this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2025
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Disk has read errors but SMART says PASSED (swg-empire.de)
submitted 4 months ago by bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de to c/datahoarder@lemmy.world
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cross-posted from: https://swg-empire.de/post/4845931

I've had multiple reads fail on a fairly new drive.

I did a smartctl -t long /dev/sdb but after checking back a few minutes later smartctl -a /dev/sdb showed that no tests were running and that the previous test had "the read element of the test failed".

I did smartctl -t offline /dev/sdb next and after that was done smartctl -x /dev/sdb showed about 1500 errors but it also reported SMART as PASSED.

Here is the output of smartctl -x /dev/sdb: https://pastebin.com/09rNZZfD

How should I interpret these results? Was my assumption that the long test was done wrong? Should I replace the drive? Or might something else be wrong, like the SATA connection?

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[–] thelittleblackbird@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Is it only that disk?

Usually when the controller is failing all the disk of the same interface shows similar errors.

If not, it could be the cable or just simply a not perfect connection (twisted cable?)

The error seems to be in the transfer interface, so here smart is totally useless.

If error persists think in an error in the interface and it could be disk, controller, cable or all of them

[–] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I did have errors with another port on the same controller. My motherboard has two controllers, so after seeing the first errors on this disk I switched it to the other controller as well.

But after I had gotten read errors after switching to the good controller I figured that something must be wrong with the drive.

I think I will try hooking up the drive via USB. Thanks!

[–] thelittleblackbird@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

Then most likely is the driver / pin of some signals in the hdd. Smart here is totally useless and if the failure is confirmed you can only swap the disk because the repair is usually not worthy. The test with the USB connector is a good one, but keep in mind that USB interface tends to disconnect from time to time, so. If you see errors make sure that they are different / same errors.

Good luck