HD Crystal info says Caution

GerryPeters said:

Then I went back Crystal Info and started it. It immediately had results for my HD's and still had a Caution for this 1TB HD.

If the drive is OK, but Crystal Disk Info, still says Caution... try replacing the SATA data cable.

Hard Disk Sentinel may tell you more - covers SSDs too. Full functional trial, portable version available. Just launch it and look. Gives a commentary in English. Not that any report of communication errors is historic (and may mention cables).

Do need any data from the disk, or are you just seeing if it can be usable?

You might try formatting it, though if all spare sectors are used it's reaching end of life.

does it tell you the unused spare nand blocks ?

if you have copied off everything important you could secure erase/sanitize it.

. At the media level, Sanitize and Security Erase perform the same operation. Only the interface commands are different.

In this technical blog, we will continue to use the term “sanitize,” with the understanding that Sanitize Block Erase and Security Erase perform the same operation.

This is not an overwrite. It is a true erase of the media. Each targeted storage element is raised to an erase voltage (significantly higher than the standard program voltage), then that signal is dropped to ground, leaving no trace of the previous signal. After this, the storage element is now in a state where it is ready to be programmed with new data from the host computer. In fact, once complete, the drive as a unit is now in a performance state that we know as “Fresh-out-of-Box,” or FOB.

the manufacturer probabaly provides software to do it.

otherwise you can use the solidigm software which will they say will perform the function on all brands.

This modern, easy-to-use toolkit provides real-time monitoring of drive health, activity, and other information for all SSDs, regardless of the manufacturer.

It will only do firmware/driver updates for solidigm ssd, but most functions in the toolkit work for all brands.

I used it to sanitize a non solidigm nvme disk

Introducing the Latest Solidigm Synergy™ Software

No hacking allowed... I don't know how previous installations are recorded. Might be on their site against a hardware id...

You could see if this pre-registered giveaway is still viable:
Hard Disk Sentinel Standard Giveaway License Key Free

GerryPeters said:

I tried Hard Disk Sentinel and I see I used it last year, now it won't work unless I register it. Can I uninstall it and start all over with the free trial? Or do a regedit?

You should be able to uninstall it with REVO Uninstaller (free).
After it uninstalls it, it offers to "scan for leftovers".
Do that... and delete whatever it finds.

At least on your computer... that will remove all the left over bits.

I have no idea what they save on their site.

I'm not sure what the unused spare nand blocks are. I don't see it listed in Crystal Info

you might have to scroll down


I just looked at the first post. You have a mechanical disk ? All this time I assumed it was an ssd.

GerryPeters said:

Crystal Info says Reallocate sector count is 200. with a threshold of 140. The Crystal Info screen looks the same as my original post on this thread.

The values that are important to look at are the Raw values, for Reallocated Sectors your screenshot says 'zero'. However, until the drive's internal controller has a chance to test the two sectors listed in the raw value for Current Pending Sectors CrystalDiskInfo will always report Caution.

As I said in post #5 the pending sectors cannot be tested while marked as being in use. If you have no need of any data from this disk, then the simplest way to force a sector test is to format the HDD with a single partition using all the space, then perform a FULL format. Once complete, depending on the test results, CrystalDiskInfo will either show 'Good' with no reallocated or pending sectors. Or it will say Caution and the two pending sectors will now have been replaced from the pool of spare sectors and the Reallocated Sector count will be 2 (or maybe more). Any non-zero Raw value for Reallocated Sectors is a sign of a failing disk.

dalchina said:

No hacking allowed... I don't know how previous installations are recorded. Might be on their site against a hardware id...

You could see if this pre-registered giveaway is still viable:
Hard Disk Sentinel Standard Giveaway License Key Free

On the website it says:

Install this giveaway installer before the giveaway has ended (Jan 24, 2024, GMT+0 08:00)

I received the giveaway OK after it was announced but it did not work because I failed to install it before the Jan 24 deadline.

However, their are still coupon codes for a 40% discount. Coupon codes:
From giveaway site: HDSPH2 for 40% discount for all versions
From main site: HDSP-H1-GA79612 for 40% discount for Pro and Family only

Hard Disk Sentinel Standard (1 computer): 13.20 = (22.00 - 8.80) USD
Hard Disk Sentinel Professional (1 computer): 19.80 = (33.00 - 13.20) USD
Hard Disk Sentinel Family (up to 5 computers): 35.40 = (59.00 - 23.60) USD

Hard Disk Sentinel Version Comparison
Hard Disk Sentinel store