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How to fix bad sectors
- Thread starter pinkhouse
- Start date
electronicsfreak
Technical User
There are programs made for fixing bad sectors of a hard drive however they dont always work for the hard drive itself could be dying. The only program I know for fixing them though isnt free so not always something I reccomend. But the program is called spinrite. But it requires wiping the drive out and like I said you may have a hard drive that is failing.
anyways the links below
anyways the links below
- Thread starter
- #3
And if you had fixed it to your satisfaction would you then have trusted your data to it?
Earlier motherboards had low level format capabilities that would resolve issues like this. You could also create a partition on the drive to bypass a bad area if it seems to be in one area only and not spreading.
Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.
Earlier motherboards had low level format capabilities that would resolve issues like this. You could also create a partition on the drive to bypass a bad area if it seems to be in one area only and not spreading.
Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.
- Thread starter
- #5
Quote regarding Spinrite:
"But it requires wiping the drive out."
Not correct, actually.
I use the program fairly regularly as a preventative measure on the several drives I have in use around here, mostly with plenty of data on them.
A bad sector cannot be fixed as such, if it is truly bad. Normally a HDD would come with a number of 'spare' sectors, and if one from the data area is registered bad, it would be swapped out and one of the spares registered for use in its place. This process is invisible, the idea being the HDD still shows as having the full compliment of sectors.
If you have got to the stage where bad sectors are showing up within the data area, this means the drive has run out of spares, and you should start questioning why this is, and the drive's long term reliability.
Regards, Andy.
**************************************
My pathetic attempts at learning HTML can be laughed at here:
"But it requires wiping the drive out."
Not correct, actually.
I use the program fairly regularly as a preventative measure on the several drives I have in use around here, mostly with plenty of data on them.
A bad sector cannot be fixed as such, if it is truly bad. Normally a HDD would come with a number of 'spare' sectors, and if one from the data area is registered bad, it would be swapped out and one of the spares registered for use in its place. This process is invisible, the idea being the HDD still shows as having the full compliment of sectors.
If you have got to the stage where bad sectors are showing up within the data area, this means the drive has run out of spares, and you should start questioning why this is, and the drive's long term reliability.
Regards, Andy.
**************************************
My pathetic attempts at learning HTML can be laughed at here:
This could be kinda long, so sit back and relax!
Andy is right. If a bad sector is truly bad, then it is a physical problem and not something that software will remedy.
Formatting or wiping a drive which sets the file allocation table back to its presets, does make it seem like sectors can be fixed. This is true in the situations where data stored in that sector just became corrupted and needed a fresh start. However, this is often an illusion, as the problem usually comes back to haunt you when that sector is put in use again.
Much like when you buy a brand new LCD monitor that came with a dead pixel or two, bad sectors are expected to occur over the average lifetime of a hard drive. The mechanics of a hard drive aren't perfect. Occasionally if a hard drive is powered off too suddenly, or the air flow within the drive's casing isn't consistent, the needle that floats harmlessly above the platters can make contact on the disk. That's one example of how a sector can become damaged. The other common reason is when it loses it's magnetic ability to store data, either from a lot of activity or simply a flaw in the manufacturing process.
Unless you start to see a lot of them in a short period of time, it's nothing to be too alarmed about. Leaving it marked "bad" will prevent the operating system from trying to store data there, which is a good thing!
![[wink]](/data/assets/smilies/wink.gif "[wink] [wink]")
~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884
Andy is right. If a bad sector is truly bad, then it is a physical problem and not something that software will remedy.
Formatting or wiping a drive which sets the file allocation table back to its presets, does make it seem like sectors can be fixed. This is true in the situations where data stored in that sector just became corrupted and needed a fresh start. However, this is often an illusion, as the problem usually comes back to haunt you when that sector is put in use again.
Much like when you buy a brand new LCD monitor that came with a dead pixel or two, bad sectors are expected to occur over the average lifetime of a hard drive. The mechanics of a hard drive aren't perfect. Occasionally if a hard drive is powered off too suddenly, or the air flow within the drive's casing isn't consistent, the needle that floats harmlessly above the platters can make contact on the disk. That's one example of how a sector can become damaged. The other common reason is when it loses it's magnetic ability to store data, either from a lot of activity or simply a flaw in the manufacturing process.
Unless you start to see a lot of them in a short period of time, it's nothing to be too alarmed about. Leaving it marked "bad" will prevent the operating system from trying to store data there, which is a good thing!
~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884
- Thread starter
- #9
You have the option of getting to command prompt unless the bad stuff is at the front. Spinrite can (or at least used to) run in DOS mode to lock out any bad sectors it finds, then try an "over the top" reload. Easiest if you are on 98 or SE. 95 may make you jump through some hoops.
Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.
Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.
- Thread starter
- #11
Edfair,
Yes, I believe the bad stuff is at front. I can get a command prompt. That's about all I can do. I have run Spinrite 4 or 5 times and there is no change in the scenerio. The program is not locking out bad sectors or anything.
On my last run I thought that it had corrected the problem because I did not see the "B" displayed. But when I tried to run scandisk or scanreg it still didn't work. Nor could I get it to launch windows at all.
Yes, I believe the bad stuff is at front. I can get a command prompt. That's about all I can do. I have run Spinrite 4 or 5 times and there is no change in the scenerio. The program is not locking out bad sectors or anything.
On my last run I thought that it had corrected the problem because I did not see the "B" displayed. But when I tried to run scandisk or scanreg it still didn't work. Nor could I get it to launch windows at all.
pinkhouse,
I realize what you are concerned about. But do you even know if the bad sectors contain data that you are trying to access?
Locking out bad sectors doesn't recover data previously stored there to my knowledge. A physical failure of that sector (or sectors) may mean the missing data is gone for good, unfortunately.
If your data was stored in a "good" sector, then there should be nothing stopping you from retrieving it. In that situation, instead of booting up from that drive, throw it into another PC.
~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884
I realize what you are concerned about. But do you even know if the bad sectors contain data that you are trying to access?
Locking out bad sectors doesn't recover data previously stored there to my knowledge. A physical failure of that sector (or sectors) may mean the missing data is gone for good, unfortunately.
If your data was stored in a "good" sector, then there should be nothing stopping you from retrieving it. In that situation, instead of booting up from that drive, throw it into another PC.
~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884
If the bad stuff is at the front it is affecting the operating system, not the data, and is recoverable as cdogg suggests. 95 minimum takes 62mb and SE takes 110mb at the front so your data is beyond that in most cases.
You probably could use a partition manager to create a blank area at the front and do an "over the top" reinstall and get things working again but your data is at some risk during the process, slight but some. Or use the manager to create a second partition out of blank space on the back and create an extended partition and logical drive, format it, then copy your data over to the new logical drive.
Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.
You probably could use a partition manager to create a blank area at the front and do an "over the top" reinstall and get things working again but your data is at some risk during the process, slight but some. Or use the manager to create a second partition out of blank space on the back and create an extended partition and logical drive, format it, then copy your data over to the new logical drive.
Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.
- Thread starter
- #14
- Thread starter
- #15
Cdogg,
You are right I don't know if there was any data listed on the "Bad" Sectors. I am just assuming that it is because I can't get to anything on the drive except the windows startup menu. I can go to the command prompt only. So, maybe instead of trying to fix the bad sectors I want to start windows and then retrieve my data.
Once again, I can't get pass the c prompt and the message comes up that there is corrupted sectrs or LBA problems.
You are right I don't know if there was any data listed on the "Bad" Sectors. I am just assuming that it is because I can't get to anything on the drive except the windows startup menu. I can go to the command prompt only. So, maybe instead of trying to fix the bad sectors I want to start windows and then retrieve my data.
Once again, I can't get pass the c prompt and the message comes up that there is corrupted sectrs or LBA problems.
I use "Partition Magic" to resize and relocate partitions but there are others that are free. Try a google search.
Yes, "over the top" lays down new windows components on top of the existing version. SE is probably the best at doing it. But sometimes it will do a little more than the new components and wipe out the registry. I've never had one to attempt to reformat and have never lost data, but if the registry goes away you lose some of the links and have to reinstall your software to be able to use your data. I've also had cases where the first reinstall cleaned part of the problems and have had to take as many as 4 reinstalls to get everything clean.
If you decide to try this you might want to trace down the files that are corrupted and rename them so the new files don't try to load into the same space. And you might want to put the installation files on the hard drive to make it simpler and faster.
Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.
Yes, "over the top" lays down new windows components on top of the existing version. SE is probably the best at doing it. But sometimes it will do a little more than the new components and wipe out the registry. I've never had one to attempt to reformat and have never lost data, but if the registry goes away you lose some of the links and have to reinstall your software to be able to use your data. I've also had cases where the first reinstall cleaned part of the problems and have had to take as many as 4 reinstalls to get everything clean.
If you decide to try this you might want to trace down the files that are corrupted and rename them so the new files don't try to load into the same space. And you might want to put the installation files on the hard drive to make it simpler and faster.
Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.
Sorry to butt in here, but it seems to me all pinkhouse wants to do is get his data out. in which case the best scenario is to plug it into another machine and access it that way, instead of going through all these convoluted reinstallation scenarios, no offense to anybody, that will most likely yield little to no satisfactory results.
If all you want is the data inside, get the drive out of the computer and plug it into another PC as Slave, it should then come up, and you can copy the data you want from the failing drive with the bad sectors, to the other drive.
That seems easier, than trying to save a drive that seems is dying at an alarming rate, given the OS'es repeating need to run scandisk.
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.
If all you want is the data inside, get the drive out of the computer and plug it into another PC as Slave, it should then come up, and you can copy the data you want from the failing drive with the bad sectors, to the other drive.
That seems easier, than trying to save a drive that seems is dying at an alarming rate, given the OS'es repeating need to run scandisk.
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.
Nope, vacunita, you're not butting in at all. I suggested that in my last post.
~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884
~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884
O.K. saw that part now cdogg. Sorry. Must have missed it on the first read.
Anyway,I'm in the data recovery bussiness, and most of the drives we get here, when plugged in as slaves will let you access the files without to much trouble.
In my humble opinion its the best course of action, the easiest, and the most probable to yield good results, for Pinkhouse.
And I stand by my original post, the drive seems to be dying.
So whatever it s your going to do do it fast before more secotrs start popping up, corrupted.
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.
Anyway,I'm in the data recovery bussiness, and most of the drives we get here, when plugged in as slaves will let you access the files without to much trouble.
In my humble opinion its the best course of action, the easiest, and the most probable to yield good results, for Pinkhouse.
And I stand by my original post, the drive seems to be dying.
So whatever it s your going to do do it fast before more secotrs start popping up, corrupted.
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.
- Thread starter
- #20
Hello,
Thanks for the suggestions through them all I hope to resolve my problems this weekend. However, I would like an answer to my original question..."Suggestions for fixing bad sectors during defrag. Is there another way other than constantly sitting there hitting fix through large sectors?" I know want this information for my own education and information in case I run into the problem again.
Thanks
Thanks for the suggestions through them all I hope to resolve my problems this weekend. However, I would like an answer to my original question..."Suggestions for fixing bad sectors during defrag. Is there another way other than constantly sitting there hitting fix through large sectors?" I know want this information for my own education and information in case I run into the problem again.
Thanks
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