Storage Solutions Bad smart data on 3TB WD my passport

I bought this in 2018, had to rma on 2020 .
They provided me a recertified drive.
This drive was used very rarely like once a month or even less, only to backup my data occasionally.
i have been facing this issue for a while now

Some video files are stuck while playing and also while copying those files the copy speed goes down to 2mb and then stucks at 0kb.
This behaviour is limited to specific files.
I thought those files might be corrupt but the source from where i copied it has no issues running the files.
I have tried running some diagnostic softwares but it says the health is good.

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Now yesterday, i got worried about my data and moved most of the files on another hdd.
This whole thing took around 12-15 hours of copying from hdd.

And after all this shenanigans, crystaldisk info is showing this



Google expalins this error as

Read Error Rate S.M.A.R.T. parameter indicates the rate of hardware read errors that occurred when reading data from a disk surface. Any value differing from zero means there is a problem with the disk surface, read/write heads (including crack on a head, broken head, head contamination, head resonance, bad connection to electronics module, handling damage). The higher parameter’s value is, the more the hard disk failure is possible.

Recommendations

This is a critical parameter. Degradation of this parameter may indicate imminent drive failure. Urgent data backup and hardware replacement is recommended

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What can i do now?
I think the only use for this drive is to copy media/game files for watching on tv/transfer between pc.

My 1tb 11yr old dell(seagate ) drive is working fine to this day, but this expensive and new drive failed. Talk about being unlucky.

Two reasons for this failure comes to mind
1) getting an old/recertified drive from rma.


2) i remember dropping it sometime after receiving the rma replacement.
Do t quite remember if it was a significant drop or not.

Any insights are welcome.
Also do recommend me some 4tb or higher
Affordable drives for "Backup Purpose".
I m fine with both 2.5/3.5 inch whether internal or external.
Thanks

bigb123 said:

Point to remember...always buy multiple drives of lower capacity...like buy 3 1tb drives instead of single 3tb drive....this ensures better data safety... if any accident happens your whole 3tb data comes at risk...

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But what if i have 2 to 3tb data?
are 3.5inch better better than 2.5 ones

Usually drives which are used daily have lesser failure rates.

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i had no idea about this

Try copying such files from this drive to another drive and see if it copies or stucks, freezes or copied file is a junk or zero byte!

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it continues for most file at around 100kb , but not constantly . not feasible to copy those files

Check in HD Sentinel tool and post the stats. It will even show you the overall power-on hdd time etc. stats.

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have attached power on count above

Might be the unlucky ones But refurbed is just a label they give to avoid reselling but they are brand new drives only.

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dont they send drives sent by other users for rma?

Now this is the catch! It doesn't necessarily have to conk off instantly but happens gradually like in your case. Slow poison!

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this issue has been going on for years probably, just that i didnt notice it yet

@nRiTeCh