[Pc_Support] Smart Self-test errors, fatal?

[Phil Barnett]

On Wednesday 29 March 2006 19:41, Jason Boxman wrote:
> If an ATA drive is coughing up SMART errors, is it completely fatal?

Generally, smart errors are logged when a sector is found to not read 
correctly, the checksum may or may not have allowed the drive to correct the 
data and the data sector is shifted to a spare sector (remapped beneath the 
covers, so to speak).

Once this happens, the old sector is locked out and the new sector is used in 
it's place.

If you know why this is happening and it stabilizes, you might not have a 
fatality on your hands.

I'd run spinrite on it to see how bad the damage is.

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