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I'm confused about the Spin Retry Count S.M.A.R.T. attribute value.

On one particular hard drive, I see a raw value of 0, which the popular CrystalDiskInfo v7.0.5 interprets as a current value of 166, a worst value of 100, and a threshold of 30.

According to Wikipedia:

"An increase of this attribute value is a sign of problems in the hard disk mechanical subsystem."

According to the ActiveSmart (by Ariolic Software) documentation:

"A decrease of this attribute value is a sign of problems in the hard disk mechanical subsystem."

Questions:

  1. OK, which is it?

  2. Why is a raw value of 0 being interpreted as a current value of 166 by CrystalDiskInfo?

  3. I've always had the understanding that a raw value of of 0 for this attribute indicates that the drive has never had to retry a spin start. Is that correct?

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1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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Confusedly, high values for Current indicate good health, while the Threshold value indicates the lower ceiling below which health is to be considered as poor.

So usually the value of 100 means that everything is OK. Higher values often mean that the attribute has never been updated (implies 100).

As your Current value is 166, this only means that you never had a Spin Retry Count error, which agrees with your Raw value of 0. You should consider replacing the disk if Current ever drops below 30.

Last remark : I prefer Speccy to CrystalDiskInfo, as its S.M.A.R.T. display is clearer.

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  • Thank you. That's a 5 star answer! :) Do you happen to have a reference for the material you presented? I would like to learn more (beyond the scope of this question).
    – End Antisemitic Hate
    Commented Jun 22, 2017 at 17:00
  • There are many links to be found, for example link1 and link2.
    – harrymc
    Commented Jun 22, 2017 at 17:52

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