[Mollsmolyneux]

I have been having a SMART error (Read Error Rate) with my hard drive for a while now, so I finally bought a new hard drive and used DDRescue to clone one to the other. However, after the cloning was finished I am now getting a SMART error on the new Hard Drive, this time a Reallocated Sectors Count problem. Is this something DDRescue has done and therefore can be undone or is the Hard Drive faulty and need changing?

Tech Support Guy System Info Utility version 1.0.0.2
OS Version: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, Service Pack 3, 32 bit
Processor: Intel Pentium III Xeon processor, x86 Family 6 Model 23 Stepping 6
Processor Count: 2
RAM: 3326 Mb
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX/9800 GTX+, 512 Mb
Hard Drives: C: Total - 476929 MB, Free - 121571 MB; T: Total - 1430796 MB, Free - 645544 MB;
Motherboard: ASUSTeK Computer INC., P5Q
Antivirus: Avira Desktop, Updated: Yes, On-Demand Scanner: Enabled

[managed]

Reallocated Sector Count is a property of the drive itself, I don't think DDRescue could cause it.

What value does it have ?

If it's low and doesn't increase over time you should be fine, HDDs are designed to reallocate bad sectors.

Is the SMART warning from the Bios or from software running in Windows ?

[Mollsmolyneux]

It's a BIOS alert, telling me that there is a fault and to press f1 to continue to boot. There a 5 bad sectors, but the problem is that this is a new hard drive!

[Triple6]

If its new and giving you an error then you should return it to the store if they have a return policy OR contact the manufacturer directly for replacement.

[managed]

Originally Posted by Triple6

If its new and giving you an error then you should return it to the store if they have a return policy OR contact the manufacturer directly for replacement.

Sorry I didn't notice it was a new drive, I agree with Triple6.

[Mollsmolyneux]

I traded in the faulty hard drive for a new one. Cloned my disk with DDrescue again, and guess what. My new hard drive suddenly has a reallocated sector error, this implies to me that DDrescue is causing the fault with the hard drive since the same thing has happened twice. Ideas?

[Triple6]

Stop using DDrescue. There are plenty of free drive cloning utilities, every hard drive manufacturer has one available for download.

[crjdriver]

If one of your drives is a WD, you can download the free version of acronis true image from the WD site. As for cloning, image backups, etc acronis is far and away the best app to use.

[marbski]

it could be the DDRescue problem.... make sure do a partition first before cloning the old HDD.