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I just bought a "new" and very cheap hdd online.

I used some kinda usb3.0 hdd box to connect to my PC.

By running smartctl, I can see the following outputs

9 Power_On_Hours          0x0012   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0

Error 4 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 19132 hours

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Vendor (0xb0)       Completed without error       00%     47354         -
# 2  Vendor (0x71)       Completed without error       00%     47354         -

The complete output: https://hastebin.com/zafejecopu.yaml

What do those errors mean? Can I determine the real lifetime value from the smartctl output?

Thanks a lot.

sgon00
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1 Answers1

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I found your question when researching why my supposedly "new" drive showed its last self test at about 5.7 years powered on:

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%     47986         -
# 2  Short offline       Completed without error       00%     47982         -
# 3  Vendor (0xb0)       Completed without error       00%     46398         -
# 4  Vendor (0x71)       Completed without error       00%     46397         -

I can't offer you a solid answer, but I'm fairly confident that the seller (or their supplier) has used something to zero out the SMART attributes, but for some reason this has not wiped out the SMART log. It's likely the POH values in the self test and error log are valid, so at minimum, the drive is at least as "used" as the highest POH number shown there.

My drive had a small sticker added by a third party, conveniently covering the manufacture date. Scratching it off revealed that the drive was nearly 8 years old. The listing described the product as "Opened - never used."

rowan194
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  • Both of you should test the drive for bit rotting at this point and only put data you don't care at all on these drives. – X.LINK Feb 24 '21 at 11:12
  • @X.LINK The unusual thing is that the drive itself looks pristine: no scratches on the body or top, no dust around the connectors, no fingerprint smears, etc. I guess it sat in a server in a nice clean room for those 5.7 years. – rowan194 Feb 24 '21 at 12:16
  • Or any PC that wasn't opened for yeats. You would have dust like hell if it sat on a server room anyway. But that's nothing for isopropyl alcohol and compressed air cans. The only place that may betray former use would be the SATA and power pins. – X.LINK Feb 24 '21 at 12:28
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    FYI, the drive I purchased has developed 693 bad sectors, and at some point SMART has tripped, signalling the drive is toast. I wonder if the software the seller/supplier used also hid previously remapped sectors, making the drive seem serviceable, when it was really on the way out. – rowan194 Mar 23 '21 at 11:46
  • There's ways to do that if I recall correctly. – X.LINK May 05 '21 at 09:56