ok,so you guys reckon my 2 hard drives are goosed.is it not strange that both are goosed?
so i buy an ssd
i will need more than 1
so would i be wise getting an ssd and an HDD?
Would i be nuts buying a refurbished HDD same model as one i have?

 

Hello funkman , thanks for the pictures - I have refreshed the pictures a little for better overview. You should replace the hard drive C:/ with an SSD, an SSD is shockproof and has no mechanical components, you are times in the running operation of the hard drive against the computer get and the read head damaged the magnetic disk, nennenet head crash. I recommend one: Crucial MX500 1 TB SSD - 84 EUR.

HDD Errors

HDD C:/
Reallocated Sectors Count
Reallocation Event Count
Current Pending Sector Count
UtraDMA CRC Errors

HDD E:/
Reallocated Sectors Count
Reallocation Event Count

Spoiler: UtraDMA CRC Errors

UtraDMA CRC Errors

Ultra DMA CRC Errors indicate either a cable problem or problems with the controller. No less serious, however, is the defective sector that could not be replaced (Reallocated Event Count and Offline Uncorrectable). Check if Samsung still gives warranty on the HDD and then send it in.
By the way, low-level formatting is usually no longer possible with today's disks, since the corresponding command is no longer implemented. The benefit would be small anyway, because the defective sector has already been sorted out, presumably because of a platter damage, and damage to the surface of the platter cannot be repaired by this.

Statistically, the probability of failure of the entire disk increases fivefold as soon as the number of defective sectors is above zero. Therefore, I would at least not store any important data on it. If you still have a manufacturer's warranty (usually between 2 and 5 years), then there's nothing to be said against an exchange.

Defective sectors occur when the data medium is not in order, for example due to a material defect or contamination. The firmware of the disk automatically sorts out the defective sector so that it is no longer used. However, if contamination is actually to blame, it can also shift or cause the read/write head to touch the data carrier. This then leads to a head crash and usually also to the loss of all data. Therefore, I think it is risky to use a hard disk that has bad sectors.

The Ultra CRC Errors have another cause. Mostly, as already mentioned, it is due to a defective cabling, or a controller problem, such as the USB controller of the external case. But you would have to test this by installing another hard disk and logging its SMART values.
You can reset the SMART data via low-level format, if this still works with this hard disk. The defective sector is replaced by a spare sector if this is possible. In a way, this only hides the sector and does not necessarily fix the problem. So only the symptoms are fought, but not the cause.

www.computerbase.de/forum/threads/smart-c7-ultra-dma-crc-error-count.524359/

Spoiler: Current Pending Sector Count Warning: What You Need To Know

Current Pending Sector Count Warning: What You Need To Know

CrystalDiskInfo showing a caution warning for you drive and highlighting ID C5 Current Pending Sector Count? Here’s what you need to know about this S.M.A.R.T attribute:

What does Current Pending Sector Count mean?

Current Pending Sector Count is a S.M.A.R.T parameter that shows the current count of unstable sectors on your disk that are waiting to be remapped. If these sectors are later read successfully the count will decrease. If the drive attempts to read the data on the impacted sectors again unsuccessfully, these sectors will be reallocated to spare drive space. Once a sector is reallocated the Current Pending Sector Count will decrease, and the Reallocated Sectors Count will increase.

How Important Is A Current Pending Sector Count Warning?
Pretty serious. This is a critical S.M.A.R.T parameter and if the count increases it may indicate that a drive failure is imminent. Pending sectors are the precursor to reallocated sectors which can be a strong indicator of a dead hard drive on the horizon. You can learn more on the post I did about the reallocated sector count warning.

While a few pending sectors may not be anything to worry about if they stay at roughly the same number, or are transferred to reallocated sectors and do not drastically increase. Pending sectors turn to reallocated sectors, which re-map the data to spare sectors on the disk. As long as this number is fairly low and does not increase drastically, your hard drive may continue to function as normal.

Should I Replace My Hard Drive If It Has Pending Sectors?
Really depends on how much you value your data and how well you can handle downtime in the event of a disk failure. Personally I consider a drive with pending or reallocated sectors as a drive no longer fit for production and my uses. If I see pending or reallocated sectors climbing, I immediately purchase a new hard drive and move this drive to non-critical functions or use it for testing in other machines I own.

If you’re using this drive for a non-critical purpose and have a backup of all data on the drive (or the data isn’t very important) you can continue to use the drive until it dies. If your primary boot drive or media storage drive has pending sectors I would strongly suggest backing up any important data on the disk and replacing it as soon as possible.

Backup Your Data
This is good advice to take at all times, but if your drive is indicating an increase in pending sectors I would suggest immediately backing up any important data on the drive to another hard drive or cloud backup provider. While the drive may continue to function fine, I tend to be a bit cautious and suggest you immediately back everything up in the event that it does randomly fail.

Hard drive failures occur suddenly and the S.M.A.R.T data is there as a warning system of potential failures. Take this sign from the drive as a good time to backup data and consider your options for replacing it.

Can You Fix/Lower Your Pending Sectors Count?
It is possible that the drive misread the sector and the count may lower on it’s own after a future attempt and successful read of the sector. One of the only ways to force a drive into re-reading these pending sectors is by zero’ing the drive, meaning: wiping the drive completely and writing every sectors with zeros. You can do this in most operating systems by performing a ‘Secure Erase’ of the drive.

Please note that zero’ing the drive will destroy all data on the drive and essentially give you a fresh, blank hard drive. So do not zero your drive unless you have additional copies of your data backed up and are fine reinstalling everything onto the drive again.

After you’ve zeroed the drive you should be able to re-check the errors and see whether or not the sectors are still pending. If the pending sector count has dropped, be sure to check the reallocated sector count and ensure it has not also increased. If you reallocated sector count increases then I’d strongly suggest replacing the drive.

RMA’ing A Drive With Pending Sectors
If your drive is still under warranty from the manufacturer, or if you’re using a pre-built system from a major manufacturer that is still under warranty, you may consider RMA’ing the drive (initiating a warranty return process). You can check your current status for your hard drive through the manufacturer’s site, I’ve included a few links to popular hard drive makers’ warranty check pages below. If your vendor isn’t listed you’ll just need to do a quick Google search for <hard drive maker> + “warranty status”.

To check the warranty status of a drive you’ll need the serial number which can be found inside of CrystalDiskInfo or printed on the top of the hard drive.

Check Your Warranty Status:

• Seagate Warranty Check
• Western Digital (WD) Warranty Check
• HGST Warranty Check
• Toshiba Warranty Check

If you warranty your drive please know that you will not get the same drive or your data back. You must make a backup before you ship your drive as the manufacturer will send you a refurbished (or sometimes new – but it’s unlikely) drive from their RMA stock. This will be a completely empty drive, they will not copy over any of your data nor will they return your original drive to you if you forget to save a copy of your data. So back it up before you send it!

How To Check Your Current Pending Sectors Count
Windows

You can use the free CrystalDiskInfo software on Windows to check your current pending sector count. It can be downloaded from the CrystalMark website.

CrystalDiskInfo ID C5 Current Pending Sector Count 100
Many people tend to misread CrystalDiskInfo data on first glance. The column you want to pay attention to is the “Raw Value” column to get the actual count of pending sectors. If this is is in hexadecimal characters you can switch it to decimal by clicking on Function -> Advanced Features -> Raw Values and setting it to ’10 DEC’.

Mac

To check specific S.M.A.R.T data like the current pending sector count on a Mac you will need a third party piece of software like DriveDx ($19.99, Free Trial Available). It is a paid piece of software but the free trial time should be enough to quickly check your current pending sectors.

https://harddrivegeek.com/current-pending-sector-count/

 

thanks for your reply.
What about the E disk? would i not need to replace it also?

 

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/930...cOscs6f1PPPi84ejIHxoC-8sQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

would this one be ok?
i will need a cradle for installing to pc i take it
is there specific cable i will need as well?

 

Hello @funkman, the hard disk E:/ can still work for months or years. The important thing is not to put an operating system on it.
So if files on E./ are defective, the data is gone, so if you have songs or movies, it may be that a movie does not work properly or a song is defective, but on the whole you can still use it.

However, defective sectors are replaced by new ones and at some point the replacement is over, so this replacement does not go on forever, it is limited. Your CrystalDiscInfo then shows you higher values. So you can save your data in time.
You should now burn important files from E:/ to a disk. The best way is to pack them with WinRar.

 

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/930...cOscs6f1PPPi84ejIHxoC-8sQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

would this one be ok?
i will need a cradle for installing to pc i take it
is there specific cable i will need as well?

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/40381501...i3ptJFThkPicyGfy5WgrKVW9Pf2MSBghoCNXMQAvD_BwE

will this cradle be ok?

 

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/8188625

if i bought the samsung ssd from argos,would this bit of kit be what i need as adapter?

 

You can also connect the old cable, which means you remove the HDD and disconnect only the two cables and install the SSD
and reconnect the two old cables. Better, of course, to buy a new cable, because you can exclude damaged cable error.

SATA CABLE A 50CM
- SATA to SATA, SATA III with 6 Gbit/s,
- Connect your PC mainboard to the internal hard drive
- SATA CABLE 50CM - SATA to SATA, SATA III with 6 Gbit/s,
www.amazon.de/deleyCON-SATA-Kabel-S-ATA-Datenkabel-Bunt/dp/B01F24PLL6/ref=sr_1_11?c=ts&keywords=SATA-Kabel&qid=1661767738&s=computers&sr=1-11&ts_id=430090031

 

Yes it's O.K!

 

what about this?

 

You can also take, but the USB cable you do not need, only a metal / plastic slot to screw
and 4 screws for the SSD. Does your PC case not happen to have SSD pre-cuts for an SSD?

 

pc was custom built in 2010

 

9 pages for reading out SMART values from a HDD Get the diagnosis tool from the HDD supplier, let it run and in 5 minutes you have the result (bad sector etc). So you could replace the defective HDD within 2-3 days if you would had ordered a new one. Instead of this you spending weeks in useless posts here without any solution at all. And at the end it turns out the PC ist 12 years old. Man, why you didn't tell this in your first post here ???
Throw away this piece of crap and get a new PC. Every penny you spend in a 12 year old PC is lost money.

 

Last edited: Aug 29, 2022

the piece of crap cost me £1700 inc. monitors
i just cant justify buying new one,when i didnt do much on this one

 

Important: An SSD needs AHCI, here is an article Activate AHCI later:

Activating AHCI under Windows 10 retroactively

If the AHCI mode is not active, it makes sense to enable it in order to achieve maximum performance under Windows and Linux. In principle, this is possible via the BIOS of the PC, but some adjustments are necessary under Windows in advance. Caution: Changes to the registry are risky and should only be carried out by users who know their way around!

Press the keys [Windows] + [R] and enter "regedit" to call the registry editor. Confirm the security message with "Yes".

Navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Services/iaStorV key.
Click the "Start" item, enter the value "0" here and confirm with "OK".

In addition, open the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Services/iaStorV/StartOverride and double-click the entry "0" here. Now enter the value "0".

Then open the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Services/storahci and double-click the "Start" item here as well. Enter the value "0".

Last but not least you have to give the value "0" to the element "0" under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Services/storahci/StartOverride. If the value does not exist, it does not matter for now.

Then restart the computer and call the BIOS. Here you will find the "SATA Settings" under "Storage" or "SATA Configuration" or a similar entry. Look for an entry about AHCI. If it says "Legacy" or "AHCI Disabled" somewhere here, you can activate the corresponding item.

Start Windows once with the key combination [Ctrl] + [F8] in the safe mode. You can then restart the system again. AHCI should now be activated. If bluescreens occur, you can simply undo the changes made to the BIOS and the Windows system in safe mode.

www.heise.de/tipps-tricks/AHCI-Modus-nachtraeglich-aktivieren-4658017.html

 

Last edited: Aug 29, 2022

What is AHCI?

 

Last edited: Aug 29, 2022

You know that the average lifecycle of a PC is just three years, right? Granted, that's for businesses, but a business PC does a lot less work than an audio PC. I built my current PC in 2018, but it's feeling the strain. I'm probably due an upgrade about now -- though I could happily muddle on for another year or two.

But a 12 year old computer? I'd start saving for a replacement.

 

Please @BuntyMcCunty, enlighten us on what is stressed, what parts are fatigued?
Usually most new buyers are looking for more performance so speed, especially the gaming industry is a very big winner.

 

It isn't that anything's "stressed", it's more that you can't take advantage of modern software. If you still use the software that you were using 12 years ago, you can carry on using it without any problem at all. But as software gets updated, as features get added, etc. you'll find your machine getting slower and slower. As I said, I built my computer in 2018 with a middle of the road Intel i5 processor and 16 meg of RAM. If I'm using just four or five tracks in Ableton with the stock instruments and effects, I'll find i'm at 35% CPU. When I first built the computer, the CPU usage would have been insignificant.

And some of the modern VST's -- forget about it. I can maybe run a single channel of Korg's Wavestation or OP6 -- provided I'm very careful about how I use them, the number of voices, etc. But I'll have to bounce it down immediately. Can't run anything else alongside it. And the initial releases just wouldn't run -- they were too CPU hungry.

But if you stick to running 12 year old software, I'm sure you'd be fine. I don't insist on the latest and greatest -- I'm still running Windows 7 and I've only just upgraded from Ableton 10 -- but I do want to be able to run current versions of the DAWs and VST's I use without significant slowdown or having to bounce every track to audio.