I know this has been asked enough times but I just wanted to confirm. The current school of thought concerning pending sectors says that as long as they aren't increasing or at least not at an alarming rate, the drive should be ok to be used but with caution correct?

 

I have a 3TB drive that a was complaining about one pending sector then that turned to two, since doing one pre clear, the drive returned to normal, no pending sectors, then they came back. Doing a second pre clear, same thing, started off with the two pending sectors, now on the post read they have returned to normal, but I think they may come back. Should I use the drive in the array and just keep an eye on it, its past warranty so if I don't use it its a paper weight.

16 minutes ago, ashman70 said:

The current school of thought concerning pending sectors says that as long as they aren't increasing or at least not at an alarming rate, the drive should be ok to be used but with caution correct?

 

No, that for reallocated sectors, 1 pending sector is 1 too many.

Right, I was mistaken. Can a pending sector become reallocated or does it have to start of as reallocated?

Usually, when cleared it becomes a reallocated sector.

A sector becomes pending when the drive is unable to read data from the sector. At that point data was irretrievable, or lost. As a pending sector, a write can be attempted, if successful, the sector is not reallocated. If the write is not successful, the sector is reallocated.

 

Bad reads result in pending.

Bad writes result in reallocated.