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#1
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Should I worry about Spin Retry Count?
One of my oldest drives a 200GB Maxtor, has a spin retry count problem.
HD Sentinel reports its health at only 40% due to this. But it seems the spin retries only happen during bootup. If I keep the machine running, it never happens. It also doesn't happen during warm reboots, just occasionally during the cold starts. So I'm thinking it's got no real recurring problem, just a power-up problem. Yousuf Khan |
#2
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Should I worry about Spin Retry Count?
Yes you should.
Yousuf Khan wrote: One of my oldest drives a 200GB Maxtor, has a spin retry count problem. HD Sentinel reports its health at only 40% due to this. Post the everest SMART report. But it seems the spin retries only happen during bootup. If I keep the machine running, it never happens. That's what you'd expect, because thats the only time the drive spins down. It also doesn't happen during warm reboots, Because the drive doesnt spin down then. just occasionally during the cold starts. It will get worse once that starts. So I'm thinking it's got no real recurring problem, Fraid it is. just a power-up problem. Spin retrys are only ever that. It could be stiction. It could be a weak power supply that cant deliver the startup current. If you have a decent multimeter, you could see what happens to the 12V rail during spinup. If it is a power supply problem, you should be able to see the 12V sag during the spinup. But if it sags, it could be stiction. You could try another power supply if you have a spare, or see if the drive still has a spinup problem in a different system. |
#3
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Should I worry about Spin Retry Count?
Rod Speed wrote
Yes you should. Yousuf Khan wrote: One of my oldest drives a 200GB Maxtor, has a spin retry count problem. HD Sentinel reports its health at only 40% due to this. Post the everest SMART report. But it seems the spin retries only happen during bootup. If I keep the machine running, it never happens. That's what you'd expect, because thats the only time the drive spins down. It also doesn't happen during warm reboots, Because the drive doesnt spin down then. just occasionally during the cold starts. It will get worse once that starts. So I'm thinking it's got no real recurring problem, Fraid it is. just a power-up problem. Spin retrys are only ever that. It could be stiction. It could be a weak power supply that cant deliver the startup current. If you have a decent multimeter, you could see what happens to the 12V rail during spinup. If it is a power supply problem, you should be able to see the 12V sag during the spinup. But if it sags, it could be stiction. You could try another power supply if you have a spare, or see if the drive still has a spinup problem in a different system. Worth trying another power connector if it uses the older molex power connectors. The metal tunnels can open up over time and not make very good contact and that can produce a spinup problem at the higher than normal spin up currents. |
#4
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Should I worry about Spin Retry Count?
Yousuf Khan wrote:
One of my oldest drives a 200GB Maxtor, has a spin retry count problem. HD Sentinel reports its health at only 40% due to this. But it seems the spin retries only happen during bootup. If I keep the machine running, it never happens. It also doesn't happen during warm reboots, just occasionally during the cold starts. Not that surprisong, considering "spin retry" indicates problems with starting the motor spindle that rotates the platters. So I'm thinking it's got no real recurring problem, just a power-up problem. It is a recurring problem, as it can just happen during power-up or when you do a spin stop-start cycle. It can be that is only happens when the disk is physically cold, as the lubricants are a bit thicker then. Likely fault sources: Power supply, 12V line to HDD, HDD motor driver, lubricants getting older and thicker. Historically it could also be stiction (heads sticking to platters), but the HDD manufacturers claim it does not happen anymore with the surface coatings now used. Arno |
#5
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Should I worry about Spin Retry Count?
"Yousuf Khan" wrote...
One of my oldest drives a 200GB Maxtor, has a spin retry count problem. HD Sentinel reports its health at only 40% due to this. But it seems the spin retries only happen during bootup. If I keep the machine running, it never happens. It also doesn't happen during warm reboots, just occasionally during the cold starts. So I'm thinking it's got no real recurring problem, just a power-up problem. I had 2 x 200GB DiamondMax10 drives fail last year. One refused to spin up one morning without warning, and the other got worse on spin retry and was unable to wake from standby or hibernate. It had the problem when testing in 3 different computers and plenty of power. It is a very real problem and it doesn't heal itself. -- Hans |
#6
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Should I worry about Spin Retry Count?
Agree with all of the above possible external causes but anything on the board that affects throughput of current to the motor can be a cause and would also include the motor itself as a likely culprit. And agree that it only gets worse until one day it doesn't spin at all. Then everything is lost, or not economically recoverable, depending on the value you place on the contents. |
#7
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Should I worry about Spin Retry Count?
edfair wrote:
Agree with all of the above possible external causes but anything on the board that affects throughput of current to the motor can be a cause There's **** all of that and even less that produces the sort of intermittent problem he is getting. and would also include the motor itself as a likely culprit. Nope, that doesnt usually produce an intermittent problem. And agree that it only gets worse until one day it doesn't spin at all. Then everything is lost, or not economically recoverable, depending on the value you place on the contents. |
#8
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Should I worry about Spin Retry Count?
Rod Speed wrote:
Post the everest SMART report. [ Maxtor 6L200R0 (L50148VG) ] 03 Spin Up Time 63 176 169 24587 OK: Value is normal 04 Start/Stop Count 0 253 253 1183 OK: Always passing 05 Reallocated Sector Count 63 253 253 0 OK: Value is normal 06 Read Channel Margin 100 253 253 0 OK: Value is normal 07 Seek Error Rate 0 253 252 0 OK: Always passing 08 Seek Time Performance 187 239 235 35599 OK: Value is normal 09 Power-On Time Count 0 187 187 63561 OK: Always passing 0A Spin Retry Count 157 224 206 20 OK: Value is normal 0B Calibration Retry Count 223 253 252 0 OK: Value is normal 0C Power Cycle Count 0 251 251 981 OK: Always passing C0 Power-Off Retract Count 0 253 253 0 OK: Always passing C1 Load/Unload Cycle Count 0 253 253 0 OK: Always passing C2 Temperature 0 41 253 38 OK: Always passing C3 Hardware ECC Recovered 0 253 251 21462 OK: Always passing C4 Reallocation Event Count 0 253 253 0 OK: Always passing C5 Current Pending Sector Count 0 253 253 0 OK: Always passing C6 Off-Line Uncorrectable Sector Count 0 253 253 0 OK: Always passing C7 Ultra ATA CRC Error Rate 0 199 199 0 OK: Always passing C8 Write Error Rate 0 253 252 0 OK: Always passing C9 vendor-specific 0 253 252 1 OK: Always passing CA vendor-specific 0 253 252 0 OK: Always passing CB vendor-specific 180 253 252 0 OK: Value is normal CC vendor-specific 0 253 252 0 OK: Always passing CD vendor-specific 0 253 252 0 OK: Always passing CF vendor-specific 0 224 207 23 OK: Always passing D0 vendor-specific 0 253 252 0 OK: Always passing D1 vendor-specific 0 241 241 154 OK: Always passing D2 vendor-specific 0 253 252 0 OK: Always passing D3 vendor-specific 0 253 252 0 OK: Always passing D4 vendor-specific 0 253 252 0 OK: Always passing It could be a weak power supply that cant deliver the startup current. If you have a decent multimeter, you could see what happens to the 12V rail during spinup. If it is a power supply problem, you should be able to see the 12V sag during the spinup. But if it sags, it could be stiction. You could try another power supply if you have a spare, or see if the drive still has a spinup problem in a different system. Actually, the power supply was the first thing I suspected. It was replaced a couple of months back with a relatively high-end Zalman 600W one. The new power supply solved a bunch of other unrelated problems on other drives in the system, but the spin retry problem still occurs on this drive. Yousuf Khan |
#9
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Should I worry about Spin Retry Count?
Arno wrote:
Likely fault sources: Power supply, 12V line to HDD, HDD motor driver, lubricants getting older and thicker. Historically it could also be stiction (heads sticking to platters), but the HDD manufacturers claim it does not happen anymore with the surface coatings now used. The power supply is new, just a few months old, and it's a 600W Zalman now (replaced a 400W noname unit). Though other unrelated hard drive problems have gone away after the replacement of the PS, this problem still occurs. Stiction sounds more like something that would've destroyed the drive ages ago (i.e. heads touching platters sounds like it'll scratch the platters to death). I think this spin retry problem has been occurring for at least two years on this drive. It used to be my Windows boot drive, but I've since moved all OS-related data away off of it, onto a newer drive. Yousuf Khan |
#10
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Should I worry about Spin Retry Count?
H. P. Holm wrote:
I had 2 x 200GB DiamondMax10 drives fail last year. One refused to spin up one morning without warning, and the other got worse on spin retry and was unable to wake from standby or hibernate. It had the problem when testing in 3 different computers and plenty of power. It is a very real problem and it doesn't heal itself. That's why I moved all of my OS-related data off of it, onto a new drive. This used to be my boot drive. However, this problem has persisted for at least two years, as far as I can tell. Yet, I've had other drives which were both several years newer and gave much fewer prior SMART warnings, die on me much earlier than this drive has. IOW, I've been worried about this drive dying for several years, but instead other drives have died ahead of it. That's why I'm getting skeptical about the value of this spin retry warning. Yousuf Khan |
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