WD S.M.A.R.T errors - can claim RMA?

Question

Last time I replaced another WD HDD, because of Re-allocated Sector Count, which I guess means bad sector. This time I have 2 other WD drives and HD Tune software shows warnings on Re-allocated Sector Count and UDMA CRC Error count. I checked with WD DataLife software and you can see screenshots below. Can somebody help to interpret the state of those 2 hard drives and tell me if a) I am close to failure b) I can now claim for RAM with this numbers. Both HDD tests results are passed in WD DataLife.

Again, my concern was that HD Tune software showed warnings as below(it corresponds to first screenshot):

Answer 1

None of those indicate something is wrong now. It basically says that your drive has bad sectors and that it has managed to shift them off to spare sectors. If you have current pending sectors it means you have so many your drive can't transparently recover from them. Sadly enough, i'll have to refer you to wikipedia for the details - its colour coded, and anything red there is VERY bad

Answer 2

If a hard drive under warrenty shows bad sectors, even if they were moved, you should RMA the drive. It means that the drive is:

1. Defective.
2. Declining in health.
3. Prone to potential future data loss for you.

Don't take any chances. No hard drive company will deny you RMA because you clearly show that you do indeed have bad sectors. In fact, when you RMA a drive, one of the RMA "reasons" you can choose is always "bad sectors".

Answer 3

Why not telephone WD and ask them? They should know, they manufacture the disk!

If your disk is still under warranty, then I don't see why not.

It is, after all, a 'defect', and you should be able to get the disk repaired or get a new one.

I once had a Hitachi 40GB hard drive with many bad sectors (SpeedFan would warn me) but it just worked and worked. Of course, it is good to keep backups of your data just in case something unfortunate happens!