So I have a drive with some pending errors (currently at 4).

 

I posted a month or so ago that this same drive had 2 errors but upon rebuilding the drive the count when down to 0 while Reallocated_Event_Count remained at 0. It was like it now decided that the sectors were fine. 2 weeks ago after checking parity Pending went back to 2. I ran another check and this number is now at 4.

 

Im assuming this means the drive is a little flakey and I should RMA it. Just wanted to make sure that WD didnt have some stupid rule that it must have 'x' reallocated sectors or something.

If you can still RMA it I would remove it from the array and give it a couple of preclear cycles to draw out the errors, if it remains stable you are fine, if it deteriorates them RMA.. A couple of errors will not be enough for an RMA.. Preclearing will stress the disk and will make more errors appear if it really is flakey.

If you can still RMA it I would remove it from the array and give it a couple of preclear cycles to draw out the errors, if it remains stable you are fine, if it deteriorates them RMA.. A couple of errors will not be enough for an RMA.. Preclearing will stress the disk and will make more errors appear if it really is flakey.

 

In fact, this is something I'm wondering, is there any "set minimum" for an RMA? Because one of my drives was (Seems to have fixed itself after I did a round of formatting on it) instantly corrupting data upon writing, however, I'd like to know what the minimum "damage" is for an RMA.

That is dependent on the manufacturer and they will not disclose this... It is also good to remember that a few failing sectors are not an issue, the drive is build to have "spare " sectors for those occasions..

 

Basically you will have a good chance of RMA if the number of bad sectors increases. If you have one and they "dissapear", then that means that it was remapped to a spare sector, if that does not constantly happen the drive is fine..

 

That is dependent on the manufacturer and they will not disclose this... It is also good to remember that a few failing sectors are not an issue, the drive is build to have "spare " sectors for those occasions..

 

Basically you will have a good chance of RMA if the number of bad sectors increases. If you have one and they "dissapear", then that means that it was remapped to a spare sector, if that does not constantly happen the drive is fine..

 

Then how do they know they'll RMA it before they start getting you to send in your drive, if they don't disclose at what point they seem the drive to be broken?

They seem to be very liberal. Run the manufactures disk test.

I've RMA'd to WD with just a couple pending sectors before. 

Thanks for all the comments. The drive is going through a preclear right now so if it 0 pending at the end of the post read Ill put it back in the array and be sure to check monitor it for awhile.

Oh man, you should run the drive's manufacture test first.

If that fails, then just RMA it.

 

If you have sectors that are pending, then get used, then go pending, the sectors are marginal.

 

Next time, if this drive shows pending sectors, run the manufacture's diagnostics first.

Copy any information it reports if it tells you there is a problem.

I would also run a SMART LONG test.