{
  "slug": "pending-sector",
  "term": "Pending sector",
  "aliases": [
    "Pending disk sector"
  ],
  "definition": "A pending sector is a drive-reported sector with an unresolved read problem that may be reassessed or remapped by subsequent device operations.",
  "note": "Pending describes a reported problem awaiting resolution, not completed remapping. Tools may label the counter Current Pending Sector or Pending-Sparing Count. A later write can rewrite the sector or remap it to a replacement. [seagate-pending]\n\nATA attribute 197 commonly reports this state, but its meaning requires the model and firmware context. A count can fall after successful rereading or reallocation; some drives retain it after reallocation. [smartd-pending]\n\nA lower count does not prove recovery of the previous bytes. Overwriting a sector to change its status can destroy data that might otherwise be recovered. Preserve recoverable data before attempting repair. [smartd-pending]\n\nField context: A 2007 study describes probation as a state that need not end in remapping. Its model-dependent counter categories are not a universal decoding rule for current devices. [pinheiro-probation]",
  "status": "shipping",
  "advantages": [],
  "limitations": [
    {
      "text": "The count is not a list of affected files or proof of their contents; sector-to-file mapping depends on the storage stack.",
      "citationIds": [
        "smartd-pending"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "related": [
    "ata-smart",
    "smart-raw-value",
    "latent-sector-error",
    "alternate-sector-remapping"
  ],
  "supersedes": [],
  "supersededBy": [],
  "firstSeen": null,
  "lastSeen": null,
  "updated": "2026-11-14",
  "citations": [
    {
      "id": "smartd-pending",
      "title": "smartmontools 7.5 smartd.conf manual: -C ID[+] and -v 197,increasing",
      "url": "https://github.com/smartmontools/smartmontools/blob/RELEASE_7_5/smartmontools/smartd.conf.5.in",
      "accessed": "2026-11-14"
    },
    {
      "id": "seagate-pending",
      "title": "Seagate openSeaChest: Drive Health and SMART, Pending Error Count",
      "url": "https://github.com/Seagate/openSeaChest/wiki/Drive-Health-and-SMART#pending-error-count",
      "accessed": "2026-11-14"
    },
    {
      "id": "pinheiro-probation",
      "title": "Pinheiro, Weber and Barroso (FAST 2007): Failure Trends in a Large Disk Drive Population, sections 3.5.3-3.5.4",
      "url": "https://www.usenix.org/legacy/event/fast07/tech/full_papers/pinheiro/pinheiro_html/index.html",
      "accessed": "2026-11-14"
    }
  ],
  "provenance": [
    "Source synthesis, not a device experiment or a drive-replacement threshold. The manual's 512-byte illustration is not used as a universal sector size."
  ]
}