The joyful "Reallocated Sector Count" Failing alert... Fix?

Question

So this is NOT an old laptop, and my Windows OS crashed after upgrading it to Windows 10 last year. So I recently tried Ubuntu as I heard good things about it. This is what happens:

After installing, I get error message after error message saying "Sorry, Ubuntu 16.04 has experience an internal error.", and so I decided to try to restart it and go to "Try Ubuntu (Without installing)". When I did this, I went to Search - 'disc' - Selected the HDD - SMART Data & Self-Test. It appears the Reallocated Sector Count is at 133 normalized, with the worst being 133, and the threshold being 140. It is the only mark that is in the failing state, everything else is OK. So because of this, the Overall Assessment: Disk is likely to fail soon.

Now I do have an above-average computer knowledge, but no where near the smarts of developers. I do however have more of a technology design type knowledge. From my reading, it is something that happened INSIDE the HDD, maybe a moving part got damaged. Regardless of what it may be, does anybody know of a fix to this error?

I am aware that a lot of people say the disc is done for, and I understand that. However I am looking for a 'potential' fix that maybe hasn't been done, aka soldering a new wire or cable, linking two parts together, etc. Otherwise, I would be willing to try a whole computer based approach, aka right now I am just doing an "Extended" Self-Test on the HDD.

Any replies would be appreciated guys!

Thanks in advance.

Solution

A bad sector is a small part of your disk's storage (e.g. 512 bytes or 4 kB) that caused an error while trying to read or write it. It is most likely a tiny defect on the surface of the magnetic platters, which can be caused by high wear or minimal and inevitable inaccuracies in the manufacturing process.

The firmware of modern disks will automatically try to remap sectors it identified as bad when it is instructed to write anything there the next time, which means one of the additional spare sectors the disk has will be used instead of it from now on. After a successful reallocation, the OS will not notice any changes and be able to continue the drive as usual. This requires that enough unallocated spare sectors are left though.

However, although each disk has some bad sectors from the very beginning since its production, if their number increases significantly, this is a critical sign that the disk will most likely fail soon. It's not a guarantee - disks with many bad blocks can possibly survive years, but disks can also fail without showing any bad sectors before - but a strong indicator that you should back up your data and replace the disk as soon as possible.

If you like living on the edge, keep using it (make frequent backups though). Maybe it will last for another while. You should closely observe the bad sector count of the disk though. In case it stays pretty constant from now on, you might be lucky, but if it keeps increasing or if it makes significant jumps, it's really time to replace it.

Oh, and don't even think of opening the disk up and trying to fix any hardware in there by hand. First, it's not an issue of any electro-mechanical parts but most likely a surface defect which can not be repaired. The tracks on a modern HDD have a width in the range of nanometers. Also, the distance between the actuator head and the spinning platters is only generated by the air pressure caused by the rotation and is smaller than the diameter of a grain of dust. If you just open the casing and let any particles in, chances are high they will cause a head crash and destroy even more surface areas. So in short, don't open it except for wiping its data before throwing it away.

Comments

[ravery]

there is no fix. the drives are unserviceable.

[Sonnatta Reel-Name]

Is that an educated opinion? Or a researched opinion based on others with the same issue?

[ravery]

bad sectors means the discs are losing magnetic response. there used to be utility programs to try and recondition the discs but I haven't seen them in 20 years. individual drive parts are unavailable, or if they are they will cost more than buying a new drive. And if you could get parts, installing requires a degree of precision alignment that is unattainable at home

[Sonnatta Reel-Name]

well jeeze... you clearly know your stuff! My bad for asking if it was an educated opinion :$ Yeah I figured as much, I figured I would post on here to see if there was any routes I could exhaust before purchasing a new drive altogether

[ravery]

yes SMART technology has eliminated the need for manual disk maintenance, and reduced data loss since it can detect failing sectors before data is lost. However, it also hides disk degradation until failure is eminent.