Current_Pending_Sector value on a brand new HDD

[Rashkae]

On 17-02-12 11:55 PM, Ralf Mardorf wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I've got a new SSD and two new HDDs.
>
> The SSD is ok, but I wonder if the two HDDs are ok, too.
>
> The TOSHIBA DT01ACA100 is inside the PC case and at the beginning
> it caused click noise and input/output errors only repeated shutdowns
> made it accessible. The WD3200AAJS is used with a FANTEC DB-ALU2E
> by USB. It automatically goes to sleep. If it goes to sleep as
> e.g. /dev/sdd, it could wake up as /dev/sde and sometimes it could
> completely hide. However, since my last reboot it goes to sleep
> as /dev/sdb and wakes up as /dev/sdb. By buying the HDD and the USB
> case separated, I hoped to get rid of the automatic sleep of external
> green drives. FWIW when I had issues with the new external drive,
> sometimes my old WD external drive was connected, too and there were no
> issues with the old external drive.
>
> It's possible that the mobo and/or the power supply are/is broken, that
> might explain issues with the TOSHIBA DT01ACA100 and that there was a
> Seek_Error_Rate when I run a script with "smrtctl" and "fsck
> -vcckp" [2], some hours ago and that there isn't a Seek_Error_Rate
> any more at the moment [1], but it doesn't explain the
> Current_Pending_Sector [1] of the WD3200AAJS build-in the also
> brand-new FANTEC DB-ALU2E.
>
> At the moment everything is ok, both new HDDs don't cause issues
> anymore, but I doubt a brand new drive inside a brand-new USB case
> should show a Current_Pending_Sector value > 0.
>
> I wonder if I should return one or both HDDs and that FANTEC DB-ALU2E?
>

You could try returning the drive.. I don't know what policies are of 
wherever you bought it from.. However, the Manufacturer probably wont 
consider the drive defective until you run their diagnostic utility on 
it.  That will essentially, low level format the drive, (for all intents 
and purposes, fill it with 0's), which should clear the pending sectors, 
one way or the other. Either the sectors will test ok and the drive 
forget the whole thing ever happened, or they will become 're-allocated' 
sectors.

Personally, if I couldn't get a replacement from the vendor, I would 
just toss the drive.