First post, by RaiderOfLostVoodoo
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The uncorrectable sectors on the 40GB ones are just phantoms. I used all the diagnostic programs on UBCD (HUTIL, Vivard, etc). None could fine any broken sectors. After performing the tests the Power On Hours jumped from 3k to 407k. So SMART is claiming that this drive ran 24/7 since the 70s. Interesting!
I've been using this drive in my ISA test system for some time now and installed Win98 multiple times. No issues so far, expect from the wrong SMART values.
My suspicion is, that the firmware might be broken. But I can't find a source that seems trustworthy. Can anyone help me out?
The 160GB one definitely has broken sectors in the first few hundred Megabytes. Every program found them, but none could remap them. My suspicion was that the drive ran out of spare sectors. But nope, it didn't. I don't understand why I can't remap the sectors. Any ideas how to fix them?
Some people might suggest to just throw it away, but I never throw away HDDs that still work. I've build a few low end office machines and give away HDDs with reallocated sectors as a freebie. Newbs don't like to buy PCs without HDDs. They want a machine that's ready to use. Of course I tell them to backup important data and buy a SSD as soon as they can spare the cash. If they don't, that's not my problem anymore. I would like to give away pristine HDDs, but I can't. Most PCs I buy come without an HDD because the seller "dOeSn'T kNoW wHaT's oN iT, sO hE kEePs iT". -.-