Pre-failure and old age on new drive

Question

So I just bought a WD Blue hard drive, brand new. I plugged it in and checked the S.M.A.R.T. values- and kinda got shocked.

Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x002f   100   253   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0027   100   253   021    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       3
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   200   200   140    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x002e   100   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       1
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0032   100   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
 11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032   100   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       3
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       4
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   108   108   000    Old_age   Always       -       35
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0030   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x0032   200   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x0008   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0

three of them have the "pre-fail" attribute, and the rest are old-age? The pre-fail is what confused me the most. I searched high and low, alas, I couldn't find any proper thing to interpret these values with. How should I treat these SMART values? Are these value types okay on a new, never-before used WD Blue hard drive?

Answer 1

You are shocked for no reason.

You are trying to interpret static properties of single attributes. As they are static, the figures you read are meaningless. Those properties are not attributes! The attributes are characterized by their IDs and names (first and second column).

Here is an extract from my recordings. The drive in question is from Western Digital as well.

There is no need to worry!

ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x002f   100   253   ---    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0027   100   253   ---    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   ---    Old_age   Always       -       2
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   200   200   ---    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x002e   100   253   ---    Old_age   Always       -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   100   100   ---    Old_age   Always       -       0
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0032   100   253   ---    Old_age   Always       -       0
 11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032   100   253   ---    Old_age   Always       -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   ---    Old_age   Always       -       1
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   200   200   ---    Old_age   Always       -       0
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   200   200   ---    Old_age   Always       -       3
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   118   111   ---    Old_age   Always       -       25
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   200   200   ---    Old_age   Always       -       0
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0032   200   200   ---    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0030   100   253   ---    Old_age   Offline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x0032   200   253   ---    Old_age   Always       -       0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x0008   100   253   ---    Old_age   Offline      -       0

14.10.2021 Hannover time, added in response to a question

I failed to get my table formated!!!

The following is the result of the most recent speed measurement of your little running group. Number and name is self-explanatory. Sex is a static property of each member of your group (at least for the purpose of this example) Diagnostics is the speed in seconds/100m when being tested. That is a dynamic property that can go up and down.

NUMBER  NAME    SEX     SEC/100M

1 Peter man 11,2

2 Eva woman 12,4

3 Karen woman 14,8

4 Arnold man 9,2

5 Bill man 17