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This is the SMART information about a possibly damaged hard disk of mine:

smartctl 6.6 2016-05-31 r4324 [x86_64-linux-4.18.0-15-generic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-16, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Toshiba 2.5" HDD MK..76GSX
Device Model:     TOSHIBA MK3276GSX
Serial Number:    9296Y9FOF
LU WWN Device Id: 5 000039 44d00306b
Firmware Version: GS001C
User Capacity:    320,072,933,376 bytes [320 GB]
Sector Size:      512 bytes logical/physical
Rotation Rate:    5400 rpm
Form Factor:      2.5 inches
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   ATA8-ACS (minor revision not indicated)
SATA Version is:  SATA 2.6, 3.0 Gb/s (current: 3.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is:    Fri May 17 11:29:47 2019 UTC
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:      ( 121) The previous self-test completed having
                    the read element of the test failed.
Total time to complete Offline 
data collection:        (  120) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities:            (0x51) SMART execute Offline immediate.
                    No Auto Offline data collection support.
                    Suspend Offline collection upon new
                    command.
                    No Offline surface scan supported.
                    Self-test supported.
                    No 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:    (   2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time:    (  81) minutes.
SCT capabilities:          (0x003f) SCT Status supported.
                    SCT Error Recovery Control supported.
                    SCT Feature Control supported.
                    SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x002f   100   100   050    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  2 Throughput_Performance  0x0027   100   100   050    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0023   100   100   002    Pre-fail  Always       -       1223
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       5405
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   100   100   010    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x002f   100   100   050    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  8 Seek_Time_Performance   0x0025   100   100   050    Pre-fail  Offline      -       0
  9 Power_On_Minutes        0x0032   089   089   000    Old_age   Always       -       75h+35m
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0033   208   100   030    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       5380
183 Runtime_Bad_Block       0x0032   100   100   001    Old_age   Always       -       0
184 End-to-End_Error        0x0033   100   100   097    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
185 Unknown_Attribute       0x0032   100   100   001    Old_age   Always       -       65535
187 Reported_Uncorrect      0x0032   001   001   000    Old_age   Always       -       599
188 Command_Timeout         0x0032   100   099   000    Old_age   Always       -       8
189 High_Fly_Writes         0x003a   100   100   001    Old_age   Always       -       0
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022   070   047   040    Old_age   Always       -       30 (Min/Max 29/30)
191 G-Sense_Error_Rate      0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       557
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0022   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       10092698
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   088   088   000    Old_age   Always       -       127749
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       1
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0

SMART Error Log Version: 1
ATA Error Count: 1515 (device log contains only the most recent five errors)
    CR = Command Register [HEX]
    FR = Features Register [HEX]
    SC = Sector Count Register [HEX]
    SN = Sector Number Register [HEX]
    CL = Cylinder Low Register [HEX]
    CH = Cylinder High Register [HEX]
    DH = Device/Head Register [HEX]
    DC = Device Command Register [HEX]
    ER = Error register [HEX]
    ST = Status register [HEX]
Powered_Up_Time is measured from power on, and printed as
DDd+hh:mm:SS.sss where DD=days, hh=hours, mm=minutes,
SS=sec, and sss=millisec. It "wraps" after 49.710 days.

Error 1515 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 4512 hours (188 days + 0 hours)
  When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

  After command completion occurred, registers were:
  ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
  -- -- -- -- -- -- --
  40 41 3a ed c8 de 6b  Error: UNC at LBA = 0x0bdec8ed = 199149805

  Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
  CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC   Powered_Up_Time  Command/Feature_Name
  -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --  ----------------  --------------------
  60 08 38 e8 c8 de 40 08      03:59:07.091  READ FPDMA QUEUED
  ef 10 02 00 00 00 a0 00      03:59:07.090  SET FEATURES [Enable SATA feature]
  ec 00 00 00 00 00 a0 00      03:59:07.090  IDENTIFY DEVICE
  ef 03 45 00 00 00 a0 00      03:59:07.090  SET FEATURES [Set transfer mode]
  ef 10 02 00 00 00 a0 00      03:59:07.090  SET FEATURES [Enable SATA feature]

Error 1514 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 4512 hours (188 days + 0 hours)
  When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

  After command completion occurred, registers were:
  ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
  -- -- -- -- -- -- --
  40 41 c2 ed c8 de 6b  Error: UNC at LBA = 0x0bdec8ed = 199149805

  Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
  CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC   Powered_Up_Time  Command/Feature_Name
  -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --  ----------------  --------------------
  60 08 c0 e8 c8 de 40 08      03:59:03.044  READ FPDMA QUEUED
  61 28 b8 c0 c8 de 40 08      03:59:03.044  WRITE FPDMA QUEUED
  ef 10 02 00 00 00 a0 00      03:59:03.043  SET FEATURES [Enable SATA feature]
  ec 00 00 00 00 00 a0 00      03:59:03.043  IDENTIFY DEVICE
  ef 03 45 00 00 00 a0 00      03:59:03.043  SET FEATURES [Set transfer mode]

Error 1513 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 4512 hours (188 days + 0 hours)
  When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

  After command completion occurred, registers were:
  ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
  -- -- -- -- -- -- --
  40 41 4a ed c8 de 6b  Error: UNC at LBA = 0x0bdec8ed = 199149805

  Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
  CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC   Powered_Up_Time  Command/Feature_Name
  -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --  ----------------  --------------------
  60 08 48 e8 c8 de 40 08      03:58:59.012  READ FPDMA QUEUED
  ef 10 02 00 00 00 a0 00      03:58:59.012  SET FEATURES [Enable SATA feature]
  ec 00 00 00 00 00 a0 00      03:58:59.011  IDENTIFY DEVICE
  ef 03 45 00 00 00 a0 00      03:58:59.011  SET FEATURES [Set transfer mode]
  ef 10 02 00 00 00 a0 00      03:58:59.010  SET FEATURES [Enable SATA feature]

Error 1512 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 4512 hours (188 days + 0 hours)
  When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

  After command completion occurred, registers were:
  ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
  -- -- -- -- -- -- --
  40 41 ba ed c8 de 6b  Error: UNC at LBA = 0x0bdec8ed = 199149805

  Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
  CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC   Powered_Up_Time  Command/Feature_Name
  -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --  ----------------  --------------------
  60 08 b8 e8 c8 de 40 08      03:58:54.985  READ FPDMA QUEUED
  ef 10 02 00 00 00 a0 00      03:58:54.984  SET FEATURES [Enable SATA feature]
  ec 00 00 00 00 00 a0 00      03:58:54.983  IDENTIFY DEVICE
  ef 03 45 00 00 00 a0 00      03:58:54.983  SET FEATURES [Set transfer mode]
  ef 10 02 00 00 00 a0 00      03:58:54.983  SET FEATURES [Enable SATA feature]

Error 1511 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 4512 hours (188 days + 0 hours)
  When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

  After command completion occurred, registers were:
  ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
  -- -- -- -- -- -- --
  40 41 0a ed c8 de 6b  Error: UNC at LBA = 0x0bdec8ed = 199149805

  Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
  CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC   Powered_Up_Time  Command/Feature_Name
  -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --  ----------------  --------------------
  60 08 08 e8 c8 de 40 08      03:58:50.953  READ FPDMA QUEUED
  60 80 f8 28 c9 de 40 08      03:58:50.953  READ FPDMA QUEUED
  ef 10 02 00 00 00 a0 00      03:58:50.952  SET FEATURES [Enable SATA feature]
  ec 00 00 00 00 00 a0 00      03:58:50.952  IDENTIFY DEVICE
  ef 03 45 00 00 00 a0 00      03:58:50.951  SET FEATURES [Set transfer mode]

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Extended offline    Completed: read failure       90%      4508         199149805
# 2  Short offline       Completed: read failure       90%      4508         199149805
# 3  Short offline       Completed: read failure       90%      4507         199149805
# 4  Extended offline    Completed: read failure       90%      4507         199149805
# 5  Short offline       Completed: read failure       90%      4507         199149805
# 6  Extended offline    Completed: read failure       90%      4507         199149805
# 7  Short offline       Completed without error       00%         2         -

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.

Current_Pending_Sector's value is 1 and Error: UNC at LBA = 0x0bdec8ed = 199149805 is signaled 8 times. I also ran badblocks using Ubuntu 18.04, which gave 8/0/0 errors. Sectors from 199149800 to 199149807 are considered damaged .

I've read some controversial opinions about these parameters. In this answer, it is suggested for example that Current_Pending_Sector of a healthy disk simply shouldn't increase. Someone else instead suggests that any non-zero value is a strong suggestion to change the disk.

  • How severe is the condition of this hard disk?
  • Is there any other less-ambiguous test that I can run?
Improve this question
3
  • Are you worried about the disk failing? Are you worried that there are (potentially) bad sectors?
    – Scottie H
    May 20, 2019 at 18:58
  • @ScottieH Obviously yes to both.
    – BowPark
    May 20, 2019 at 19:02
  • You want to change your life? Kick out this slow 5400rpm disk and replace it with a SSD.
    – darxmurf
    May 21, 2019 at 5:25

2 Answers 2

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2

8 bad sectors are a hard disk is not an issue(*).
Overtime, the number of bad sectors is expected to grow slowly.
While writing to the disk, the controller will notice the write error and write that data to another sector on disk. The disk check program would still show this as a bad block, but nothing is written there. Thus, you don't actually care.

(*) Where the issue arises, would be if the block fails after it is written. This would show up as a read error in your application. Then, the fun starts. Can you retrieve it from a backup or re-create it? If so, it will be written to another block. If not ...

If you are having no performance issues with the drive (i.e. throwing read/write errors), don't worry about it. A few times a year, check the number of bad sectors.
If you ARE having performance issues with read/write errors (Note, this is not developers/users whining about how slow the system is). You will notice the number of bad blocks has increased significantly. This is an indication that the disk is failing.

Once upon a time, I had a number, as a percentage of total blocks, that were acceptable to be bad (5% maybe?). When the number started to grow (up to 8% maybe?) it was time to start thinking about replacing the drive when you could get the money & the outage time.
Today, the reliability of drives has gone up. Some hardware manufactures even say there are NO BAD SECTORS on their drives. (ROTFL).
Perhaps someone else has a good number for how many bad sectors to worry about.

IMHO, disk is not failing. Nothing to worry about.
$0.02

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First thing first is backup, backup and backup! in every situation, important datas must have a scheduled backup system on a different disk (not partition on the same disk)

Then first of all back to the basis, if the machine power supply would be 100% sable without any electric variation, the hard drive always switched on and the temperature/air/humidity condition optimal this would avoid 99% of disk fails indeed those condition are not often met (this is to let you optimize those conditions).

As you are using a mechanic disk the life expectancy depend a lot on the data fragmentation state on the disk and how often the disk is used because those two fact makes the disk head move a lot or not that much and thus consume the disk life time, i advice you to check the data fragmentation and eventually fix it on a scheduled basis if required...

Most of the time mechanic disks start to make unusual noise when they are about to fail, so listen carefully to the noise of your disk.

Avoid power cut as much as possible they are very bad for mechanic disks.

Back to your question, are bad sectors a concern or not? based on my recovery experience i would say that this depend on each disk model, some will stay rock solid with 1000 bad sectors and other will just die soon after some bad sectors, even if the overall technology is the same, each manufacturer is applying it differently even from a model to an other. what is sure for all disks is that you have to watch that value closely because it tend to grow.

Most of modern system file NTFS/EXT4 and disk firmwares have a good management system for bad sectors, when the disk have just few bad sectors you should not be worried, but bear in mind that this need to be watched because it could lead to data corruption.

Some manufacturer have proprietary tools that could check the disk deeper i found ToshibaStorageDiagnosticTool for your case but this does not seem to provide more information compared to what you already have; At the end of the day those kind of tools can just alarm us about some situation, i advice to be in alarm mode all the time (backup etc.) knowing that a lot of disk don't warn before going down.

Lastly there are some technology that permit to recover bad sectors, this can be helpful if your disk is the kind of disk that stay solid when it have bad sectors. HDD Regenerator is very good at this. (i think they are the inventer of that technology)

Conclusion: bad sector or not, SSD or HDD, watch your disks and make regular backups on a different device.

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