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I just bought a new ST3000DM001 (Seagate Barracuda). I ran "badblocks" on it and no problems were found, however CrystalDiskInfo reports "Reallocated Sectors" value of 1.

Should I worry? Or is this normal for new/large drives (this one is 3TB)?

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  • I've found new HDD's with hundred of bad blocks. However few already reallocated sectors does not mean that disk is broken, capacity of good blocks is what you want to look if disk is new (count should be at least what manufacturer tell you). If situation (SMART) get worser then do RMA for it.
    – Sampo Sarrala
    Aug 28, 2012 at 17:11
  • If you contact the manufacturer and ask for the details specs it should list the maximum number of relocated sectors the drive should ship with.
    – John Gardeniers
    Aug 28, 2012 at 20:14

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All modern drives have faults. (Old ones also have faults but there you read the bad sectors from the label on the drive. And I have not done this since we used 7MB -yes, mega, not giga- byte drives).

So no. Reallocated sectors is normal.

Increasing numbers of reallocated sectors on the other hand is worrying.

My advice would be to monitor it. If the number of reallocated sectors keeps increasing, or of that rate rapidly increases then it is time for factory tools testing and a RMA. If it stays at or nearly at the same number then it is just business as normal.

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    Agree. Today's drives always have some. With current density of the info on the platters making one that is 100% defect free is next to impossible. As Hennes says: A steady increase over time or a sudden burst of new re-allocs is bad news.
    – Tonny
    Aug 28, 2012 at 19:22

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