Failed 8,3 Years old WD Red drive 3TB (EFRX) - what now...? So couple of weeks/months ago one of my HDDs- WD Red 3TB - EFRX - 8,3 Years old (!) failed on me. I had backups and was still able to get vast majority of the data directly from the drive. So data-wise im ok. My questions is other: What to do with the drive now...? I took several pictures from SMART and hdd tests etc. and im posting it here. HD Tune pro and other programs (MiniTool Partition Wizard) found damaged sectors on the drive. The copying from these sectors were even like 2 Kb per second speed wise :-D... So what can i do with this drive now...? Can it be "saved" somehow? Can i "fix" the damage sectors somehow? Can i at least "mark them" so the HDD doesnt use them anymore... (and still use the drive)? Will the damaged sectors "spread"...? It appears that like the 1st half of the drive, or even first 2 terabytes (out of three) are OK... Can i make new "partitions" on the drive and use the 1st partition somewhat safely , and do NOT use the 2nd one with the damages sectors...? Like its a 3 TB drive, I dont wanna just throw it in trash like that... Can i fix the drive somehow? Can i still use the drive somewhat reliably...? Or is the drive now good only for like a doorstop? https://prnt.sc/jultghOArCkk https://prnt.sc/aakBEpqLyRVY https://prnt.sc/NHuRwUBvT3_n https://prnt.sc/dVceUguoPDbD https://prnt.sc/2xVf57TQXkTt https://prnt.sc/5SXVMacnchHh https://prnt.sc/QnfDFcHUzHdJ https://prnt.sc/YQ4zwLsv6kiP
My bathroom, right now: Yours actually failed gracefully, this one just stopped working out of the blue and now clanks at bootup. Doesn't even get detected by bios, let alone being able to run tests...
I myself wouldn't use it, not unless you want to go through this again. Far as programs for fixing it don't know if there is one. Somebody may find there way in here that can answer that part better. Sorry I know it sucks losing a drive everyone has before unless they started computing 6 months ago.
Its dead dude! Theres a program called HDD Regerator that, years ago, could repair drives with badly written data. It could also temporarily resurrect drives with failing sectors (disk damage or failing magnetic strength), this is most likely where you are. The drive is unable to cope with the number of errors it finds. Its possible the read or write head has lost sensitivity but paying someone to inspect and repair it makes no financial sense. A crapped out disk surface is EOL. Its had its day.
I was recommended elsewhere to do a full format under windows to see if these issues wont resolve themselves (there is a chance that they might) and than i could still use the drive (but only for nonessential data/as an additional backup drive for example etc). what do you think abotu this (full format under windows, these issues are still temporary and the full format might resolved them)...?
Reds just do this for some reason, being out lived by black and gold / ultra star drives. Its not advisable, the EFRX drives just seem to have a platter flaw and the weak sectors get written to and read out as ok but gradually lose to bitrot, so they never get properly remapped to spares.
I once could repair a drive with HDD Regenerator - probably a head crash or similar, a small defect. But Samsung cloning software didn't allow to use it for cloning, another software did accept it. The drive worked flawless for years.
Damaged sectors lead to more damaged sectors in the future. I would exchange it without a second thought.
Hard disks are cheap, data recovery is expensive. Get a replacement drive and call it a day. The dying drive can be read or cloned by reading the data in reverse. Ddrescue can do that and it is free and open source software. Also, the srce can be sold as parts for data recovery centers. Sometimes only one part of a particular model,serial number dead drive can worth so much more than a brand new hard drive.
