Greetings!

I have a 500GB Seagate ST3500312CS SATA drive salvaged from a decommissioned 
DVR. The DVR's OS said SMART status OK. The latest Seatools disk utility from 
the Seagate website says the drive is A-OK (short test, long test, full erase, 
re-test) no errors found. 

However, the Gnome disk utility in Mint 17 says 'Threshold not exceeded' and 
'Disk is OK, 178 bad sectors'. 

Some other SMART attributes displayed:

ID1             Read Error Rate: 152141757
ID5     Reallocated Sector Count: 178 sectors
ID187   Reported Uncorrectable Errors: 0 sectors
ID198   Uncorrectable Sector Count: 0 sectors
ID199   UDMA CRC Error Rate: 0


GSmart Control 0.8.7 is reading the same thing, 178 sectors, but also says it's 
OK. 

running an e2fsck from gparted reports 0 bad blocks. 

I've also retested in another machine with different cables to minimize the 
possibility of bogus hardware or BIOS issues, but the results remain the same. 

Seagate's website has a FAQ that says their tools should be the final say as 
they're designed to work correctly with their drives. 

Normally a bad sector or two wouldn't bother me, I have drives that have been 
running for years like that. I just keep backups fresh and check for bad sector 
growth. A few bad sectors is within spec and that's why HDD's have a reserved 
area. Yet somehow 178 sectors seems like a lot. 

Should I trust this drive for anything more than a paperweight? 

Should I trust anything with the words 'smart', 'affordable', or 'free' in the 
name?  ;]


Thanks!


--Kenn
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