W520: New system's disks have "reallocated_event_count" [ Edited ]

[dsmarty]

We just received some brand new W520 laptops, when we were checking the smart data of the disk we noticed that the new disks already have a "reallocated_event_count"  >0.

Ususally this is a pre-fail state for the disk. Time will ofcourse tell if this count increasing, since we only received the laptops 2 days ago we simply don't know yet.

I checked 3 systems this far, all have counters > 0 (currently in the range 4 - 93).

Does anyone know if these disks are in fact faulty, or that there is maybe something wrong with the smart implementation of the disks?

Description of this smart parameter can be found at: http://kb.acronis.com/content/9132

SmartCTL output:

================================================================

smartctl 5.40 2010-07-12 r3124 [x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-10 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Seagate Momentus 7200.4 series
Device Model:     ST9500420AS
Serial Number:   
Firmware Version: 0003LVM1
User Capacity:    500,107,862,016 bytes
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   8
ATA Standard is:  ATA-8-ACS revision 4
Local Time is:    Wed Jul 13 14:55:56 2011 CEST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x82)    Offline data collection activity
                    was completed without error.
                    Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status:      (   0)    The previous self-test routine completed
                    without error or no self-test has ever
                    been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection:          (   0) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities:              (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
                    Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
                    Suspend Offline collection upon new
                    command.
                    Offline surface scan supported.
                    Self-test supported.
                    Conveyance Self-test supported.
                    Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003)    Saves SMART data before entering
                    power-saving mode.
                    Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability:        (0x01)    Error logging supported.
                    General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time:      (   1) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time:      ( 111) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time:      (   2) minutes.
SCT capabilities:            (0x103b)    SCT Status supported.
                    SCT Error Recovery Control supported.
                    SCT Feature Control supported.
                    SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x000f   118   100   034    Pre-fail  Always       -       193113306
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0003   100   098   000    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   020    Old_age   Always       -       63
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   100   100   036    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x000f   060   060   030    Pre-fail  Always       -       1107164
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       81758997446685
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0013   100   100   097    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   020    Old_age   Always       -       53
184 End-to-End_Error        0x0032   100   100   099    Old_age   Always       -       0
187 Reported_Uncorrect      0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
188 Command_Timeout         0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
189 High_Fly_Writes         0x003a   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022   061   055   045    Old_age   Always       -       39 (Lifetime Min/Max 36/45)
191 G-Sense_Error_Rate      0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       2
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       20
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       404
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   039   045   000    Old_age   Always       -       39 (0 22 0 0)
195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered  0x001a   055   045   000    Old_age   Always       -       193113306
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x000f   100   100   030    Pre-fail  Always       -       23 (55, 0)
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0012   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0010   100   100   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x003e   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
254 Free_Fall_Sensor        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Vendor offline      Completed without error       00%         0         -

SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
 SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
    1        0        0  Not_testing
    2        0        0  Not_testing
    3        0        0  Not_testing
    4        0        0  Not_testing
    5        0        0  Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
  After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

================================================================

Moderator Note: Serial number removed to prevent misuse.

[ColonelONeill]

I'd run a sector-by-sector physical error scan of some sort on it.

Sometimes drives are worse than others. *cough*seagate*cough*

[Navck]

Seagate has never been particularly strong in the mobile sector. Your only real options (Read: Drives that aren't over optimized for benchmark performance to compensate for horribad real life performance) come from HGST and WD in the form of the 7k500 (And/Or 7k750 if you want 4k sectors with 512 emulation) and Scoprio Blacks if you want 7.2k drives.

[BenG83]

My W520 came with a 500GB HGST drive which has zero Reallocation or Pending events. I would download the Seagate test tool and burn it to a bootable CD, then perform a media test. If no bad blocks turn up, the spare sector transitions were succesful and you should watch if the count is increasing. Outside of warranty, I would then continue to use the drive and increase backup frequency...

[dsmarty]

Thanks for your replies guys. I decided to ro let ppl run smart diagnostics every day for the next week to check if this counter is increasing. If it does I'll call Lenovo to have them replace all the disks of our W520's with proper ones. I must say I am quite displeased that Lenovo ship's their premium business laptop with faulty disks. Personally I just replaced the disk with an Intel 510 SSD series disk. The combination of this SSD and the hardware AES support of the Sandy Bridge is really impressive, I can write over 172MB/sec on a fully AES256 encrypted disk. Now I'll start working at the other major issue: Graphics, NVidia Optimus and the external interfaces is still a serious problem, and Bumblebee is not very mature yet. (Shame that NVidia supports non-windows users so poorly)

[migcc]

Hi

      The same is happening to my new Lenovo W520. I have several BSODs and sudden shutdown.
      The only issue that I have found is the C4 SMART counter with a warning.
      I have been checking its value during last days and I see that it is continuously increasing.
     
       My W520 is quite new (bought 14th June in a US Ebay shop).
       Maybe it is a bad series of HD. I include the Serial number and the Firmware version
      
-----------------------------------------------
Lenovo W520   
Seagate 500 GB
ST9500420AS   
Firmware    00003LVM1   
Serial Number    5VJCD7RR

Date    C4 reallocated event count
11-Jul    206
12-Jul    213
13-Jul    218
14-Jul    222
15-Jul    232