What does it mean when my new HDD reports errors at a time that shouldn't exist?
Solution 1:
I think that your suspicion of "odometer tampering" is correct, and it is possible. The recorded errors are likely real and definitely worrisome because they indicate bad sectors upon reading. The disk was likely wiped before making its way to you, so those bad sectors have probably been remapped.
Whoever sold you the hard drive reset the S.M.A.R.T. attributes to make it look like a new hard drive.
Anecdote
On 25 July 2015, I purchased six very similar hard drives from goHardDrive.com. When I checked all the disks, I experienced almost the exact same symptoms:
root@box52:~# smartctl -a /dev/sdb
smartctl 6.2 2013-07-26 r3841 [x86_64-linux-3.13.0-57-generic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-13, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: Hitachi Deskstar 7K2000
Device Model: Hitachi HDS722020ALA330
Serial Number: JK1101B9G7U8NF
LU WWN Device Id: 5 000cca 222c38d7e
Firmware Version: JKAOA3MA
User Capacity: 2,000,398,934,016 bytes [2.00 TB]
Sector Size: 512 bytes logical/physical
Rotation Rate: 7200 rpm
Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is: ATA8-ACS T13/1699-D revision 4
SATA Version is: SATA 2.6, 3.0 Gb/s
Local Time is: Thu Jul 30 13:57:13 2015 CDT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART STATUS RETURN: incomplete response, ATA output registers missing
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
Warning: This result is based on an Attribute check.
General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status: (0x80) Offline data collection activity
was never started.
Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed
without error or no self-test has ever
been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection: (23653) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: (0x5b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
Suspend Offline collection upon new
command.
Offline surface scan supported.
Self-test supported.
No Conveyance Self-test supported.
Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
power-saving mode.
Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported.
General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 1) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 394) minutes.
SCT capabilities: (0x003d) SCT Status supported.
SCT Error Recovery Control supported.
SCT Feature Control supported.
SCT Data Table supported.
SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x000b 100 100 016 Pre-fail Always - 0
2 Throughput_Performance 0x0005 100 100 054 Pre-fail Offline - 0
3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0007 100 100 024 Pre-fail Always - 0
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0012 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 1
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 100 100 005 Pre-fail Always - 2
7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x000b 100 100 067 Pre-fail Always - 0
8 Seek_Time_Performance 0x0005 100 100 020 Pre-fail Offline - 0
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0012 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0013 100 100 060 Pre-fail Always - 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 1
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 1
193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0012 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 1
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0002 206 206 000 Old_age Always - 29 (Min/Max 25/29)
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 2
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0022 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0008 100 100 000 Old_age Offline - 0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x000a 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
SMART Error Log Version: 1
ATA Error Count: 2
CR = Command Register [HEX]
FR = Features Register [HEX]
SC = Sector Count Register [HEX]
SN = Sector Number Register [HEX]
CL = Cylinder Low Register [HEX]
CH = Cylinder High Register [HEX]
DH = Device/Head Register [HEX]
DC = Device Command Register [HEX]
ER = Error register [HEX]
ST = Status register [HEX]
Powered_Up_Time is measured from power on, and printed as
DDd+hh:mm:SS.sss where DD=days, hh=hours, mm=minutes,
SS=sec, and sss=millisec. It "wraps" after 49.710 days.
Error 2 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 31311 hours (1304 days + 15 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
40 51 ff 01 58 5d 08 Error: UNC 255 sectors at LBA = 0x085d5801 = 140335105
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
25 00 00 00 58 5d 40 00 9d+05:13:00.528 READ DMA EXT
25 00 00 00 57 5d 40 00 9d+05:12:59.801 READ DMA EXT
25 00 00 00 56 5d 48 00 9d+05:12:59.797 READ DMA EXT
25 00 00 00 55 5d 48 00 9d+05:12:59.794 READ DMA EXT
25 00 00 00 54 5d 48 00 9d+05:12:59.789 READ DMA EXT
Error 1 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 31243 hours (1301 days + 19 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
40 51 ff 01 58 5d 08 Error: UNC 255 sectors at LBA = 0x085d5801 = 140335105
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
25 00 00 00 58 5d 40 00 41d+18:29:24.394 READ DMA EXT
25 00 00 00 57 5d 48 00 41d+18:29:24.388 READ DMA EXT
25 00 00 00 56 5d 40 00 41d+18:29:24.383 READ DMA EXT
25 00 00 00 55 5d 40 00 41d+18:29:24.376 READ DMA EXT
25 00 00 00 54 5d 40 00 41d+18:29:24.371 READ DMA EXT
SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num Test_Description Status Remaining LifeTime(hours) LBA_of_first_error
# 1 Short offline Completed without error 00% 0 -
SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
1 0 0 Not_testing
2 0 0 Not_testing
3 0 0 Not_testing
4 0 0 Not_testing
5 0 0 Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.
If it weren't for the S.M.A.R.T. errors that they either forgot to erase or could not erase, I would have been convinced that the disks I bought were new.
Suspicious, I telephoned Hitachi Global Storage Technologies and learned that at least two of the disks had their warranties activated on 24 September 2010, almost five years before I bought them. The manufacturer's warranty expired 3 years later.
In my complaint to the seller, I wrote:
Erasing the S.M.A.R.T. attribute values is like zeroing the odometer in a car. A big problem with erasing the S.M.A.R.T. attributes is that end users like me have no way of identifying whether sectors have been reallocated. There could be anywhere from no reallocated sectors to all of the spare sectors reallocated. Considering that these drives are nearly five years old with over 73.7% of the time at least one of the drives was powered on, there are very likely remapped sectors that I don't know about.
goHardDrive.com has sold me at least one defective hard drive, has knowingly erased the operational history of all six hard drives, and did not reveal the used nature of any of the hard drives at the time of sale.
I also took a photograph of the hard drives:
The hard drive at the bottom of the image is a reference disk from the same manufacturer.
Notice that the reference disk has APR-2012 printed on it, showing when it was manufactured. The date of manufacture was removed from the six disks I bought, but not quite well enough. Look at the middle disk, where you can faintly make out AUG-2010.
This surely confirms the disks' history: I bought used hard drives that had their "odometers" reset.
In the end, the seller accepted my request for a return, and I sent back all of the disks for a full refund.
Be careful with what hard drives you buy! It's good that you checked them for residual signs of wear.