of the USB options on the man page worked
    for me.

    Before Self-Test (text)

    smartctl 7.5 2025-04-30 r5714 [x86_64-w64-mingw32-w10-22H2] (AppVeyor) Copyright (C) 2002-25, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

    === START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
    Device Model: WDC WD20JDRW-11C7VS1
    Serial Number: WD-WX82A458FU14
    LU WWN Device Id: 5 0014ee 26c32b04b
    Firmware Version: 01.01A01
    User Capacity: 2,000,365,379,584 bytes [2.00 TB]
    Sector Sizes: 512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
    Rotation Rate: 4800 rpm
    Form Factor: 2.5 inches
    TRIM Command: Available, deterministic
    Device is: Not in smartctl database
    ATA Version is: ACS-3 T13/2161-D revision 5
    SATA Version is: SATA 3.1, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)
    Local Time is: Mon Oct 13 13:11:23 2025 PDT
    SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
    SMART support is: Enabled
    AAM feature is: Unavailable
    APM level is: 128 (minimum power consumption without standby)
    Rd look-ahead is: Enabled
    Write cache is: Enabled
    DSN feature is: Unavailable
    ATA Security is: Disabled, NOT FROZEN [SEC1]

    === START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
    SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

    General SMART Values:
    Offline data collection status: (0x00) Offline data collection activity
    was never started.
    Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled. Self-test execution status: ( 35) The self-test routine was interrupted
    by the host with a hard or soft reset. Total time to complete Offline
    data collection: ( 60) seconds.
    Offline data collection
    capabilities: (0x51) SMART execute Offline immediate.
    No Auto Offline data collection support.
    Suspend Offline collection upon new
    command.
    No Offline surface scan supported.
    Self-test supported.
    No Conveyance Self-test supported.
    Selective Self-test supported.
    SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
    power-saving mode.
    Supports SMART auto save timer.
    Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported.
    General Purpose Logging supported. Short self-test routine
    recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes.
    Extended self-test routine
    recommended polling time: ( 88) minutes.
    SCT capabilities: (0x70b5) SCT Status supported.
    SCT Feature Control supported.
    SCT Data Table supported.

    [The GUI on-screen output of the next sectction showed an
    additional column, Type. Numbers 1, 3, 5 showed "pre-failure";
    the rest showed "old age".]

    SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
    Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
    ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAGS VALUE WORST THRESH FAIL RAW_VALUE
    1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate POSR-K 100 253 051 - 0
    3 Spin_Up_Time POS--K 185 185 021 - 3725
    4 Start_Stop_Count -O--CK 100 100 000 - 10
    5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct PO--CK 200 200 140 - 0
    7 Seek_Error_Rate -OSR-K 100 253 000 - 0
    9 Power_On_Hours -O--CK 100 100 000 - 2
    10 Spin_Retry_Count -O--CK 100 253 000 - 0
    11 Calibration_Retry_Count -O--CK 100 253 000 - 0
    12 Power_Cycle_Count -O--CK 100 100 000 - 8
    192 Power-Off_Retract_Count -O--CK 200 200 000 - 1
    193 Load_Cycle_Count -O--CK 200 200 000 - 19
    194 Temperature_Celsius -O---K 113 104 000 - 34
    196 Reallocated_Event_Count -O--CK 200 200 000 - 0
    197 Current_Pending_Sector -O--CK 200 200 000 - 0
    198 Offline_Uncorrectable ----CK 100 253 000 - 0
    199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count -O--CK 200 200 000 - 0
    200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate ---R-- 100 253 000 - 0
    ||||||_ K auto-keep
    |||||__ C event count
    ||||___ R error rate
    |||____ S speed/performance
    ||_____ O updated online
    |______ P prefailure warning

    General Purpose Log Directory Version 1
    SMART Log Directory Version 1 [multi-sector log support]
    Address Access R/W Size Description
    0x00 GPL,SL R/O 1 Log Directory
    0x01 SL R/O 1 Summary SMART error log
    0x02 SL R/O 5 Comprehensive SMART error log
    0x03 GPL R/O 6 Ext. Comprehensive SMART error log
    0x06 SL R/O 1 SMART self-test log
    0x07 GPL R/O 1 Extended self-test log
    0x09 SL R/W 1 Selective self-test log
    0x10 GPL R/O 1 NCQ Command Error log
    0x11 GPL R/O 1 SATA Phy Event Counters log
    0x24 GPL R/O 291 Current Device Internal Status Data log
    0x30 GPL,SL R/O 9 IDENTIFY DEVICE data log
    0x80-0x9f GPL,SL R/W 16 Host vendor specific log
    0xa0-0xa7 GPL,SL VS 16 Device vendor specific log
    0xa8-0xb6 GPL,SL VS 1 Device vendor specific log
    0xb7 GPL,SL VS 76 Device vendor specific log
    0xb9 GPL,SL VS 4 Device vendor specific log
    0xbd GPL,SL VS 1 Device vendor specific log
    0xc0 GPL,SL VS 1 Device vendor specific log
    0xc1 GPL VS 93 Device vendor specific log
    0xcf GPL VS 65535 Device vendor specific log
    0xe0 GPL,SL R/W 1 SCT Command/Status
    0xe1 GPL,SL R/W 1 SCT Data Transfer

    SMART Extended Comprehensive Error Log Version: 1 (6 sectors)
    No Errors Logged

    SMART Extended Self-test Log Version: 1 (1 sectors)
    Num Test_Description Status Remaining LifeTime(hours) LBA_of_first_error
    # 1 Extended offline Interrupted (host reset) 30% 2 -

    SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
    SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
    1 0 0 Not_testing
    2 0 0 Not_testing
    3 0 0 Not_testing
    4 0 0 Not_testing
    5 0 0 Not_testing
    Selective self-test flags (0x0):
    After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
    If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

    SCT Status Version: 3
    SCT Version (vendor specific): 258 (0x0102)
    Device State: Active (0)
    Current Temperature: 35 Celsius
    Power Cycle Min/Max Temperature: 21/43 Celsius
    Lifetime Min/Max Temperature: 18/43 Celsius
    Specified Max Operating Temperature: 22 Celsius
    Under/Over Temperature Limit Count: 0/0
    Vendor specific:
    01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
    00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

    SCT Temperature History Version: 2
    Temperature Sampling Period: 1 minute
    Temperature Logging Interval: 1 minute
    Min/Max recommended Temperature: 0/60 Celsius
    Min/Max Temperature Limit: -41/85 Celsius
    Temperature History Size (Index): 128 (57)

    Index Estimated Time Temperature Celsius
    58 2025-10-13 11:04 27 ********
    59 2025-10-13 11:05 27 ********
    60 2025-10-13 11:06 28 *********
    61 2025-10-13 11:07 28 *********
    62 2025-10-13 11:08 ? -
    63 2025-10-13 11:09 28 *********
    ... ..( 8 skipped). .. *********
    72 2025-10-13 11:18 28 *********
    73 2025-10-13 11:19 29 **********
    74 2025-10-13 11:20 28 *********
    75 2025-10-13 11:21 ? -
    76 2025-10-13 11:22 18 -
    77 2025-10-13 11:23 19 -
    78 2025-10-13 11:24 19 -
    79 2025-10-13 11:25 20 *
    80 2025-10-13 11:26 21 **
    81 2025-10-13 11:27 21 **
    82 2025-10-13 11:28 22 ***
    83 2025-10-13 11:29 22 ***
    84 2025-10-13 11:30 22 ***
    85 2025-10-13 11:31 23 ****
    86 2025-10-13 11:32 23 ****
    87 2025-10-13 11:33 23 ****
    88 2025-10-13 11:34 24 *****
    89 2025-10-13 11:35 ? -
    90 2025-10-13 11:36 21 **
    91 2025-10-13 11:37 21 **
    92 2025-10-13 11:38 22 ***
    93 2025-10-13 11:39 22 ***
    94 2025-10-13 11:40 23 ****
    95 2025-10-13 11:41 24 *****
    96 2025-10-13 11:42 26 *******
    97 2025-10-13 11:43 27 ********
    98 2025-10-13 11:44 28 *********
    99 2025-10-13 11:45 29 **********
    100 2025-10-13 11:46 29 **********
    101 2025-10-13 11:47 30 ***********
    102 2025-10-13 11:48 31 ************
    103 2025-10-13 11:49 32 *************
    104 2025-10-13 11:50 32 *************
    105 2025-10-13 11:51 33 **************
    106 2025-10-13 11:52 33 **************
    107 2025-10-13 11:53 35 ****************
    108 2025-10-13 11:54 34 ***************
    109 2025-10-13 11:55 35 ****************
    110 2025-10-13 11:56 36 *****************
    ... ..( 2 skipped). .. *****************
    113 2025-10-13 11:59 36 *****************
    114 2025-10-13 12:00 37 ******************
    115 2025-10-13 12:01 37 ******************
    116 2025-10-13 12:02 37 ******************
    117 2025-10-13 12:03 38 *******************
    ... ..( 3 skipped). .. *******************
    121 2025-10-13 12:07 38 *******************
    122 2025-10-13 12:08 39 ********************
    ... ..( 4 skipped). .. ********************
    127 2025-10-13 12:13 39 ********************
    0 2025-10-13 12:14 40 *********************
    ... ..( 5 skipped). .. *********************
    6 2025-10-13 12:20 40 *********************
    7 2025-10-13 12:21 41 **********************
    ... ..( 10 skipped). .. **********************
    18 2025-10-13 12:32 41 **********************
    19 2025-10-13 12:33 42 ***********************
    ... ..( 20 skipped). .. ***********************
    40 2025-10-13 12:54 42 ***********************
    41 2025-10-13 12:55 43 ************************
    ... ..( 4 skipped). .. ************************
    46 2025-10-13 13:00 43 ************************
    47 2025-10-13 13:01 42 ***********************
    48 2025-10-13 13:02 41 **********************
    49 2025-10-13 13:03 40 *********************
    50 2025-10-13 13:04 39 ********************
    51 2025-10-13 13:05 38 *******************
    52 2025-10-13 13:06 37 ******************
    53 2025-10-13 13:07 36 *****************
    54 2025-10-13 13:08 35 ****************
    55 2025-10-13 13:09 35 ****************
    56 2025-10-13 13:10 ? -
    57 2025-10-13 13:11 35 ****************

    SCT Error Recovery Control command not supported

    Device Statistics (GP/SMART Log 0x04) not supported

    SATA Phy Event Counters (GP Log 0x11)
    ID Size Value Description
    0x0001 2 0 Command failed due to ICRC error
    0x0002 2 0 R_ERR response for data FIS
    0x0003 2 0 R_ERR response for device-to-host data FIS
    0x0004 2 0 R_ERR response for host-to-device data FIS
    0x0005 2 0 R_ERR response for non-data FIS
    0x0006 2 0 R_ERR response for device-to-host non-data FIS
    0x0007 2 0 R_ERR response for host-to-device non-data FIS
    0x0008 2 0 Device-to-host non-data FIS retries
    0x0009 2 1 Transition from drive PhyRdy to drive PhyNRdy
    0x000a 2 2 Device-to-host register FISes sent due to a COMRESET 0x000b 2 0 CRC errors within host-to-device FIS
    0x000d 2 0 Non-CRC errors within host-to-device FIS
    0x000f 2 0 R_ERR response for host-to-device data FIS, CRC 0x0012 2 0 R_ERR response for host-to-device non-data FIS, CRC 0x8000 4 5641 Vendor specific


    After Self-Test (JSON):

    {
    "json_format_version": [
    1,
    0
    ],
    "smartctl": {
    "version": [
    7,
    5
    ],
    "pre_release": false,
    "svn_revision": "5714",
    "platform_info": "x86_64-w64-mingw32-w10-22H2",
    "build_info": "(AppVeyor)",
    "argv": [
    "smartctl",
    "--health",
    "--info",
    "--get=all",
    "--capabilities",
    "--attributes",
    "--format=brief",
    "--log=xerror,50,error",
    "--log=xselftest,50,selftest",
    "--log=selective",
    "--log=directory",
    "--log=scttemp",
    "--log=scterc",
    "--log=devstat",
    "--log=sataphy",
    "--json=o",
    "pd1"
    ],
    "output": [
    "smartctl 7.5 2025-04-30 r5714 [x86_64-w64-mingw32-w10-22H2] (AppVeyor)",
    "Copyright (C) 2002-25, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org",
    "",
    "=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===",
    "Device Model: WDC WD20JDRW-11C7VS1",
    "Serial Number: WD-WX82A458FU14",
    "LU WWN Device Id: 5 0014ee 26c32b04b",
    "Firmware Version: 01.01A01",
    "User Capacity: 2,000,365,379,584 bytes [2.00 TB]",
    "Sector Sizes: 512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical",
    "Rotation Rate: 4800 rpm",
    "Form Factor: 2.5 inches",
    "TRIM Command: Available, deterministic",
    "Device is: Not in smartctl database",
    "ATA Version is: ACS-3 T13/2161-D revision 5",
    "SATA Version is: SATA 3.1, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)",
    "Local Time is: Mon Oct 13 15:17:18 2025 PDT",
    "SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.",
    "SMART support is: Enabled",
    "AAM feature is: Unavailable",
    "APM level is: 128 (minimum power consumption without standby)",
    "Rd look-ahead is: Enabled",
    "Write cache is: Enabled",
    "DSN feature is: Unavailable",
    "ATA Security is: Disabled, NOT FROZEN [SEC1]",
    "",
    "=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===",
    "SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED",
    "",
    "General SMART Values:",
    "Offline data collection status: (0x00)\tOffline data collection activity",
    "\t\t\t\t\twas never started.",
    "\t\t\t\t\tAuto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.",
    "Self-test execution status: ( 0)\tThe previous self-test routine completed",
    "\t\t\t\t\twithout error or no self-test has ever ",
    "\t\t\t\t\tbeen run.",
    "Total time to complete Offline ",
    "data collection: \t\t( 60) seconds.",
    "Offline data collection",
    "capabilities: \t\t\t (0x51) SMART execute Offline immediate.",
    "\t\t\t\t\tNo Auto Offline data collection support.",
    "\t\t\t\t\tSuspend Offline collection upon new",
    "\t\t\t\t\tcommand.",
    "\t\t\t\t\tNo Offline surface scan supported.",
    "\t\t\t\t\tSelf-test supported.",
    "\t\t\t\t\tNo Conveyance Self-test supported.",
    "\t\t\t\t\tSelective Self-test supported.",
    "SMART capabilities: (0x0003)\tSaves SMART data before entering",
    "\t\t\t\t\tpower-saving mode.",
    "\t\t\t\t\tSupports SMART auto save timer.",
    "Error logging capability: (0x01)\tError logging supported.",
    "\t\t\t\t\tGeneral Purpose Logging supported.",
    "Short self-test routine ",
    "recommended polling time: \t ( 2) minutes.",
    "Extended self-test routine",
    "recommended polling time: \t ( 66) minutes.",
    "SCT capabilities: \t (0x70b5)\tSCT Status supported.",
    "\t\t\t\t\tSCT Feature Control supported.",
    "\t\t\t\t\tSCT Data Table supported.",
    "",
    "SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16",
    "Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:",
    "ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAGS VALUE WORST THRESH FAIL RAW_VALUE",
    " 1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate POSR-K 100 253 051 - 0",
    " 3 Spin_Up_Time POS--K 185 185 021 - 3725",
    " 4 Start_Stop_Count -O--CK 100 100 000 - 10",
    " 5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct PO--CK 200 200 140 - 0",
    " 7 Seek_Error_Rate -OSR-K 200 200 000 - 0",
    " 9 Power_On_Hours -O--CK 100 100 000 - 4",
    " 10 Spin_Retry_Count -O--CK 100 253 000 - 0",
    " 11 Calibration_Retry_Count -O--CK 100 253 000 - 0",
    " 12 Power_Cycle_Count -O--CK 100 100 000 - 8",
    "192 Power-Off_Retract_Count -O--CK 200 200 000 - 1",
    "193 Load_Cycle_Count -O--CK 200 200 000 - 24",
    "194 Temperature_Celsius -O---K 105 104 000 - 42",
    "196 Reallocated_Event_Count -O--CK 200 200 000 - 0",
    "197 Current_Pending_Sector -O--CK 200 200 000 - 0",
    "198 Offline_Uncorrectable ----CK 100 253 000 - 0",
    "199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count -O--CK 200 200 000 - 0",
    "200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate ---R-- 200 200 000 - 0",
    " ||||||_ K auto-keep",
    " |||||__ C event count",
    " ||||___ R error rate",
    " |||____ S speed/performance",
    " ||_____ O updated online",
    " |______ P prefailure warning",
    "",
    "General Purpose Log Directory Version 1",
    "SMART Log Directory Version 1 [multi-sector log support]",
    "Address Access R/W Size Description",
    "0x00 GPL,SL R/O 1 Log Directory",
    "0x01 SL R/O 1 Summary SMART error log",
    "0x02 SL R/O 5 Comprehensive SMART error log",
    "0x03 GPL R/O 6 Ext. Comprehensive SMART error log",
    "0x06 SL R/O 1 SMART self-test log",
    "0x07 GPL R/O 1 Extended self-test log",
    "0x09 SL R/W 1 Selective self-test log",
    "0x10 GPL R/O 1 NCQ Command Error log",
    "0x11 GPL R/O 1 SATA Phy Event Counters log",
    "0x24 GPL R/O 291 Current Device Internal Status Data log",
    "0x30 GPL,SL R/O 9 IDENTIFY DEVICE data log",
    "0x80-0x9f GPL,SL R/W 16 Host vendor specific log",
    "0xa0-0xa7 GPL,SL VS 16 Device vendor specific log",
    "0xa8-0xb6 GPL,SL VS 1 Device vendor specific log",
    "0xb7 GPL,SL VS 76 Device vendor specific log",
    "0xb9 GPL,SL VS 4 Device vendor specific log",
    "0xbd GPL,SL VS 1 Device vendor specific log",
    "0xc0 GPL,SL VS 1 Device vendor specific log",
    "0xc1 GPL VS 93 Device vendor specific log",
    "0xcf GPL VS 65535 Device vendor specific log",
    "0xe0 GPL,SL R/W 1 SCT Command/Status",
    "0xe1 GPL,SL R/W 1 SCT Data Transfer",
    "",
    "SMART Extended Comprehensive Error Log Version: 1 (6 sectors)",
    "No Errors Logged",
    "",
    "SMART Extended Self-test Log Version: 1 (1 sectors)",
    "Num Test_Description Status Remaining LifeTime(hours) LBA_of_first_error",
    "# 1 Extended offline Completed without error 00% 4 -",
    "# 2 Short offline Completed without error 00% 3 -",
    "# 3 Extended offline Interrupted (host reset) 30% 2 -",
    "",
    "SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1",
    " SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS",
    " 1 0 0 Not_testing",
    " 2 0 0 Not_testing",
    " 3 0 0 Not_testing",
    " 4 0 0 Not_testing",
    " 5 0 0 Not_testing",
    "Selective self-test flags (0x0):",
    " After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.",
    "If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.",
    "",
    "SCT Status Version: 3",
    "SCT Version (vendor specific): 258 (0x0102)",
    "Device State: Active (0)",
    "Current Temperature: 42 Celsius",
    "Power Cycle Min/Max Temperature: 21/44 Celsius",
    "Lifetime Min/Max Temperature: 18/44 Celsius",
    "Specified Max Operating Temperature: 22 Celsius",
    "Under/Over Temperature Limit Count: 0/0",
    "Vendor specific:",
    "01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00",
    "00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00",
    "",
    "SCT Temperature History Version: 2",
    "Temperature Sampling Period: 1 minute",
    "Temperature Logging Interval: 1 minute",
    "Min/Max recommended Temperature: 0/60 Celsius",
    "Min/Max Temperature Limit: -41/85 Celsius",
    "Temperature History Size (Index): 128 (54)",
    "",
    "Index Estimated Time Temperature Celsius",
    " 55 2025-10-13 13:10 35 ****************",
    " 56 2025-10-13 13:11 ? -",
    " 57 2025-10-13 13:12 35 ****************",
    " 58 2025-10-13 13:13 34 ***************",
    " 59 2025-10-13 13:14 34 ***************",
    " 60 2025-10-13 13:15 33 **************",
    " ... ..( 4 skipped). .. **************",
    " 65 2025-10-13 13:20 33 **************",
    " 66 2025-10-13 13:21 32 *************",
    " ... ..( 8 skipped). .. *************",
    " 75 2025-10-13 13:30 32 *************",
    " 76 2025-10-13 13:31 31 ************",
    " ... ..( 7 skipped). .. ************",
    " 84 2025-10-13 13:39 31 ************",
    " 85 2025-10-13 13:40 32 *************",
    " ... ..( 3 skipped). .. *************",
    " 89 2025-10-13 13:44 32 *************",
    " 90 2025-10-13 13:45 31 ************",
    " 91 2025-10-13 13:46 31 ************",
    " 92 2025-10-13 13:47 32 *************",
    " 93 2025-10-13 13:48 33 **************",
    " 94 2025-10-13 13:49 33 **************",
    " 95 2025-10-13 13:50 34 ***************",
    " 96 2025-10-13 13:51 35 ****************",
    " 97 2025-10-13 13:52 35 ****************",
    " 98 2025-10-13 13:53 36 *****************",
    " 99 2025-10-13 13:54 36 *****************",
    " 100 2025-10-13 13:55 37 ******************",
    " 101 2025-10-13 13:56 37 ******************",
    " 102 2025-10-13 13:57 37 ******************",
    " 103 2025-10-13 13:58 38 *******************",
    " 104 2025-10-13 13:59 38 *******************",
    " 105 2025-10-13 14:00 38 *******************",
    " 106 2025-10-13 14:01 39 ********************",
    " ... ..( 3 skipped). .. ********************",
    " 110 2025-10-13 14:05 39 ********************",
    " 111 2025-10-13 14:06 40 *********************",
    " ... ..( 3 skipped). .. *********************",
    " 115 2025-10-13 14:10 40 *********************",
    " 116 2025-10-13 14:11 41 **********************",
    " ... ..( 9 skipped). .. **********************",
    " 126 2025-10-13 14:21 41 **********************",
    " 127 2025-10-13 14:22 42 ***********************",
    " ... ..( 11 skipped). .. ***********************",
    " 11 2025-10-13 14:34 42 ***********************",
    " 12 2025-10-13 14:35 43 ************************",
    " ... ..( 22 skipped). .. ************************",
    " 35 2025-10-13 14:58 43 ************************",
    " 36 2025-10-13 14:59 44 *************************",
    " 37 2025-10-13 15:00 43 ************************",
    " ... ..( 14 skipped). .. ************************",
    " 52 2025-10-13 15:15 43 ************************",
    " 53 2025-10-13 15:16 42 ***********************",
    " 54 2025-10-13 15:17 42 ***********************",
    "",
    "SCT Error Recovery Control command not supported",
    "",
    "Device Statistics (GP/SMART Log 0x04) not supported",
    "",
    "SATA Phy Event Counters (GP Log 0x11)",
    "ID Size Value Description",
    "0x0001 2 0 Command failed due to ICRC error",
    "0x0002 2 0 R_ERR response for data FIS",
    "0x0003 2 0 R_ERR response for device-to-host data FIS",
    "0x0004 2 0 R_ERR response for host-to-device data FIS",
    "0x0005 2 0 R_ERR response for non-data FIS",
    "0x0006 2 0 R_ERR response for device-to-host non-data FIS",
    "0x0007 2 0 R_ERR response for host-to-device non-data FIS",
    "0x0008 2 0 Device-to-host non-data FIS retries",
    "0x0009 2 1 Transition from drive PhyRdy to drive PhyNRdy",
    "0x000a 2 2 Device-to-host register FISes sent due to a COMRESET",
    "0x000b 2 0 CRC errors within host-to-device FIS",
    "0x000d 2 0 Non-CRC errors within host-to-device FIS",
    "0x000f 2 0 R_ERR response for host-to-device data FIS, CRC",
    "0x0012 2 0 R_ERR response for host-to-device non-data FIS, CRC",
    "0x8000 4 13189 Vendor specific",
    ""
    ],
    "exit_status": 0
    },
    "local_time": {
    "time_t": 1760393838,
    "asctime": "Mon Oct 13 15:17:18 2025 PDT"
    },
    "device": {
    "name": "pd1",
    "info_name": "pd1 [SAT]",
    "type": "sat",
    "protocol": "ATA"
    },
    "model_name": "WDC WD20JDRW-11C7VS1",
    "serial_number": "WD-WX82A458FU14",
    "wwn": {
    "naa": 5,
    "oui": 5358,
    "id": 10405195851
    },
    "firmware_version": "01.01A01",
    "user_capacity": {
    "blocks": 3906963632,
    "bytes": 2000365379584
    },
    "logical_block_size": 512,
    "physical_block_size": 4096,
    "rotation_rate": 4800,
    "form_factor": {
    "ata_value": 3,
    "name": "2.5 inches"
    },
    "trim": {
    "supported": true,
    "deterministic": true,
    "zeroed": false
    },
    "in_smartctl_database": false,
    "ata_version": {
    "string": "ACS-3 T13/2161-D revision 5",
    "major_value": 2046,
    "minor_value": 109
    },
    "sata_version": {
    "string": "SATA 3.1",
    "value": 126
    },
    "interface_speed": {
    "max": {
    "sata_value": 14,
    "string": "6.0 Gb/s",
    "units_per_second": 60,
    "bits_per_unit": 100000000
    },
    "current": {
    "sata_value": 3,
    "string": "6.0 Gb/s",
    "units_per_second": 60,
    "bits_per_unit": 100000000
    }
    },
    "smart_support": {
    "available": true,
    "enabled": true
    },
    "ata_apm": {
    "enabled": true,
    "level": 128,
    "string": "minimum power consumption without standby",
    "max_performance": false,
    "min_power": true,
    "with_standby": false
    },
    "read_lookahead": {
    "enabled": true
    },
    "write_cache": {
    "enabled": true
    },
    "ata_security": {
    "state": 33,
    "string": "Disabled, NOT FROZEN [SEC1]",
    "enabled": false,
    "frozen": false,
    "master_password_id": 65534
    },
    "smart_status": {
    "passed": true
    },
    "ata_smart_data": {
    "offline_data_collection": {
    "status": {
    "value": 0,
    "string": "was never started"
    },
    "completion_seconds": 60
    },
    "self_test": {
    "status": {
    "value": 0,
    "string": "completed without error",
    "passed": true
    },
    "polling_minutes": {
    "short": 2,
    "extended": 66
    }
    },
    "capabilities": {
    "values": [
    81,
    3
    ],
    "exec_offline_immediate_supported": true,
    "offline_is_aborted_upon_new_cmd": false,
    "offline_surface_scan_supported": false,
    "self_tests_supported": true,
    "conveyance_self_test_supported": false,
    "selective_self_test_supported": true,
    "attribute_autosave_enabled": true,
    "error_logging_supported": true,
    "gp_logging_supported": true
    }
    },
    "ata_sct_capabilities": {
    "value": 28853,
    "error_recovery_control_supported": false,
    "feature_control_supported": true,
    "data_table_supported": true
    },
    "ata_smart_attributes": {
    "revision": 16,
    "table": [
    {
    "id": 1,
    "name": "Raw_Read_Error_Rate",
    "value": 100,
    "worst": 253,
    "thresh": 51,
    "when_failed": "",
    "flags": {
    "value": 47,
    "string": "POSR-K ",
    "prefailure": true,
    "updated_online": true,
    "performance": true,
    "error_rate": true,
    "event_count": false,
    "auto_keep": true
    },
    "raw": {
    "value": 0,
    "string": "0"
    }
    },
    {
    "id": 3,
    "name": "Spin_Up_Time",
    "value": 185,
    "worst": 185,
    "thresh": 21,
    "when_failed": "",
    "flags": {
    "value": 39,
    "string": "POS--K ",
    "prefailure": true,
    "updated_online": true,
    "performance": true,
    "error_rate": false,
    "event_count": false,
    "auto_keep": true
    },
    "raw": {
    "value": 3725,
    "string": "3725"
    }
    },
    {
    "id": 4,
    "name": "Start_Stop_Count",
    "value": 100,
    "worst": 100,
    "thresh": 0,
    "when_failed": "",
    "flags": {
    "value": 50,
    "string": "-O--CK ",
    "prefailure": false,
    "updated_online": true,
    "performance": false,
    "error_rate": false,
    "event_count": true,
    "auto_keep": true
    },
    "raw": {
    "value": 10,
    "string": "10"
    }
    },
    {
    "id": 5,
    "name": "Reallocated_Sector_Ct",
    "value": 200,
    "worst": 200,
    "thresh": 140,
    "when_failed": "",
    "flags": {
    "value": 51,
    "string": "PO--CK ",
    "prefailure": true,
    "updated_online": true,
    "performance": false,
    "error_rate": false,
    "event_count": true,
    "auto_keep": true
    },
    "raw": {
    "value": 0,
    "string": "0"
    }
    },
    {
    "id": 7,
    "name": "Seek_Error_Rate",
    "value": 200,
    "worst": 200,
    "thresh": 0,
    "when_failed": "",
    "flags": {
    "value": 46,
    "string": "-OSR-K ",
    "prefailure": false,
    "updated_online": true,
    "performance": true,
    "error_rate": true,
    "event_count": false,
    "auto_keep": true
    },
    "raw": {
    "value": 0,
    "string": "0"
    }
    },
    {
    "id": 9,
    "name": "Power_On_Hours",
    "value": 100,
    "worst": 100,
    "thresh": 0,
    "when_failed": "",
    "flags": {
    "value": 50,
    "string": "-O--CK ",
    "prefailure": false,
    "updated_online": true,
    "performance": false,
    "error_rate": false,
    "event_count": true,
    "auto_keep": true
    },
    "raw": {
    "value": 4,
    "string": "4"
    }
    },
    {
    "id": 10,
    "name": "Spin_Retry_Count",
    "value": 100,
    "worst": 253,
    "thresh": 0,
    "when_failed": "",
    "flags": {
    "value": 50,
    "string": "-O--CK ",
    "prefailure": false,
    "updated_online": true,
    "performance": false,
    "error_rate": false,
    "event_count": true,
    "auto_keep": true
    },
    "raw": {
    "value": 0,
    "string": "0"
    }
    },
    {
    "id": 11,
    "name": "Calibration_Retry_Count",
    "value": 100,
    "worst": 253,
    "thresh": 0,
    "when_failed": "",
    "flags": {
    "value": 50,
    "string": "-O--CK ",
    "prefailure": false,
    "updated_online": true,
    "performance": false,
    "error_rate": false,
    "event_count": true,
    "auto_keep": true
    },
    "raw": {
    "value": 0,
    "string": "0"
    }
    },
    {
    "id": 12,
    "name": "Power_Cycle_Count",
    "value": 100,
    "worst": 100,
    "thresh": 0,
    "when_failed": "",
    "flags": {
    "value": 50,
    "string": "-O--CK ",
    "prefailure": false,
    "updated_online": true,
    "performance": false,
    "error_rate": false,
    "event_count": true,
    "auto_keep": true
    },
    "raw": {
    "value": 8,
    "string": "8"
    }
    },
    {
    "id": 192,
    "name": "Power-Off_Retract_Count",
    "value": 200,
    "worst": 200,
    "thresh": 0,
    "when_failed": "",
    "flags": {
    "value": 50,
    "string": "-O--CK ",
    "prefailure": false,
    "updated_online": true,
    "performance": false,
    "error_rate": false,
    "event_count": true,
    "auto_keep": true
    },
    "raw": {
    "value": 1,
    "string": "1"
    }
    },
    {
    "id": 193,
    "name": "Load_Cycle_Count",
    "value": 200,
    "worst": 200,
    "thresh": 0,
    "when_failed": "",
    "flags": {
    "value": 50,
    "string": "-O--CK ",
    "prefailure": false,
    "updated_online": true,
    "performance": false,
    "error_rate": false,
    "event_count": true,
    "auto_keep": true
    },
    "raw": {
    "value": 24,
    "string": "24"
    }
    },
    {
    "id": 194,
    "name": "Temperature_Celsius",
    "value": 105,
    "worst": 104,
    "thresh": 0,
    "when_failed": "",
    "flags": {
    "value": 34,
    "string": "-O---K ",
    "prefailure": false,
    "updated_online": true,
    "performance": false,
    "error_rate": false,
    "event_count": false,
    "auto_keep": true
    },
    "raw": {
    "value": 42,
    "string": "42"
    }
    },
    {
    "id": 196,
    "name": "Reallocated_Event_Count",
    "value": 200,
    "worst": 200,
    "thresh": 0,
    "when_failed": "",
    "flags": {
    "value": 50,
    "string": "-O--CK ",
    "prefailure": false,
    "updated_online": true,
    "performance": false,
    "error_rate": false,
    "event_count": true,
    "auto_keep": true
    },
    "raw": {
    "value": 0,
    "string": "0"
    }
    },
    {
    "id": 197,
    "name": "Current_Pending_Sector",
    "value": 200,
    "worst": 200,
    "thresh": 0,
    "when_failed": "",
    "flags": {
    "value": 50,
    "string": "-O--CK ",
    "prefailure": false,
    "updated_online": true,
    "performance": false,
    "error_rate": false,
    "event_count": true,
    "auto_keep": true
    },
    "raw": {
    "value": 0,
    "string": "0"
    }
    },
    {
    "id": 198,
    "name": "Offline_Uncorrectable",
    "value": 100,
    "worst": 253,
    "thresh": 0,
    "when_failed": "",
    "flags": {
    "value": 48,
    "string": "----CK ",
    "prefailure": false,
    "updated_online": false,
    "performance": false,
    "error_rate": false,
    "event_count": true,
    "auto_keep": true
    },
    "raw": {
    "value": 0,
    "string": "0"
    }
    },
    {
    "id": 199,
    "name": "UDMA_CRC_Error_Count",
    "value": 200,
    "worst": 200,
    "thresh": 0,
    "when_failed": "",
    "flags": {
    "value": 50,
    "string": "-O--CK ",
    "prefailure": false,
    "updated_online": true,
    "performance": false,
    "error_rate": false,
    "event_count": true,
    "auto_keep": true
    },
    "raw": {
    "value": 0,
    "string": "0"
    }
    },
    {
    "id": 200,
    "name": "Multi_Zone_Error_Rate",
    "value": 200,
    "worst": 200,
    "thresh": 0,
    "when_failed": "",
    "flags": {
    "value": 8,
    "string": "---R-- ",
    "prefailure": false,
    "updated_online": false,
    "performance": false,
    "error_rate": true,
    "event_count": false,
    "auto_keep": false
    },
    "raw": {
    "value": 0,
    "string": "0"
    }
    }
    ]
    },
    "spare_available": {
    "current_percent": 100
    },
    "power_on_time": {
    "hours": 4
    },
    "power_cycle_count": 8,
    "temperature": {
    "current": 42,
    "power_cycle_min": 21,
    "power_cycle_max": 44,
    "lifetime_min": 18,
    "lifetime_max": 44,
    "op_limit_max": 60,
    "op_limit_min": 0,
    "limit_min": -41,
    "limit_max": 85
    },
    "ata_log_directory": {
    "gp_dir_version": 1,
    "smart_dir_version": 1,
    "smart_dir_multi_sector": true,
    "table": [
    {
    "address": 0,
    "name": "Log Directory",
    "read": true,
    "write": false,
    "gp_sectors": 1,
    "smart_sectors": 1
    },
    {
    "address": 1,
    "name": "Summary SMART error log",
    "read": true,
    "write": false,
    "smart_sectors": 1
    },
    {
    "address": 2,
    "name": "Comprehensive SMART error log",
    "read": true,
    "write": false,
    "smart_sectors": 5
    },
    {
    "address": 3,
    "name": "Ext. Comprehensive SMART error log",
    "read": true,
    "write": false,
    "gp_sectors": 6
    },
    {
    "address": 6,
    "name": "SMART self-test log",
    "read": true,
    "write": false,
    "smart_sectors": 1
    },
    {
    "address": 7,
    "name": "Extended self-test log",
    "read": true,
    "write": false,
    "gp_sectors": 1
    },
    {
    "address": 9,
    "name": "Selective self-test log",
    "read": true,
    "write": true,
    "smart_sectors": 1
    },
    {
    "address": 16,
    "name": "NCQ Command Error log",
    "read": true,
    "write": false,
    "gp_sectors": 1
    },
    {
    "address": 17,
    "name": "SATA Phy Event Counters log",
    "read": true,
    "write": false,
    "gp_sectors": 1
    },
    {
    "address": 36,
    "name": "Current Device Internal Status Data log",
    "read": true,
    "write": false,
    "gp_sectors": 291
    },
    {
    "address": 48,
    "name": "IDENTIFY DEVICE data log",
    "read": true,
    "write": false,
    "gp_sectors": 9,
    "smart_sectors": 9
    },
    {
    "address": 128,
    "name": "Host vendor specific log",
    "read": true,
    "write": true,
    "gp_sectors": 16,
    "smart_sectors": 16
    },
    {
    "address": 129,
    "name": "Host vendor specific log",
    "read": true,
    "write": true,
    "gp_sectors": 16,
    "smart_sectors": 16
    },
    {
    "address": 130,
    "name": "Host vendor specific log",
    "read": true,
    "write": true,
    "gp_sectors": 16,
    "smart_sectors": 16
    },
    {
    "address": 131,
    "name": "Host vendor specific log",
    "read": true,
    "write": true,
    "gp_sectors": 16,
    "smart_sectors": 16
    },
    {
    "address": 132,
    "name": "Host vendor specific log",
    "read": true,
    "write": true,
    "gp_sectors": 16,
    "smart_sectors": 16
    },
    {
    "address": 133,
    "name": "Host vendor specific log",
    "read": true,
    "write": true,
    "gp_sectors": 16,
    "smart_sectors": 16
    },
    {
    "address": 134,
    "name": "Host vendor specific log",
    "read": true,
    "write": true,
    "gp_sectors": 16,
    "smart_sectors": 16
    },
    {
    "address": 135,
    "name": "Host vendor specific log",
    "read": true,
    "write": true,
    "gp_sectors": 16,
    "smart_sectors": 16
    },
    {
    "address": 136,
    "name": "Host vendor specific log",
    "read": true,
    "write": true,
    "gp_sectors": 16,
    "smart_sectors": 16
    },
    {
    "address": 137,
    "name": "Host vendor specific log",
    "read": true,
    "write": true,
    "gp_sectors": 16,
    "smart_sectors": 16
    },
    {
    "address": 138,
    "name": "Host vendor specific log",
    "read": true,
    "write": true,
    "gp_sectors": 16,
    "smart_sectors": 16
    },
    {
    "address": 139,
    "name": "Host vendor specific log",
    "read": true,
    "write": true,
    "gp_sectors": 16,
    "smart_sectors": 16
    },
    {
    "address": 140,
    "name": "Host vendor specific log",
    "read": true,
    "write": true,
    "gp_sectors": 16,
    "smart_sectors": 16
    },
    {
    "address": 141,
    "name": "Host vendor specific log",
    "read": true,
    "write": true,
    "gp_sectors": 16,
    "smart_sectors": 16
    },
    {
    "address": 142,
    "name": "Host vendor specific log",
    "read": true,
    "write": true,
    "gp_sectors": 16,
    "smart_sectors": 16
    },
    {
    "address": 143,
    "name": "Host vendor specific log",
    "read": true,
    "write": true,
    "gp_sectors": 16,
    "smart_sectors": 16
    },
    {
    "address": 144,
    "name": "Host vendor specific log",
    "read": true,
    "write": true,
    "gp_sectors": 16,
    "smart_sectors": 16
    },
    {
    "address": 145,
    "name": "Host vendor specific log",
    "read": true,
    "write": true,
    "gp_sectors": 16,
    "smart_sectors": 16
    },
    {
    "address": 146,
    "name": "Host vendor specific log",
    "read": true,
    "write": true,
    "gp_sectors": 16,
    "smart_sectors": 16
    },
    {
    "address": 147,
    "name": "Host vendor specific log",
    "read": true,
    "write": true,
    "gp_sectors": 16,
    "smart_sectors": 16
    },
    {
    "address": 148,
    "name": "Host vendor specific log",
    "read": true,
    "write": true,
    "gp_sectors": 16,
    "smart_sectors": 16
    },
    {
    "address": 149,
    "name": "Host vendor specific log",
    "read": true,
    "write": true,
    "gp_sectors": 16,
    "smart_sectors": 16
    },
    {
    "address": 150,
    "name": "Host vendor specific log",
    "read": true,
    "write": true,
    "gp_sectors": 16,
    "smart_sectors": 16
    },
    {
    "address": 151,
    "name": "Host vendor specific log",
    "read": true,
    "write": true,
    "gp_sectors": 16,
    "smart_sectors": 16
    },
    {
    "address": 152,
    "name": "Host vendor specific log",
    "read": true,
    "write": true,
    "gp_sectors": 16,
    "smart_sectors": 16
    },
    {
    "address": 153,
    "name": "Host vendor specific log",
    "read": true,
    "write": true,
    "gp_sectors": 16,
    "smart_sectors": 16
    },
    {
    "address": 154,
    "name": "Host vendor specific log",
    "read": true,
    "write": true,
    "gp_sectors": 16,
    "smart_sectors": 16
    },
    {
    "address": 155,
    "name": "Host vendor specific log",
    "read": true,
    "write": true,
    "gp_sectors": 16,
    "smart_sectors": 16
    },
    {
    "address": 156,
    "name": "Host vendor specific log",
    "read": true,
    "write": true,
    "gp_sectors": 16,
    "smart_sectors": 16
    },
    {
    "address": 157,
    "name": "Host vendor specific log",
    "read": true,
    "write": true,
    "gp_sectors": 16,
    "smart_sectors": 16
    },
    {
    "address": 158,
    "name": "Host vendor specific log",
    "read": true,
    "write": true,
    "gp_sectors": 16,
    "smart_sectors": 16
    },
    {
    "address": 159,
    "name": "Host vendor specific log",
    "read": true,
    "write": true,
    "gp_sectors": 16,
    "smart_sectors": 16
    },
    {
    "address": 160,
    "name": "Device vendor specific log",
    "gp_sectors": 16,
    "smart_sectors": 16
    },
    {
    "address": 161,
    "name": "Device vendor specific log",
    "gp_sectors": 16,
    "smart_sectors": 16
    },
    {
    "address": 162,
    "name": "Device vendor specific log",
    "gp_sectors": 16,
    "smart_sectors": 16
    },
    {
    "address": 163,
    "name": "Device vendor specific log",
    "gp_sectors": 16,
    "smart_sectors": 16
    },
    {
    "address": 164,
    "name": "Device vendor specific log",
    "gp_sectors": 16,
    "smart_sectors": 16
    },
    {
    "address": 165,
    "name": "Device vendor specific log",
    "gp_sectors": 16,
    "smart_sectors": 16
    },
    {
    "address": 166,
    "name": "Device vendor specific log",
    "gp_sectors": 16,
    "smart_sectors": 16
    },
    {
    "address": 167,
    "name": "Device vendor specific log",
    "gp_sectors": 16,
    "smart_sectors": 16
    },
    {
    "address": 168,
    "name": "Device vendor specific log",
    "gp_sectors": 1,
    "smart_sectors": 1
    },
    {
    "address": 169,
    "name": "Device vendor specific log",
    "gp_sectors": 1,
    "smart_sectors": 1
    },
    {
    "address": 170,
    "name": "Device vendor specific log",
    "gp_sectors": 1,
    "smart_sectors": 1
    },
    {
    "address": 171,
    "name": "Device vendor specific log",
    "gp_sectors": 1,
    "smart_sectors": 1
    },
    {
    "address": 172,
    "name": "Device vendor specific log",
    "gp_sectors": 1,
    "smart_sectors": 1
    },
    {
    "address": 173,
    "name": "Device vendor specific log",
    "gp_sectors": 1,
    "smart_sectors": 1
    },
    {
    "address": 174,
    "name": "Device vendor specific log",
    "gp_sectors": 1,
    "smart_sectors": 1
    },
    {
    "address": 175,
    "name": "Device vendor specific log",
    "gp_sectors": 1,
    "smart_sectors": 1
    },
    {
    "address": 176,
    "name": "Device vendor specific log",
    "gp_sectors": 1,
    "smart_sectors": 1
    },
    {
    "address": 177,
    "name": "Device vendor specific log",
    "gp_sectors": 1,
    "smart_sectors": 1
    },
    {
    "address": 178,
    "name": "Device vendor specific log",
    "gp_sectors": 1,
    "smart_sectors": 1
    },
    {
    "address": 179,
    "name": "Device vendor specific log",
    "gp_sectors": 1,
    "smart_sectors": 1
    },
    {
    "address": 180,
    "name": "Device vendor specific log",
    "gp_sectors": 1,
    "smart_sectors": 1
    },
    {
    "address": 181,
    "name": "Device vendor specific log",
    "gp_sectors": 1,
    "smart_sectors": 1
    },
    {
    "address": 182,
    "name": "Device vendor specific log",
    "gp_sectors": 1,
    "smart_sectors": 1
    },
    {
    "address": 183,
    "name": "Device vendor specific log",
    "gp_sectors": 76,
    "smart_sectors": 76
    },
    {
    "address": 185,
    "name": "Device vendor specific log",
    "gp_sectors": 4,
    "smart_sectors": 4
    },
    {
    "address": 189,
    "name": "Device vendor specific log",
    "gp_sectors": 1,
    "smart_sectors": 1
    },
    {
    "address": 192,
    "name": "Device vendor specific log",
    "gp_sectors": 1,
    "smart_sectors": 1
    },
    {
    "address": 193,
    "name": "Device vendor specific log",
    "gp_sectors": 93
    },
    {
    "address": 207,
    "name": "Device vendor specific log",
    "gp_sectors": 65535
    },
    {
    "address": 224,
    "name": "SCT Command/Status",
    "read": true,
    "write": true,
    "gp_sectors": 1,
    "smart_sectors": 1
    },
    {
    "address": 225,
    "name": "SCT Data Transfer",
    "read": true,
    "write": true,
    "gp_sectors": 1,
    "smart_sectors": 1
    }
    ]
    },
    "ata_smart_error_log": {
    "extended": {
    "revision": 1,
    "sectors": 6,
    "count": 0
    }
    },
    "ata_smart_self_test_log": {
    "extended": {
    "revision": 1,
    "sectors": 1,
    "table": [
    {
    "type": {
    "value": 2,
    "string": "Extended offline"
    },
    "status": {
    "value": 0,
    "string": "Completed without error",
    "passed": true
    },
    "lifetime_hours": 4
    },
    {
    "type": {
    "value": 1,
    "string": "Short offline"
    },
    "status": {
    "value": 0,
    "string": "Completed without error",
    "passed": true
    },
    "lifetime_hours": 3
    },
    {
    "type": {
    "value": 2,
    "string": "Extended offline"
    },
    "status": {
    "value": 35,
    "string": "Interrupted (host reset)",
    "remaining_percent": 30
    },
    "lifetime_hours": 2
    }
    ],
    "count": 3,
    "error_count_total": 0,
    "error_count_outdated": 0
    }
    },
    "ata_smart_selective_self_test_log": {
    "revision": 1,
    "table": [
    {
    "lba_min": 0,
    "lba_max": 0,
    "status": {
    "value": 0,
    "string": "Not_testing"
    }
    },
    {
    "lba_min": 0,
    "lba_max": 0,
    "status": {
    "value": 0,
    "string": "Not_testing"
    }
    },
    {
    "lba_min": 0,
    "lba_max": 0,
    "status": {
    "value": 0,
    "string": "Not_testing"
    }
    },
    {
    "lba_min": 0,
    "lba_max": 0,
    "status": {
    "value": 0,
    "string": "Not_testing"
    }
    },
    {
    "lba_min": 0,
    "lba_max": 0,
    "status": {
    "value": 0,
    "string": "Not_testing"
    }
    }
    ],
    "flags": {
    "value": 0,
    "remainder_scan_enabled": false
    },
    "power_up_scan_resume_minutes": 0
    },
    "ata_sct_status": {
    "format_version": 3,
    "sct_version": 258,
    "device_state": {
    "value": 0,
    "string": "Active"
    },
    "temperature": {
    "current": 42,
    "power_cycle_min": 21,
    "power_cycle_max": 44,
    "lifetime_min": 18,
    "lifetime_max": 44,
    "op_limit_max": 22,
    "under_limit_count": 0,
    "over_limit_count": 0
    },
    "vendor_specific": [
    1,
    0,
    0,
    0,
    0,
    0,
    0,
    0,
    0,
    0,
    0,
    0,
    0,
    0,
    0,
    0,
    0,
    0,
    0,
    0,
    0,
    0,
    0,
    0,
    0,
    0,
    0,
    0,
    0,
    0,
    0,
    0
    ]
    },
    "ata_sct_temperature_history": {
    "version": 2,
    "sampling_period_minutes": 1,
    "logging_interval_minutes": 1,
    "temperature": {
    "op_limit_min": 0,
    "op_limit_max": 60,
    "limit_min": -41,
    "limit_max": 85
    },
    "size": 128,
    "index": 54,
    "table": [
    35,
    null,
    35,
    34,
    34,
    33,
    33,
    33,
    33,
    33,
    33,
    32,
    32,
    32,
    32,
    32,
    32,
    32,
    32,
    32,
    32,
    31,
    31,
    31,
    31,
    31,
    31,
    31,
    31,
    31,
    32,
    32,
    32,
    32,
    32,
    31,
    31,
    32,
    33,
    33,
    34,
    35,
    35,
    36,
    36,
    37,
    37,
    37,
    38,
    38,
    38,
    39,
    39,
    39,
    39,
    39,
    40,
    40,
    40,
    40,
    40,
    41,
    41,
    41,
    41,
    41,
    41,
    41,
    41,
    41,
    41,
    41,
    42,
    42,
    42,
    42,
    42,
    42,
    42,
    42,
    42,
    42,
    42,
    42,
    42,
    43,
    43,
    43,
    43,
    43,
    43,
    43,
    43,
    43,
    43,
    43,
    43,
    43,
    43,
    43,
    43,
    43,
    43,
    43,
    43,
    43,
    43,
    43,
    43,
    44,
    43,
    43,
    43,
    43,
    43,
    43,
    43,
    43,
    43,
    43,
    43,
    43,
    43,
    43,
    43,
    43,
    42,
    42
    ]
    },
    "sata_phy_event_counters": {
    "table": [
    {
    "id": 1,
    "name": "Command failed due to ICRC error",
    "size": 2,
    "value": 0,
    "overflow": false
    },
    {
    "id": 2,
    "name": "R_ERR response for data FIS",
    "size": 2,
    "value": 0,
    "overflow": false
    },
    {
    "id": 3,
    "name": "R_ERR response for device-to-host data FIS",
    "size": 2,
    "value": 0,
    "overflow": false
    },
    {
    "id": 4,
    "name": "R_ERR response for host-to-device data FIS",
    "size": 2,
    "value": 0,
    "overflow": false
    },
    {
    "id": 5,
    "name": "R_ERR response for non-data FIS",
    "size": 2,
    "value": 0,
    "overflow": false
    },
    {
    "id": 6,
    "name": "R_ERR response for device-to-host non-data FIS",
    "size": 2,
    "value": 0,
    "overflow": false
    },
    {
    "id": 7,
    "name": "R_ERR response for host-to-device non-data FIS",
    "size": 2,
    "value": 0,
    "overflow": false
    },
    {
    "id": 8,
    "name": "Device-to-host non-data FIS retries",
    "size": 2,
    "value": 0,
    "overflow": false
    },
    {
    "id": 9,
    "name": "Transition from drive PhyRdy to drive PhyNRdy",
    "size": 2,
    "value": 1,
    "overflow": false
    },
    {
    "id": 10,
    "name": "Device-to-host register FISes sent due to a COMRESET",
    "size": 2,
    "value": 2,
    "overflow": false
    },
    {
    "id": 11,
    "name": "CRC errors within host-to-device FIS",
    "size": 2,
    "value": 0,
    "overflow": false
    },
    {
    "id": 13,
    "name": "Non-CRC errors within host-to-device FIS",
    "size": 2,
    "value": 0,
    "overflow": false
    },
    {
    "id": 15,
    "name": "R_ERR response for host-to-device data FIS, CRC",
    "size": 2,
    "value": 0,
    "overflow": false
    },
    {
    "id": 18,
    "name": "R_ERR response for host-to-device non-data FIS, CRC",
    "size": 2,
    "value": 0,
    "overflow": false
    },
    {
    "id": 32768,
    "name": "Vendor specific",
    "size": 4,
    "value": 13189,
    "overflow": false
    }
    ],
    "reset": false
    }
    }


    --
    "The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by
    those who don't have it." --George Bernard Shaw

    --- PyGate Linux v1.0
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From VanguardLH@3:633/10 to All on Mon Oct 13 18:27:18 2025
    "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:

    VanguardLH wrote:

    If you see pending allocations in SMART that don't reduce to zero after
    a reboot then the spare sectors have been used up.

    Huh, no.

    Reallocation happens when writing to a bad sector. If you only read to
    it, the bad sector remains active.

    I don't know of any HDD diagnostics that test the platter surfaces
    without doing writes. Even "chkdsk /r" does writes to ensure the
    sectors are readable (which requires locking the volume to ensure access
    which means it runs on a restart of Windows). There is recovery within
    the drive's firmware, and recovery within the OS, which compound each
    other for a rather large number of recovery retries before marking the
    sector as bad which gets reallocated when the drive is quiescent.
    "chkdsk /r" requires a reboot to ensure the drive is quiescent, and if
    bad sectors are discovered then does another reboot to do the remap. If
    chkdsk found no errors, there is no 2nd reboot.

    If pending reallocation is not zero, and you run chkdsk /r but the
    pending count doesn't zero after the reboot, there are no more spare
    sectors for remapping.

    Ever find out from the drive makers how many total reallocation sectors
    they reserve on their drives? Or probe a drive to find out how many of
    them are currently available for later remapping?


    --- PyGate Linux v1.0
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Carlos E.R.@3:633/10 to All on Tue Oct 14 02:01:42 2025
    On 2025-10-14 00:42, Stan Brown wrote:
    On Mon, 13 Oct 2025 12:14:03 -0700, Stan Brown wrote:

    I'm currently running the extended test, which includes a surface
    scan. ETA is 2 hours 8 minutes. I'll post the full attributes and
    full results of the extended test when it finishes.

    The first extended scan failed at 70% because the computer kicked
    into its normal time for hibernation after idle time. I don't
    understand why, since other running programs have prevented
    hibernation in the past.

    Because it is not a running program!

    The test runs inside the hard disk, using the HD CPU and RAM only. It
    runs inside the HD firmware. The computer does nothing, and you can
    continue using it (and the disk) normally. Although using the disk makes
    the test take significantly longer.

    Anyway, I disabled hibernate based on idle
    time and ran a short self test. It found no errors. I then re-ran the extended self test, and it too found no errors.

    Although the GUI has separate panes for General, Attributes, Self-
    Test, and so on, selecting Show Output or Save As in any of them puts
    all classes of data into the output. I was able to get the output in
    text form before running the Self-Test. After the Self-Test finished,
    I could only get JSON form. I'm appending both/

    Thank goodness for the GUI. It had no trouble displaying information,
    but no matter what I tried on the command line I got an error that
    boiled down to not accepting the pass-through and suggesting the
    -device=TYPE option. None of the USB options on the man page worked
    for me.

    Before Self-Test (text)

    smartctl 7.5 2025-04-30 r5714 [x86_64-w64-mingw32-w10-22H2] (AppVeyor)
    Copyright (C) 2002-25, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org >>
    === START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===

    SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
    Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
    ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAGS VALUE WORST THRESH FAIL RAW_VALUE
    1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate POSR-K 100 253 051 - 0
    3 Spin_Up_Time POS--K 185 185 021 - 3725
    4 Start_Stop_Count -O--CK 100 100 000 - 10
    5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct PO--CK 200 200 140 - 0
    7 Seek_Error_Rate -OSR-K 100 253 000 - 0
    9 Power_On_Hours -O--CK 100 100 000 - 2

    ................................................................****

    The disk is new.

    10 Spin_Retry_Count -O--CK 100 253 000 - 0
    11 Calibration_Retry_Count -O--CK 100 253 000 - 0
    12 Power_Cycle_Count -O--CK 100 100 000 - 8
    192 Power-Off_Retract_Count -O--CK 200 200 000 - 1
    193 Load_Cycle_Count -O--CK 200 200 000 - 19
    194 Temperature_Celsius -O---K 113 104 000 - 34
    196 Reallocated_Event_Count -O--CK 200 200 000 - 0
    197 Current_Pending_Sector -O--CK 200 200 000 - 0
    198 Offline_Uncorrectable ----CK 100 253 000 - 0
    199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count -O--CK 200 200 000 - 0
    200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate ---R-- 100 253 000 - 0
    After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
    If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay. >>
    SCT Status Version: 3
    SCT Version (vendor specific): 258 (0x0102)
    Device State: Active (0)
    Current Temperature: 35 Celsius

    ...

    --
    Cheers, Carlos.
    ES??, EU??;

    --- PyGate Linux v1.0
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Paul@3:633/10 to All on Mon Oct 13 20:46:42 2025
    On Mon, 10/13/2025 2:23 PM, knuttle wrote:
    On 10/13/2025 1:31 PM, Paul wrote:
    What kind of idiot company, would ship a SATA III drive in a USB2 housing ? ?
    All of them.˙ It is called an external drive, most now are SSD, but have USB, USB2 on older drives, and USb3 on most new drives.

    But they would use a USB3 adapter. Like the WD Elements that Stan
    bought would use a USB3 adapter chip. As that allows full usage
    of the drive, to the extent of its performance. If the hard disk drive
    did 300MB/sec, the enclosure could do 300MB/sec.

    https://www.westerndigital.com/en-ca/products/external-drives/wd-elements-desktop-usb-3-0-hdd?sku=WDBWLG0040HBK-NESN

    USB 3.0 Interface
    4TB - 26TB Capacity
    2-Year Limited Warranty
    (3.5" enclosure)

    Paul

    --- PyGate Linux v1.0
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)
  • From Paul@3:633/10 to All on Mon Oct 13 20:59:30 2025
    On Mon, 10/13/2025 6:42 PM, Stan Brown wrote:
    On Mon, 13 Oct 2025 12:14:03 -0700, Stan Brown wrote:

    I'm currently running the extended test, which includes a surface
    scan. ETA is 2 hours 8 minutes. I'll post the full attributes and
    full results of the extended test when it finishes.

    The first extended scan failed at 70% because the computer kicked
    into its normal time for hibernation after idle time. I don't
    understand why, since other running programs have prevented
    hibernation in the past. Anyway, I disabled hibernate based on idle
    time and ran a short self test. It found no errors. I then re-ran the extended self test, and it too found no errors.

    Although the GUI has separate panes for General, Attributes, Self-
    Test, and so on, selecting Show Output or Save As in any of them puts
    all classes of data into the output. I was able to get the output in
    text form before running the Self-Test. After the Self-Test finished,
    I could only get JSON form. I'm appending both/

    Thank goodness for the GUI. It had no trouble displaying information,
    but no matter what I tried on the command line I got an error that
    boiled down to not accepting the pass-through and suggesting the
    -device=TYPE option. None of the USB options on the man page worked
    for me.

    Before Self-Test (text)

    smartctl 7.5 2025-04-30 r5714 [x86_64-w64-mingw32-w10-22H2] (AppVeyor)
    Copyright (C) 2002-25, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org >>
    === START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
    Device Model: WDC WD20JDRW-11C7VS1
    Serial Number: WD-WX82A458FU14
    LU WWN Device Id: 5 0014ee 26c32b04b
    Firmware Version: 01.01A01
    User Capacity: 2,000,365,379,584 bytes [2.00 TB]
    Sector Sizes: 512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
    Rotation Rate: 4800 rpm
    Form Factor: 2.5 inches
    TRIM Command: Available, deterministic
    Device is: Not in smartctl database
    ATA Version is: ACS-3 T13/2161-D revision 5
    SATA Version is: SATA 3.1, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)
    Local Time is: Mon Oct 13 13:11:23 2025 PDT
    SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
    SMART support is: Enabled
    AAM feature is: Unavailable
    APM level is: 128 (minimum power consumption without standby)
    Rd look-ahead is: Enabled
    Write cache is: Enabled
    DSN feature is: Unavailable
    ATA Security is: Disabled, NOT FROZEN [SEC1]

    === START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
    SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

    General SMART Values:
    Offline data collection status: (0x00) Offline data collection activity
    was never started.
    Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled. >> Self-test execution status: ( 35) The self-test routine was interrupted
    by the host with a hard or soft reset. >> Total time to complete Offline
    data collection: ( 60) seconds.
    Offline data collection
    capabilities: (0x51) SMART execute Offline immediate.
    No Auto Offline data collection support.
    Suspend Offline collection upon new
    command.
    No Offline surface scan supported.
    Self-test supported.
    No Conveyance Self-test supported.
    Selective Self-test supported.
    SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
    power-saving mode.
    Supports SMART auto save timer.
    Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported.
    General Purpose Logging supported.
    Short self-test routine
    recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes.
    Extended self-test routine
    recommended polling time: ( 88) minutes.
    SCT capabilities: (0x70b5) SCT Status supported.
    SCT Feature Control supported.
    SCT Data Table supported.

    [The GUI on-screen output of the next sectction showed an
    additional column, Type. Numbers 1, 3, 5 showed "pre-failure";
    the rest showed "old age".]

    SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
    Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
    ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAGS VALUE WORST THRESH FAIL RAW_VALUE
    1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate POSR-K 100 253 051 - 0
    3 Spin_Up_Time POS--K 185 185 021 - 3725
    4 Start_Stop_Count -O--CK 100 100 000 - 10
    5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct PO--CK 200 200 140 - 0
    7 Seek_Error_Rate -OSR-K 100 253 000 - 0
    9 Power_On_Hours -O--CK 100 100 000 - 2
    10 Spin_Retry_Count -O--CK 100 253 000 - 0
    11 Calibration_Retry_Count -O--CK 100 253 000 - 0
    12 Power_Cycle_Count -O--CK 100 100 000 - 8
    192 Power-Off_Retract_Count -O--CK 200 200 000 - 1
    193 Load_Cycle_Count -O--CK 200 200 000 - 19
    194 Temperature_Celsius -O---K 113 104 000 - 34
    196 Reallocated_Event_Count -O--CK 200 200 000 - 0
    197 Current_Pending_Sector -O--CK 200 200 000 - 0
    198 Offline_Uncorrectable ----CK 100 253 000 - 0
    199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count -O--CK 200 200 000 - 0
    200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate ---R-- 100 253 000 - 0
    ||||||_ K auto-keep
    |||||__ C event count
    ||||___ R error rate
    |||____ S speed/performance
    ||_____ O updated online
    |______ P prefailure warning

    General Purpose Log Directory Version 1
    SMART Log Directory Version 1 [multi-sector log support]
    Address Access R/W Size Description
    0x00 GPL,SL R/O 1 Log Directory
    0x01 SL R/O 1 Summary SMART error log
    0x02 SL R/O 5 Comprehensive SMART error log
    0x03 GPL R/O 6 Ext. Comprehensive SMART error log
    0x06 SL R/O 1 SMART self-test log
    0x07 GPL R/O 1 Extended self-test log
    0x09 SL R/W 1 Selective self-test log
    0x10 GPL R/O 1 NCQ Command Error log
    0x11 GPL R/O 1 SATA Phy Event Counters log
    0x24 GPL R/O 291 Current Device Internal Status Data log
    0x30 GPL,SL R/O 9 IDENTIFY DEVICE data log
    0x80-0x9f GPL,SL R/W 16 Host vendor specific log
    0xa0-0xa7 GPL,SL VS 16 Device vendor specific log
    0xa8-0xb6 GPL,SL VS 1 Device vendor specific log
    0xb7 GPL,SL VS 76 Device vendor specific log
    0xb9 GPL,SL VS 4 Device vendor specific log
    0xbd GPL,SL VS 1 Device vendor specific log
    0xc0 GPL,SL VS 1 Device vendor specific log
    0xc1 GPL VS 93 Device vendor specific log
    0xcf GPL VS 65535 Device vendor specific log
    0xe0 GPL,SL R/W 1 SCT Command/Status
    0xe1 GPL,SL R/W 1 SCT Data Transfer

    SMART Extended Comprehensive Error Log Version: 1 (6 sectors)
    No Errors Logged

    SMART Extended Self-test Log Version: 1 (1 sectors)
    Num Test_Description Status Remaining LifeTime(hours) LBA_of_first_error
    # 1 Extended offline Interrupted (host reset) 30% 2 -

    SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
    SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
    1 0 0 Not_testing
    2 0 0 Not_testing
    3 0 0 Not_testing
    4 0 0 Not_testing
    5 0 0 Not_testing
    Selective self-test flags (0x0):
    After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
    If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay. >>
    SCT Status Version: 3
    SCT Version (vendor specific): 258 (0x0102)
    Device State: Active (0)
    Current Temperature: 35 Celsius
    Power Cycle Min/Max Temperature: 21/43 Celsius
    Lifetime Min/Max Temperature: 18/43 Celsius
    Specified Max Operating Temperature: 22 Celsius
    Under/Over Temperature Limit Count: 0/0
    Vendor specific:
    01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
    00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

    SCT Temperature History Version: 2
    Temperature Sampling Period: 1 minute
    Temperature Logging Interval: 1 minute
    Min/Max recommended Temperature: 0/60 Celsius
    Min/Max Temperature Limit: -41/85 Celsius
    Temperature History Size (Index): 128 (57)

    Index Estimated Time Temperature Celsius
    58 2025-10-13 11:04 27 ********
    59 2025-10-13 11:05 27 ********
    60 2025-10-13 11:06 28 *********
    61 2025-10-13 11:07 28 *********
    62 2025-10-13 11:08 ? -
    63 2025-10-13 11:09 28 *********
    ... ..( 8 skipped). .. *********
    72 2025-10-13 11:18 28 *********
    73 2025-10-13 11:19 29 **********
    74 2025-10-13 11:20 28 *********
    75 2025-10-13 11:21 ? -
    76 2025-10-13 11:22 18 -
    77 2025-10-13 11:23 19 -
    78 2025-10-13 11:24 19 -
    79 2025-10-13 11:25 20 *
    80 2025-10-13 11:26 21 **
    81 2025-10-13 11:27 21 **
    82 2025-10-13 11:28 22 ***
    83 2025-10-13 11:29 22 ***
    84 2025-10-13 11:30 22 ***
    85 2025-10-13 11:31 23 ****
    86 2025-10-13 11:32 23 ****
    87 2025-10-13 11:33 23 ****
    88 2025-10-13 11:34 24 *****
    89 2025-10-13 11:35 ? -
    90 2025-10-13 11:36 21 **
    91 2025-10-13 11:37 21 **
    92 2025-10-13 11:38 22 ***
    93 2025-10-13 11:39 22 ***
    94 2025-10-13 11:40 23 ****
    95 2025-10-13 11:41 24 *****
    96 2025-10-13 11:42 26 *******
    97 2025-10-13 11:43 27 ********
    98 2025-10-13 11:44 28 *********
    99 2025-10-13 11:45 29 **********
    100 2025-10-13 11:46 29 **********
    101 2025-10-13 11:47 30 ***********
    102 2025-10-13 11:48 31 ************
    103 2025-10-13 11:49 32 *************
    104 2025-10-13 11:50 32 *************
    105 2025-10-13 11:51 33 **************
    106 2025-10-13 11:52 33 **************
    107 2025-10-13 11:53 35 ****************
    108 2025-10-13 11:54 34 ***************
    109 2025-10-13 11:55 35 ****************
    110 2025-10-13 11:56 36 *****************
    ... ..( 2 skipped). .. *****************
    113 2025-10-13 11:59 36 *****************
    114 2025-10-13 12:00 37 ******************
    115 2025-10-13 12:01 37 ******************
    116 2025-10-13 12:02 37 ******************
    117 2025-10-13 12:03 38 *******************
    ... ..( 3 skipped). .. *******************
    121 2025-10-13 12:07 38 *******************
    122 2025-10-13 12:08 39 ********************
    ... ..( 4 skipped). .. ********************
    127 2025-10-13 12:13 39 ********************
    0 2025-10-13 12:14 40 *********************
    ... ..( 5 skipped). .. *********************
    6 2025-10-13 12:20 40 *********************
    7 2025-10-13 12:21 41 **********************
    ... ..( 10 skipped). .. **********************
    18 2025-10-13 12:32 41 **********************
    19 2025-10-13 12:33 42 ***********************
    ... ..( 20 skipped). .. ***********************
    40 2025-10-13 12:54 42 ***********************
    41 2025-10-13 12:55 43 ************************
    ... ..( 4 skipped). .. ************************
    46 2025-10-13 13:00 43 ************************
    47 2025-10-13 13:01 42 ***********************
    48 2025-10-13 13:02 41 **********************
    49 2025-10-13 13:03 40 *********************
    50 2025-10-13 13:04 39 ********************
    51 2025-10-13 13:05 38 *******************
    52 2025-10-13 13:06 37 ******************
    53 2025-10-13 13:07 36 *****************
    54 2025-10-13 13:08 35 ****************
    55 2025-10-13 13:09 35 ****************
    56 2025-10-13 13:10 ? -
    57 2025-10-13 13:11 35 ****************

    SCT Error Recovery Control command not supported

    Device Statistics (GP/SMART Log 0x04) not supported


    Western Digital 2TB WD20JDRW-11C7VS1 USB 3.0 Portable External HDD Hard Drive [The USB connector is right on the drive mechanism controller board)

    " 9 Power_On_Hours -O--CK 100 100 000 - 4", 4 hours total, 2 hours in the log shown

    If it is a used drive, the power on hours are pretty low.

    Paul

    --- PyGate Linux v1.0
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)