I have a drive that continually shows 1 sector pending relocation.  I got it (WDEARS 2TB) 6-9 months ago.  3-6 months ago I noticed that it had a sector pending relocation.  I moved data off of it and tried to preclear it again.   Did 3 cycles originally and it passed.  ~3 months after install noticed the pending sector so as I said tried to preclear it again.  But even after 3 new preclear cycles it still showed 1 pending.  Put drive aside for a few months.  Now with drive prices sky rocketing found it in my drive pile and ran another preclear on it when I saw the pending relocation on 1 sector.  After running a single cycle it still showed 1 pending which reminded me about this drive.  Note the preclears were done on multiple systems and controllers and cables.

 

So now to my stupid question.

 

Any reason why it would always show up as pending realocation and not either clear it or relocate it?

 

I don't think it is anything to worry about but didn't want to take a chance on it before.  Now with the high drive prices am considering it.  Doubt WD would agree with me that 1 pending is reason enough to RMA it so haven't even requested one yet.

I believe that WD would actually honor a warranty replacement on this drive.  A perpetually pending sector is an indication of a hardware fault.  While it is true that you probably could risk it and be OK, since you have the luxury of this being a spare drive I would recommend seeking a warranty replacement.

I wonder if the firmware is indicating a bad sector in the reserved parts of the disk which you would never write to.

 

I would be inclined just to use it since it keeps passing the preclear tests. Maybe do some write tests to ensure the data is ok, like using the crc check with Terracopy.

 

Peter

 

Thanks for the advise!

 

I think I'm going to try an RMA tonight while they still have stock to RMA with!

 

I forsee a wait (maybe NOW) while they get drives refurbished for replacements since the supply of new drives is so much smaller now. 

 

In the past I've gotten new drives rather than a refurbished one.  The last drive I sent them got me a 3TB refurbish drive so was refurbished but half again bigger.  When I RMA'd a 300GB Raptor I got a NEW - next model number drive as a replacement.  The EADS I RMA'd at the same time as the last EARS (the 3TB replacement) got me a new EADS model of the same size.