2 Drives with SMART Errors, now pre-cleared 3 rounds

[NotYetRated]

So I had two drives with "Current Pending Sector" and "Offline Uncorrectable" SMART errors. I pulled them from my array, replacing with spares.

 

I have since run pre-clear on the two "failing" drives, and both passed now 3 rounds.

 

Are the disks safe? They are both 3TB drives, one is out of warranty one is in. Thoughts on what I should do? I would prefer not pitch them if they are indeed good, though I would also not want to put my array at known risk if they are indeed at risk. I am not 100% familiar with the SMART errors. Looking for peoples thoughts. Google researching gives me some varying answers from "Do not use them under any circumstances" to "thats fine it appears to be a false positive".

[trurl]

Post the preclear reports

[NotYetRated]

Post the preclear reports

 

Attached is the one. Round 2-3 is actually still running, confused it with another pre-clear im running.

 

The second diisk is also about to wrap up its post-read.

 

 

Is multiple clears recommended? I figured I had time, so why not. Not sure if it is exactly value-add.

 

preclear_rpt_Y46UX6MGS_2015-09-03.txt

[trurl]

Probably a good idea to do more than one preclear to make sure the numbers are holding.

[NotYetRated]

Probably a good idea to do more than one preclear to make sure the numbers are holding.

 

Thanks much for all the various help. Will check the results when this next round finishes. I assume I will be, well obviously watching for the rounds to pass, but also for any rising numbers from report to report, correct?

 

48 sectors were pending re-allocation before the start of the preclear.

136 sectors were pending re-allocation after pre-read in cycle 1 of 1.

0 sectors were pending re-allocation after zero of disk in cycle 1 of 1.

16 sectors are pending re-allocation at the end of the preclear,

    a change of -32 in the number of sectors pending re-allocation.

4 sectors had been re-allocated before the start of the preclear.

4 sectors are re-allocated at the end of the preclear,

[trurl]

You MUST have zero pending at the end of preclear

[RobJ]

You MUST have zero pending at the end of preclear

 

And I think many of us are leaning toward always recommending at least one more Preclear, where the drive is already clean (zero pending sectors) and then remains so during the entire additional Preclears.  It starts and stays zero at all points of the Preclear process.  Why is this important?  If the pending sector count (probably bad sectors) has been bouncing around, it's hard to be sure it's done bouncing.  So if it appears clean, zero, and we add it to the system, but there's still a little 'bounce' left, then new pending sectors will appear in operation, not during another Preclear, and that's obviously unacceptable.  Better to make sure it's clean and giving off every evidence that it is likely to stay that way.  'Bounce' is perhaps not the best term, but what we are trying to be rid of is any remaining sectors of marginal quality.

 

The word 'stable' is not known as an acceptable technical term here, but seems to define the state we want, that a drive is completely clean and usable, AND with every evidence that it will continue to be so.  We want to see 'stable' SMART numbers.