20 Million Raw_Read_Error_Rate per minute
I decided to check the SMART status of my hard drive, and I saw it had 125239624 raw read errors. Just a minute later I checked again for comparison and it was up to 127315512 raw read errors.
Should I be concerned? This drive may still be under warranty. Should I send it in to be repaired?
This is the full output of smartctl -data -a /dev/sda:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_
FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x002f 118 100 006 Pre-fail Always -
193153912
3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0023 099 099 000 Pre-fail Always -
0
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always -
289
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 100 100 036 Pre-fail Always -
0
7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x002f 076 060 030 Pre-fail Always -
42002234
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 098 098 000 Old_age Always -
2039
10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0033 100 100 097 Pre-fail Always -
0
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always -
285
183 Runtime_Bad_Block 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always -
0
184 End-to-End_Error 0x0033 100 100 097 Pre-fail Always -
0
187 Reported_Uncorrect 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always -
0
188 Command_Timeout 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always -
0
189 High_Fly_Writes 0x003a 100 100 000 Old_age Always -
0
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022 059 052 045 Old_age Always -
41 (Min/Max 20/42)
191 G-Sense_Error_Rate 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always -
20
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0022 100 100 000 Old_age Always -
0
193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 038 038 000 Old_age Always -
125873
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 041 048 000 Old_age Always -
41 (0 17 0 0 0)
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always -
0
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always -
0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0030 100 100 000 Old_age Offline -
0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always -
0
254 Free_Fall_Sensor 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always -
0
SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged
SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
No self-tests have been logged. [To run self-tests, use: smartctl -t]
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.
The SMART results format is kinda garbage for this reason (well, it's confusing, at least). Modern disks are so packed with data that the raw error rate is usually fairly high - after applying error correction, no problems arise with data access/reliability.
I would focus on the below:
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always -0
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always -0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0030 100 100 000 Old_age Offline -0
This is the number of sectors reallocated, waiting to be reallocated, and unable to be reallocated, respectively.
When the head hits a bad sector and reading fails, it becomes a Current_Pending_Sector. The next time you try to write to it, it either works (everything goes back to normal, and the sector is reallocated) or it fails again—If there is reallocation space available from the pool, it will be reallocated. (Reallocated_Event_Count + 1). If the pool is used up, the sector becomes Offline_Uncorrectable and no further read/writes are possible.
Since your drive is not having any issue with sectors, only the standard, modern, data-density Raw_Read Error_Rate, I think you are fine. Standard advice about having backups always applies, but not more so here than in any other case, I think.
The short answer is no.
The drives that report raw read error rates will also report uncorrectable errors, you should only be concerned if the uncorrectable error counter increases.
Also to add errors can be caused by factors outside of the drive itself, bad SATA cables, bad cable connection, faulty ram, faulty DMI bus and faulty controller are all possible causes.
If you see errors increase but you do not see reallocated sectors increase, first thing to do is try a different cable, ideally also on a different port as well. Make sure you not overclocking, using out of the box voltages for the board, ram and cpu. If the errors persist, then at that point you might consider there could be an issue with the drive (uncorrectable errors not raw read error rate).
Other values which I think are more important are.
Current pending sectors. This increases when some data has been failed to read, the sectors will stay pending until they are written to again, if the write succeeds they will be removed and nothing else happens, if the write fails, then they will be reallocated. They will also be removed if another read attempt is made and it succeeds. If you see pending sectors, it is a good idea to run chkdsk /r on the drive. Make sure you also have backups.
Reallocated sector count, this goes up when the drive has determined a sector is broken, it deactivates the sector and uses a backup sector instead, this is usually a sign of upcoming failure and at this point you are probably on borrowed time, there is only a limited amount of backup sectors so eventually there will be no backup ones left to use, in my experience once you get 1 or more of these it tends to go up until point of failure.
The SMART attributes 1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate and 7 Seek_Error_Rate are NOT counters, they are error rates. Their raw values are not meaningful to us, are defined by the manufacturer. The Raw_Read_Error_Rate raw value is not reported for any hard disk except those made by Seagate, so you have a Seagate. The important number for it is the VALUE of 118, which you can consider as 118%, better than 100% good (it's a statistically relative value). You have nothing at all to worry about.
The Pre-fail flag just indicates which attributes are considered critical, for determining SMART PASS/FAIL status. If the WORST for a Pre-fail attribute reaches THRESH, then the drive is considered FAILED.
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct is a critical attribute, 196 Reallocated_Event_Count is not.