Why my hard drive have Reallocated sectors count ?

Personally I'd test the drive with Seagate's own software not a third party application, as the interpretation of the SMART data can vary, plus the Firecuda drives also have 8Gb of NAND Flash for acceleration which may confuse the matter.  Nor is it unusual for a HDD to reallocate some sectors with values not always being straightforward to interpret.

My other notebook (Asus GL703GS) has a Seagate FireCuda 1TB drive initially it tested slow with CrystalDiskMark 6, today it tests at 141 MB/s, this I attribute to the NAND Flash algorithm not any physical issue with the drive.  I have also seen the FireCuda drive confuse some benchmarking software, presenting itself as a RAM drive or deliver poor test results, which again I put down to the  NAND Flash algorithm as it's observably fast in normal usage.

With the FireCuda drives R&W will vary due to the NAND Flash algorithm.  My 1TB version tops out at around 140 MB/s for reads and 130 MB/s for writes (HDD not NAND).


Same drive, same benchmark, big difference in write speed, again this is very likely the work of the NAND Flash algorithm.


In normal usage the drive is very fast (for HDD) and stable, leaving no questions or concerns regarding it's performance, with such variances being invisible to the user. A 4Gb BIN file copies from the M.2 NVMe SSD to the FireCuda in literally a of couple seconds...

This capture below of a 13Gb MP4 file transfer best illustrates how the FireCuda drives operate, first utilising the 8Gb NAND Flash at GB/s transfer speeds until the NAND is partially full, then transferring at normal HDD speeds.  Little simplistic as personally I believe the algorithm is more far complex reacting to usage and demand placed on the drive in real-time.


TLDR: In my own experience bench testing the FireCuda drive delivers mixed results, Windows performance is extremely fast & solid, nor do I put much stock in third party application's to verify the drives condition. I also believe to test such drives it must be done from a DOS environment not Windows to prevent skewed results.

Q-6

There may very well be no problem.  You need to test the drive with Seagate's own software from DOS, then if any issue discovered speak with Seagate support.

Right now your using 3rd party software which may or may not be reading the SMART data from the drive correctly.  Why do you think the drive is slow? Try copying a large file 10Gb or more from the internal SSD to the FireCuda drive and see what happens, if similar to below then there is no performance issue


Note: you need to have reasonable free space on the HDD, my drive is 75% empty, if the performance is poor defragment the HDD.  Defraggler is a good free application. In Defraggler Options - Defrag - check the box for "Move Large Files to End of Drive During Whole Drive Defrag" as this can help with performance..

Also in Defraggler options - Advanced - check Stop VSS when defragmenting NTFS volume.

Q-6

What was the speed and what is the level of defragmentation of the drive? Also give the drive some time to settle and learn your common usage.  There's a significant number of variables; speed of the SSD, firmware, type of files, level of HDD defragmentation, percentage of free space etc.

If the drive is passing Seagate's own verification from DOS it's likely ok, it may just be Acer's implementation of the FireCuda in it's notebooks. If the drive is slow, how slow is it? 

Q-6

Try looking for the drive in Disk Management. Then format it from Disk Management, I know that some systems have problems recognising these SSHD drives.  There's also Seagate Disk Wizard which may be better to set up the drive, download and set up the drive as GPT.

To access Disk Management, type 'Disk Management' into the start menu or right-click the start button.

Q-6

At this point you need start speaking with Acer or Seagate as the FireCuda SSHD drives can and do work very well as secondary logical drives in the system.  So something is amiss, to have two drives have the same issue is concerning.  For the most part the drive should be just plug & play.

I looked at my Asus S7BS8750 (GL703GS) the SSHD drive is set up exactly the same as my Acer Predator 17 with a standard 2.5" HDD, of the FireCuda drive was part of Acer's original configuration I'd be asking for a replacement as it should perform on similar lines to my Asus notebook.

Q-6