Hitachi HDD Problem - How long should DFT take to run?

[baldrick45]

Hi there.

I'm trying to fix a 500GB Hitachi Travelstar laptop drive which has developed bad sectors. It's an OEM drive from a Fujitsu laptop which is just 3 weeks out of warranty.

I DL'd the botable ISO for Hitachi DFT from Carrona.org and the drive passes SMART tests and the "Quick Test" but failed with a lot of bad sectors on the detailed test.

I tried running the Sector Repair utility - it failed with an 0x70 code which Google tells me may still be fixable using the "Disk Erase" option in DFT.

So yesterday at around 3pm I started the "Erase Disk". Today at 4:30pm my time it's still only got to approx 60%.

Anyone able to confirm if this is normal or not for DFT on a big drive?

Hitachi support are saying they offer no warranty on drives used by OEM manufacturers so I've no choice but to let the programme run to completion anyway and see if the drive is useable again. I suspect though that the slowness indicates that the drive is on it's last legs anyway.

Anyone more experienced care to offer some advice?

Thanks

 

[Wrench97]

How big is the drive?

If it's less then a 1t the software is probably hung trying to repair the bad sectors, I've seen quite a few times where the tool will say it's repairable but turns out not to be.

 

[baldrick45]

Wrench97

As I noted, its a 500GB drive so its big but not in the TB range!

DFT is slowly and steadily updating its LBA count and the progress "petrol gauge". I just can't understand why a low level reformat should be 48+ hours slow.

 

[Wrench97]

It should not be.

 

[Digerati]

I just can't understand why a low level reformat should be 48+ hours slow.

It can take a very long time - overnight is not uncommon but 48+ hours is excessive. If me, I would not trust that drive to store my precious data. I would "wipe" the drive with Eraser – which uses DBAN technologies, or with CCleaner (which is easier to use) and add the drive to my paperweight collection. Then buy a new "enterprise" quality drive.

 

[Fred Garvin]

What Wrench said... If DFT is taking that long, I wouldn't even bother trying to repair it. Replace the drive before you lose any more data.