Is My 2011 Laptop HDD Healthy? Should I Stop Moving It Around?
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CuriousCat92
Hey everyone! I recently checked the health status of my 2011 laptop's HDD using smartctl, and I got some results that left me wondering if this is normal or if I should be concerned. The drive is a Seagate Momentus 7200.5 model. It still seems to be functioning well overall, but there are a few quirks. I've noticed it has 90 uncorrectable errors, which sounds alarming. I'm also curious if I should continue to gently put the laptop behind my dresser while it's running—I'm worried it may impact the HDD's longevity. Any advice would be appreciated!
Answers
Honestly, if you can swing it, switching to an SSD would be a much smarter move. A 14-year-old HDD isn't the most reliable option, and SSDs have become super affordable. You'd notice a significant performance boost too!
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The 90 uncorrectable errors definitely raise some flags. It seems like there might be a single bad sector causing those errors. Given that your drive has continued to function without more issues since, I’d suggest running a surface test to see if those errors remain. If they don’t increase, you're likely fine for now. As for the other error counts, like the CRC errors, they often point to issues with the SATA connection rather than the drive itself, so I wouldn't stress too much about those. Just keep an eye on any changes, but overall, you seem okay!
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CuriousCat92: Thanks for the reassurance! I’ve run a few tests already and will definitely keep monitoring it.