The device, \Device\Harddisk1\DR1, has a bad block

rivre · 27 Feb 2018

I was copying a large file from my main system disc (which I just successfully extracted from a .rar file moments earlier) to a USB thumb drive today using Fastcopy, and it popped up a CRC read error during the copy phase, before it was even half-way through. I tried twice more and both times the same thing happened at 11% complete. I checked the event viewer and it logged:

The device, \Device\Harddisk1\DR1, has a bad block.

I'm assuming it means my main HDD which I was copying from, and not the USB thumb drive I was copying to? Event viewer doesn't actually specify what drive DR1 is.

I ran the short test in WD data lifeguard diagnostics and it said "pass". I noticed in the S.M.A.R.T. it lists:

- reallocated sector count - 1
- reallocated sector event count - 0

Hard Disk Sentinel says the status is perfect, and after the short test, reports:

- reallocated sectors count - 0
- reallocation event count - 0

Not sure what to think about that. CrystalDiskInfo also reports 0 reallocated sectors.

As far as the file, I'm not worried because it was just a temp copy, but I thought the drive automatically re-allocates bad sectors during copying? If so, then why did the file extracted from the rar end up on a bad sector? Shouldn't the drive have spotted the bad sector during extraction and re-allocated it?

Should I run chkdsk /r to check for bad sectors? I hate to do that on my 1TB partition because it will take hours. Should I run the full test with WD data lifeguard diagnostics instead of chkdsk?

Now I'm wondering if I should continue to trust this drive? It's only 2 years old.

dalchina · 27 Feb 2018

Hi, in assessing whether the drive is likely to fail or not, the first smart parameter shown is one of the key ones considered a prime indicator. (Nothing absolute here). Nor is a count of 1 likely to suggest the drive is yet failing. Hence HDD Sentinel's report.
The 5 SMART stats that actually predict hard drive failure | Computerworld
What SMART Hard Disk Errors Actually Tell Us

The second is defined thus:

Reallocation Event Count

Count of remap operations. The raw value of this attribute shows the total number of attempts to transfer data from reallocated sectors to a spare area. Both successful & unsuccessful attempts are counted.

I suppose this means no attempt yet has been made to correct the problem (HDDs are made with extra spare sectors to allow for both manufacturing and service defects, so swapping 1 is just part of normal life).

Hard disks are essentially statistical items- it's far from as simple as being clear 1's and 0's.

Running chkdsk would be appropriate- there's no necessary reason to think it would take an unreasonable amount of time- obviously if your disk is unpartitioned and fairly full, then a good while.

There's always a risk the file will be corrupted. Do you have a backup?

lx07 · 27 Feb 2018

I think you are correct on all counts.

Writing to a drive should definitely skip bad sectors (it doesn't reallocate them - just doesn't use them, at least in theory).

You should definitely run chkdsk (however long it takes) and also (irrespective of the result) stop trusting the drive. The fact it is 2 years old means nothing - some fail after a month while some last for decades. It is a normal distribution thing.

rivre · 27 Feb 2018

I should have a full backup, but I don't. My last backup is very old and outdated. I'm not concerned about that file that gave me trouble copying, since I already deleted it (I still have the .rar archive). I just hope chkdsk doesn't affect any other files on my drive.

I'm confused why WD data lifeguard diagnostics said 1 reallocated sector but hard disk sentinel and crystaldiskinfo say 0.

rivre · 27 Feb 2018

lx07 said:

I think you are correct on all counts.

Writing to a drive should definitely skip bad sectors (it doesn't reallocate them - just doesn't use them, at least in theory).

Yeah, that's why I'm confused - I thought the idea was if it encounters a bad sector as it's copying, it just marks the sector bad and moves onto the next sector during copy. For some reason it seems when I was extracting my file that didn't happen. Which is scary, because if my HDD is indeed going to start losing my trust, I would hope that it marks the files bad as it encounters them, not write to them anyways.

lx07 · 27 Feb 2018

It marks sectors as bad (not files) but yes - that is how it should work certainly.

Once drives start going bad they tend to get worse though although looking on the bright side SSD just fail with no warning so you are at an advantage here (in a way).

If I was you (without a backup) I'd be ordering another drive right now. Stop using this one and when you get the new one clone the existing one onto it.

Don't run lots of tests - it may make it worse. It may of course keep running for another decade but I'd be a bit paranoid personally and (for the sake of a cheap new disk) it isn't worth the stress.

rivre · 27 Feb 2018

Is there any chance the "DR1" disk the event viewer was referring to was the USB thumb drive and not my main HDD? As described above, the copy process in fastcopy failed at 11% - from 0%-50% it copies the file, and from 51%-100% it verifies the copied file. So I'm guessing when it said there was a crc read error, it was referring to the file on the HDD?

lx07 · 27 Feb 2018

rivre said:

Is there any chance the "DR1" disk the event viewer was referring to was the USB thumb drive and not my main HDD?

Perhaps - that is a good thought. Easy (but a bit long winded) to check. Download WinObj

Go to GLOBAL?? and sort by SymLink

$The device, \Device\Harddisk1\DR1, has a bad block-capture.png$

You can then find the PhysicalDrive for the DR number and match it against the deviceid in powershell

Get-PhysicalDisk | select deviceid,friendlyname,serialnumber,size | sort -Property deviceid
(or disk number in diskpart):

$The device, \Device\Harddisk1\DR1, has a bad block-capture2.png$

It isn't necessarily a 1:1 match - for me DR36 is physical drive 3 (a USB)

rivre · 27 Feb 2018

lx07 said:

Perhaps - that is a good thought. Easy (but a bit long winded) to check. Download WinObj

Go to GLOBAL?? and sort by SymLink

$The device, \Device\Harddisk1\DR1, has a bad block-capture.png$

You can then find the PhysicalDrive for the DR number and match it against the deviceid in powershell

Get-PhysicalDisk | select deviceid,friendlyname,serialnumber,size | sort -Property deviceid
(or disk number in diskpart):

$The device, \Device\Harddisk1\DR1, has a bad block-capture2.png$

It isn't necessarily a 1:1 match - for me DR36 is physical drive 3 (a USB)

I can't run diskpart in Powershell - I'm not familiar with Powershell, but diskpart just opens up a command window when I type it in Powershell.

But I might have it matched up using Get-PhysicalDisk:

In Powershell, I have 3 drives listed under deviceid:

deviceid
------------
0
1
2

And in WinObj I have 3 physical drives listed - DR0, DR1 and DR2.

My main HDD is listed for deviceid 1 in Powershell, and my USB thumb drive is deviceid 2. So I'm guessing DR1 in WinOBj = deviceid 1 in Powershell? If so, then that's my main HDD. I was hoping the bad block was just my thumb drive.

rivre · 27 Feb 2018

Can somebody verify what the WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostics tool was trying to tell me? Under S.M.A.R.T. Drive Information, it lists the following:

- Attribute Name
- ID
- Value
- Threshold
- Worst
- Warranty

The "Reallocated Sector Count" (ID 5) has a value of "1" under "Warranty" . What does this mean? I thought it meant 1 reallocated sector but all the other S.M.A.R.T. readings I get from crystaldiskinfo, hard disk sentinel, HDDscan and others say no problems with the drive and no reallocated sectors. HDDscan says:

05: Reallocation Sector Count: 0000000000-0000
197: Current Pending Errors Count: 0000000000-0000
198: Uncorrectable Errors Count: 0000000000-0000

Same for the other tools. I think that "reallocated sector" count of "1" under "Warranty" in the WD tool means something other than error count. I don't know what that code means, but here's their tooltip for the warranty code:

Warranty value 1: this attribute is under warranty should it fall below threshold value 0: this attribute is not under warranty

The reallocated sector count has a value of 1. "Spin Up Time" and "Raw Read Error Rate" also have a value of 1. All other values for "warranty" is 0. Again, their terminology is confusing, but according to all my other S.M.A.R.T. programs, I have no reallocated sectors. I'm not sure what the "bad block" error was, but I don't want to have to go through the immense hassle of re-installing Windows and all my software (and re-configuring it all) if I don't have to. I'll run a full chkdsk /r tomorrow. For now, I know the following:

- I got a persistent crc error when trying to copy a large file today with fastcopy from my HDD to a USB thumb drive
- Event viewer logged it as "The device, \Device\Harddisk1\DR1, has a bad block."
- WD Data LifeGuard gives a cryptic value of "1" under "Warranty" for reallocated sector count. The short test gives a "pass"
- All other S.M.A.R.T. software reports 0 for Reallocation Sector Count, Current Pending Errors Count, and Uncorrectable Errors Count. All tools report no issues with drive.

I'm still wondering if it was just a failed write to the USB thumb drive which triggered the "bad block" read error? I tried it 3 times and it failed all 3 times, but maybe it was the thumb drive which was failing to write properly?