Laptop BitLocker failing on drive with reallocation event count limit

4.5

The drive has used up its "spare" sectors to hide bad ones, and can no longer remap errors.

Symptoms
  • Data corruption
  • I/O errors
  • System crash
Possible Causes
  • Severe surface damage
  • Aging drive

Step-by-Step Fix

1

Check SMART Attribute 196

Monitor "Reallocation Event Count".

2

Stop All Writes

Every new write could be permanent data loss.

3

Replace Drive Immediately

The drive is "out of spares" and is now failing visibly.

When to See a Technician

Once the reallocation count starts rising, the drive is effectively dead. Do not attempt encryption.

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