Bad Block

[gkuljian]

I've tried fdisk/f/r and Norton utilities 2002 (which appears to do nothing more than fdisk), and still I'm not able to fix, or map and ignore, a bad block on my hard drive (pc machine). Is there any program or any way to fix this problem (without reformatting)?

 

[edfair]

scandisk, and let it do a surface scan. Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[RICHINMINN]

Another option is to use SpinRite, which I use whenever I run into a hard disk problem that ScanDisk can't resolve. It costs $89, and you can buy it by ordering it via phone (1-800-736-0637), and then downloading it (97K). You can check it out at

http://www.grc.com/spinrite.htm.

Microsoft recommends using ScanDisk for "routine maintenance", but when you run into something that's not routine, they recommend buying a "third-party utility package". In other words, they're admitting that ScanDisk is just a first line of attack when dealing with drive problems. (I read the above recommendation in one of

http://www.microsoft.com's

KnowledgeBase articles, and, dummy that I am, didn't print it out, and now I can't find it again!)

No, I have no vested interest in

http://www.grc.com

or any of the products found there. I'm just a techie guy who was frustrated by hard drive problems which ScanDisk could not fix, just as you are. I have used it on dozens of systems, so my cost per system is just a few dollars. It's one utility that I always have in my software "toolbox". And I have yet to encounter a hard drive that it couldn't "fix" for me (including saving the data that was located on bad clusters). I've "resurrected" drives that other techs had dismissed as being "hopelessly trashed".

Rich (in Minn.)

 

[RICHINMINN]

The link to

http://www.grc.com/spinrite.htm

in my response above got hosed up. This one should work better.

Rich (in Minn.)