Re: Trouble finding bad block on WDC WD1600SB-01KBA0

Bruce Allen <[email protected]> Thu, 12 Jan 2017 02:38:18 +0100

Newsgroups	gmane.linux.utilities.smartmontools
Message-ID	<[email protected]>

Hi David,

> It seems like a major shortcoming in the SMART protocol that there is no "list the pending sectors" command. The disk must have this
> information, otherwise we cannot explain the way it behaved in this case.

I agree.

The truth is that the entire SMART protocol is something of a hack. It was first implemented by a couple of vendors, then turned into an SFF "specification" which was subsequently actively withdrawn (meaning: the industry did its best to destroy every copy of the document in existence). Then VERY limited parts of that were included in the ATA specification, which were then gradually morphed into something with a different intent (on and off-line testing, rather than monitoring and failure prediction). All in all, SMART is useful, but it's also very flawed.

My personal hope is that over the coming ten years, the SSD will replace the HDD, and the devices and algorithms that underlie the SSD will become reliable enough that almost all of the SMART protocol and features become irrelevant and fade away. Time will tell.

Cheers,
Bruce

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Prof. Dr. Bruce Allen, Director
Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)
Callinstrasse 38
D-30167 Hannover, Germany
Tel +49-511-762-17145
Fax +49-511-762-17182
Email: [email protected]

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