So I had a disk with 40 pending sectors, I replaced it with a new one.  I just precleared the bad one and the pending sectors are gone and Im currently doing a 2nd preclear.  If it comes back clear how safe do you think it is to use?

Not enough data to determine risk.

Timing of the pending sectors? Any corresponding events like power or cable disturbance?

 

In general a drive that passes a couple preclear cycles with no outstanding issues should be good to go, but it's still possible the drive is dying.

 

All drives fail eventually, the trick is figuring out when before it actually happens. My crystal ball is broken.

FWIW- If a drive pops 'a' pending sector error, I toss it. My risk tolerance is pretty low, tho.

As I remember, the preclear plugin and Docker both give you a report at the end of the run of any changes to certain important SMART attributes.  IF you provide us with that report, we can tell what happened with those sectors.

 

EDIT: You may want to delete the serial number of the drive in question.  But leave the model number.

Edited May 9, 20206 yr by Frank1940

7 hours ago, Frank1940 said:

EDIT: You may want to delete the serial number of the drive in question.

Doesn't give away any information / is of use to anyone.  (ie: no different than the VIN number of your car being exposed to anyone who looks)