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Smart is reporting the following error each day one one of my data centre server SSDs:

This message was generated by the smartd daemon running on: host name: x DNS domain: x The following warning/error was logged by the smartd daemon: Device: /dev/sda [SAT], 1 Currently unreadable (pending) sectors Device info: INTEL SSDSC2BB480G7, S/N:PHDV701605XT480BGN, WWN:5-5cd2e4-14d60bdf9, FW:N2010101, 480 GB For details see host's SYSLOG. You can also use the smartctl utility for further investigation. The original message about this issue was sent at Tue Feb 6 18:43:41 2018 EST Another message will be sent in 24 hours if the problem persists.

Syslog, shows no additional information.

I have read elsewhere that I need to perform an extended smart test, then write to the sector specified in the test results to force the drive to mark it as a bad sector and reallocate.

I ran a long test:

sudo smartctl -t long /dev/sda1

But the output of sudo smartctl -a /dev/sda1 says that the test completed without error?

smartctl 6.6 2016-05-31 r4324 [x86_64-linux-4.4.98-2-pve] (local build) Copyright (C) 2002-16, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org === START OF INFORMATION SECTION === Device Model: INTEL SSDSC2BB480G7 Serial Number: PHDV701605XT480BGN LU WWN Device Id: 5 5cd2e4 14d60bdf9 Firmware Version: N2010101 User Capacity: 480,103,981,056 bytes [480 GB] Sector Sizes: 512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical Rotation Rate: Solid State Device Form Factor: 2.5 inches Device is: Not in smartctl database [for details use: -P showall] ATA Version is: ACS-3 T13/2161-D revision 5 SATA Version is: SATA 3.1, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s) Local Time is: Wed Feb 21 04:58:20 2018 EST SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability. SMART support is: Enabled === START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION === SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED General SMART Values: Offline data collection status: (0x02) Offline data collection activity was completed without error. Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled. Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed without error or no self-test has ever been run. Total time to complete Offline data collection: ( 72) seconds. Offline data collection capabilities: (0x79) SMART execute Offline immediate. No Auto Offline data collection support. Suspend Offline collection upon new command. Offline surface scan supported. Self-test supported. Conveyance Self-test supported. Selective Self-test supported. SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering power-saving mode. Supports SMART auto save timer. Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported. General Purpose Logging supported. Short self-test routine recommended polling time: ( 1) minutes. Extended self-test routine recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes. Conveyance self-test routine recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes. SCT capabilities: (0x003d) SCT Status supported. SCT Error Recovery Control supported. SCT Feature Control supported. SCT Data Table supported. SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 1 Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds: ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE 5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0 9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 8753 12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 11 170 Unknown_Attribute 0x0033 100 100 010 Pre-fail Always - 0 171 Unknown_Attribute 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0 172 Unknown_Attribute 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0 174 Unknown_Attribute 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 9 175 Program_Fail_Count_Chip 0x0033 100 100 010 Pre-fail Always - 270807480494 183 Runtime_Bad_Block 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0 184 End-to-End_Error 0x0033 100 100 090 Pre-fail Always - 0 187 Reported_Uncorrect 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0 190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022 070 064 000 Old_age Always - 30 (Min/Max 16/37) 192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 9 194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 30 197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0012 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 1 199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x003e 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0 225 Unknown_SSD_Attribute 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 415161 226 Unknown_SSD_Attribute 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 1126 227 Unknown_SSD_Attribute 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 51 228 Power-off_Retract_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 525179 232 Available_Reservd_Space 0x0033 100 100 010 Pre-fail Always - 0 233 Media_Wearout_Indicator 0x0032 099 099 000 Old_age Always - 0 234 Unknown_Attribute 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0 241 Total_LBAs_Written 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 415161 242 Total_LBAs_Read 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 433149 243 Unknown_Attribute 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 979238 SMART Error Log Version: 1 No Errors Logged SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1 Num Test_Description Status Remaining LifeTime(hours) LBA_of_first_error # 1 Extended offline Completed without error 00% 8753 - # 2 Extended offline Completed without error 00% 8752 - # 3 Extended offline Completed without error 00% 8464 - # 4 Short offline Completed without error 00% 888 - # 5 Short offline Completed without error 00% 886 - # 6 Short offline Completed without error 00% 885 - # 7 Short offline Completed without error 00% 0 - # 8 Short offline Completed without error 00% 0 - # 9 Short offline Completed without error 00% 0 - SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1 SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS 1 0 0 Not_testing 2 0 0 Not_testing 3 0 0 Not_testing 4 0 0 Not_testing 5 0 0 Not_testing Selective self-test flags (0x0): After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk. If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

Is there really a problem, and if so how do a diagnose it properly?

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2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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Only 1 pending sector is not a problem for a drive. Just ignore it until it increases significantly.

Although you can try to fix it using the following instructions (backup data first!): https://github.com/smartmontools/smartmontools/blob/master/www/BadBlockHowTo.txt

Also you can compare your drive S.M.A.R.T. report with others in this repository of S.M.A.R.T. reports.

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  • 3
    I didn't think it was a serious issue, but S.M.A.R.T emails me every day about it! The issue with the instructions you've specified, is that they assume that a SMART test will tell me the LBA - but my tests are all saying 'Completed without error'. Commented Feb 23, 2018 at 11:14
  • @user2353938 Additionally, if yours was like mine, it's unclear whether it's always the same sector. Commented Sep 4, 2023 at 12:37
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The big question is whether that sector has data you care about, try reading your data files and see if something is missing.

In any case in order to avoid this error message repeating you will need to overwrite the data in order to let the drive ignore this. Trimming the block if it has no other use should also work. You can try to do a fstrim on the filesystem to clear this.

The SMART long test does a random test of the media and is not a complete test so it may succeed even if there is an error and especially if this is a recoverable error of sort since the manufacturer wouldn't want that a single pending error will cause you to RMA the drive.

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  • You give no hint how the OP (or I) could find that bad sector, and "try reading your data files", when it's your entire OS is not helpful Commented Sep 4, 2023 at 12:35
  • That's a bit of an entitled comment @auspex, but to explicitly answer you entitled request: there is no info in the SMART to tell you which block was bad so there is no way to easily know it. There might be a kernel log message still in the logs with the block number, or your applications could emit a log about the file they tried and failed to read. Other than that, just dd the entire block device and see where it fails. Commented Sep 12, 2023 at 5:16

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