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Bad Sectors!! 3
- Thread starter srossbach
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1
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There is no way to salvage bad sectors, aside from paying thousands of dollars to a recovery company.
You cannot usually prevent them from multiplying either, once a hard drive has started going bad, it's just a matter of time before it's totally gone.
How many bad sectors befor one should replace a drive?
Answer= 1 especially if it's under warranty.
You can usually get a hard drive diagnostic from the manufacturer's website to test the drive, and if it's not "up to spec", then an RMA is called for.
If the store you bought it at won't honor a warranty (usually only 90 days) the manufacturers usually warranty for much longer, some up to 5 years, or forever.
Cheers,
Jim
reboot@pcmech.com
Moderator at Staff at Windows 9x/ME instructor.
Jim's Modems:
You cannot usually prevent them from multiplying either, once a hard drive has started going bad, it's just a matter of time before it's totally gone.
How many bad sectors befor one should replace a drive?
Answer= 1 especially if it's under warranty.
You can usually get a hard drive diagnostic from the manufacturer's website to test the drive, and if it's not "up to spec", then an RMA is called for.
If the store you bought it at won't honor a warranty (usually only 90 days) the manufacturers usually warranty for much longer, some up to 5 years, or forever.
Cheers,
Jim
reboot@pcmech.com
Moderator at Staff at Windows 9x/ME instructor.
Jim's Modems:
-
2
- #3
Bad Sectors can be manufacturer defects that don't show up for a while or they can be a piece of dust. Basically it's a physical spot on the drive that the HDD (Hard Disk Drive) can no longer read.
Now days (as opposed to 3 years ago) it's better to just replace the drive since the the price vs. size is economical. Manufacturers cover the drives, in a lot of cases, even if it is in a major brand computer no longer covered by the manufacturer. Some companies cover their hard drives for up to 7 years. Call them, they ship you a replacement (often larger in size) and send the old one back in a box.
Fixing the drive? Well... This can also be done but is not recommended. Think of it as adding Slick 50 to a dying engine and thinking it will last forever, it's not going to happen. MS Scandisk can salvage a drive sometimes, it does this by cataloging the bad sectors and avoiding them when it writes to the drive. Now if there is something in the drive causing the bad sectors this is going to be very tempermental. It "may" work though. You can also get software like Norton Disk Doctor which may be able to repair or recover data in the damaged area. Another option you have is to do a low level format of the drive. If you are using a SCSI drive the SCSI BIOS can perform this for you, it may take all day and night though. If you are using an IDE drive you can download shareware software that can perform a Low Level Format (LLF) for you. LLF wipes the drive super clean and refreshes all the sectors. The same concept applies to floppy disks, if you don't use them they go bad because they loose their magnatism. These are just a couple options.
For future reference, although this is more of a past issue. If your drive is set to CHS and not set to LBA (Logical Block Addressing) in the BIOS it may offset the sectors and give the appearance that data is corrupt or in bad sectors. If you view your directories, or as MS now calls them, folders and they are garbled and you know your drive is good, check this setting. If you write to a good drive incorrectly set to CHS, bye-bye data.
If all else fails and your data is extremely important and worth it, companies like On-Track will perform data recovery starting around $1500. Amazingly some of these companies can do this even if it was a HDD in your laptop that caught on fire on a plane and crashing in the Ocean where it was submerged for 2 months. Just expect it to take a LONG time.
Hope that helps, lots of hardware tips and knowledge is being replaced by it being cheeper to just replace hardware. Not long ago you would yank a drive and soylder replacement parts into it. Do I buy into just replacing parts, heck yeah! Ciao.
Scott
Now days (as opposed to 3 years ago) it's better to just replace the drive since the the price vs. size is economical. Manufacturers cover the drives, in a lot of cases, even if it is in a major brand computer no longer covered by the manufacturer. Some companies cover their hard drives for up to 7 years. Call them, they ship you a replacement (often larger in size) and send the old one back in a box.
Fixing the drive? Well... This can also be done but is not recommended. Think of it as adding Slick 50 to a dying engine and thinking it will last forever, it's not going to happen. MS Scandisk can salvage a drive sometimes, it does this by cataloging the bad sectors and avoiding them when it writes to the drive. Now if there is something in the drive causing the bad sectors this is going to be very tempermental. It "may" work though. You can also get software like Norton Disk Doctor which may be able to repair or recover data in the damaged area. Another option you have is to do a low level format of the drive. If you are using a SCSI drive the SCSI BIOS can perform this for you, it may take all day and night though. If you are using an IDE drive you can download shareware software that can perform a Low Level Format (LLF) for you. LLF wipes the drive super clean and refreshes all the sectors. The same concept applies to floppy disks, if you don't use them they go bad because they loose their magnatism. These are just a couple options.
For future reference, although this is more of a past issue. If your drive is set to CHS and not set to LBA (Logical Block Addressing) in the BIOS it may offset the sectors and give the appearance that data is corrupt or in bad sectors. If you view your directories, or as MS now calls them, folders and they are garbled and you know your drive is good, check this setting. If you write to a good drive incorrectly set to CHS, bye-bye data.
If all else fails and your data is extremely important and worth it, companies like On-Track will perform data recovery starting around $1500. Amazingly some of these companies can do this even if it was a HDD in your laptop that caught on fire on a plane and crashing in the Ocean where it was submerged for 2 months. Just expect it to take a LONG time.
Hope that helps, lots of hardware tips and knowledge is being replaced by it being cheeper to just replace hardware. Not long ago you would yank a drive and soylder replacement parts into it. Do I buy into just replacing parts, heck yeah! Ciao.
Scott
Would add that if it is a manufacturing defect, it may lowlevel OK, but the sector may fail again depending on what is written to it. Other wise Scott has given a superb discourse. Ed Fair
efair@atlnet.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.
efair@atlnet.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.
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