Current pending sector count 242

Current pending sectors indicate sectors that the drive had an issue reading from. They will only get cleared if the drive tries to write to the same sector again. If it succeeds, it clears the error. If it fails, it marks the sector as unusable and remaps it (your reallocated sector count would then increase accordingly).

This error is fairly serious and can indicate a failing drive, especially if the count continues to increase. If it was me, I would probably contact WD and see if I could get an RMA on the drive. I would also ensure you have backups or are prepared in case it fails.

I would also RMA the drive.

You could also try pulling the drive and running Lifeguard on a PC. Power down the NAS (leaving it down until the drive is returned to the original slot) to avoid a resync.

Is this current pending sector count worse then reallocated sector count ?

Could the drive just flag these sectors as being bad and avoid them for future use and the count stay at 242?

The software crystal disk info seem to be the only software that is expression concern about the error while the other software does diagnostic does not seem to care about it so far)

If this is the case, would the drive be fine as long as the count stays the same and does not grow or does this indicate a larger problem with a drive that will fail?

Thanks.

The current pending sector count is not worse than reallocated sector count. Basically it is the same thing - except that current pending sectors is for disk reads, and reallocated sectors is for disk writes. In both cases, I/O to that sector fails.

On a read failure, the drive doesn't bother reallocating, since it doesn't know what data to write into the reallocated sector anyway. Later on, if the NAS tries to write to the same sector, if that fails [which is almost certainly will) it will be reallocated.

You could a long generic test with WDC Lifeguard - it may not be reaching the problem area in the short test. The NAS test is only the Smart self-test built into the drive firmware btw.

But if I had a drive with 242 current pending sectors, I would certainly take it out of service. Yes, it could theoretically remain stable at 242, but in my experience it is far more likely to quickly get worse.

StephenB wrote:

The current pending sector count is not worse than reallocated sector count. Basically it is the same thing - except that current pending sectors is for disk reads, and reallocated sectors is for disk writes. In both cases, I/O to that sector fails. On a read failure, the drive doesn't bother reallocating, since it doesn't know what data to write into the reallocated sector anyway. Later on, if the NAS tries to write to the same sector, if that fails [which is almost certainly will) it will be reallocated. You could a long generic test with WDC Lifeguard - it may not be reaching the problem area in the short test. The NAS test is only the Smart self-test built into the drive firmware btw. But if I had a drive with 242 current pending sectors, I would certainly take it out of service. Yes, it could theoretically remain stable at 242, but in my experience it is far more likely to quickly get worse.

You are right, I ran the WDC lifeguard long genertic test as you suggested and it FAILED due to "too many errors. " even though it passed the seagate long generic test and the short test with lifeguard.

I think I will attempt to get the drive replaced. Thank you for the great advice!!!