I'm not very experienced with PC hardware, but my hard drive has started behaving strangely over the past few months. I previously downloaded games to it without problems, but during a recent download the process stopped and the drive became inaccessible in File Explorer. Windows showed the disk at 100% active time with almost no transfer activity, while response times fluctuated from normal levels to 28,000–70,000 ms. Parts of Windows, including File Explorer and Task Manager, would freeze, although my browser continued working. I had to shut down the computer to get things responding normally again. I ran a SMART test, which reported the drive as healthy, and wiped the drive afterward, so it currently contains no important data. It has roughly 7 TB available, and the model appears to be a Seagate ST8000VN004-2M2101. Is this likely a failing drive, or could another hardware or software problem cause these symptoms?
2 Answers
Post the complete SMART attribute values instead of only the pass/fail summary. Pay particular attention to pending sectors, uncorrectable sectors, reallocated sectors, and interface errors. On Seagate drives, additional FARM information from smartmontools can sometimes reveal problems that the basic SMART status does not show. Also check whether the drive is still under warranty; if it is, replacement is preferable to trying to repair it.
Those symptoms strongly suggest the drive is having trouble completing read or write operations. A healthy overall SMART result does not guarantee that every drive problem will be reported, especially if the issue is intermittent or related to the controller, cables, or connection. Since the disk is empty, the safest practical fix is to replace it rather than rely on it for game storage. Before doing that, try a different SATA data cable, power connector, and motherboard port to rule out a connection problem.
I was hoping to avoid replacing it, but based on the extremely high response times and freezing, it sounds like the drive may actually be failing.