8 bad sectors in Hard Drive. File System NTFS.

by standeb Jun 21, 2009 3:15AM PDT

Hello all,

I run Windows XP Sp3 and my system information is as follows:-

OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 3 Build 2600
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name HOME
System Manufacturer ECS
System Model M825VXX
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 6 Model 8 Stepping 1 AuthenticAMD ~1200 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. 07.00T, 4/2/2001
SMBIOS Version 2.3
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "5.1.2600.5512 (xpsp.080413-2111)"
User Name HOME\Smarty
Time Zone SA Western Standard Time
Total Physical Memory 1,536.00 MB
Available Physical Memory 986.70 MB
Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB
Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB
Page File Space 1.87 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys

I just completed a check Disk scan and fount that there a 8 bad sectors on my hard drive. My hard drive was cloned. I observed that the problem was stated as Event ID 1001.

My questions are: - (i) How to recover, repair and/or remove the
bad sectors?
(ii) Does it pose a problemn that woild
necessitate changing my hard drive?

Thanking you in advance for your comments and/or suggestions.

standeb

Discussion is locked

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There is no repair for such things.

by r. proffitt Forum moderator Jun 21, 2009 3:52AM PDT

You can look at SPINRITE but for the cost of that you get a new good drive.
Bob

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8 bad sectors in Hard Drive. File System NTFS.

by standeb Jun 21, 2009 9:15AM PDT

Hello Proffitt, Kees & Otr_man,

Thank you all for the replies. I have noted your contributions.

However I respectfully ask your opinions to the following. I stated in my initial post that the drive was cloned. I suspect that the former drive (20gbs) had the bad sectors because It began failing hence the cloneing and as a result thereof the 8 bad sectors which I believe were already there and probably recorded by scan disk on previous scans, showed up in later scans but I only just saw it in todays check disk scan report. Could it be that the bad sectors reported may not pose a problem that will damage this new drive?

The new drive, (160gbs) was only installed 5 months ago.

Meanwhile I shall be preparing for the purchase another new drive and backing up the system for a clean fresh re-installation of the o/s and not a clone.

In anticipation, I thank you for your comments on the question at paragraph 2 above which no doubt will be invaluable education to me.

standeb.

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Cloned.

by r. proffitt Forum moderator Jun 21, 2009 9:25AM PDT

The clone software I use would not clone the bad sectors. I use G4U most of the time. I have never seen clone software damage the target drive or copy such over.
Bob

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A cloned disk - so what???

by otr_man Jul 10, 2009 2:29PM PDT

If your hard disk has bad sectors, buy a new one urgently!

It does not matter whether that hard disk was a clone, or was not a clone. Once bad sectors appear on a disk, the disk is on the verge of failing.

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Formatting the drive ...

by Kees Bakker Jun 21, 2009 4:26AM PDT

would mark that 8 sectors as unusable (but delete all information on the drive, of course). But it gives you time to wait for more bad sectors to develop before buying a new disk.

Kees

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You URGENTLY need to buy a new hard disk

by otr_man Jun 21, 2009 5:27AM PDT

Hard disk manufacturers employ a hardware trick to hide bad sectors from the user, by setting up the disk with a "pool" of reserve sectors.

As sectors go bad, the disk controller swaps each bad sector for a spare sector from the reserve pool, invisibly, without telling the user. An average disk has thousands of reserve sectors.

If you are seeing bad sectors on your disk, it normally means that the disk has run out of reserve sectors. That means it has already replaced a large number of bad sectors without you being aware of it.

If the disk surface is so badly damaged that bad sectors can no longer be replaced, you urgently need to buy a new disk, and clone your existing disk on the new disk (e.g. using the program Norton Ghost).

There are cases where it is possible for sectors to go bad which cannot be swapped out to the reserve sector pool, because the bad sectors are in system-critical parts of the disk. In that case, buying a new disk is very very urgent indeed!

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8 bad sectors in Hard Drive. File System NTFS.

by standeb Jun 26, 2009 11:18AM PDT

Hi Guys,

I did some research. I looked in on the old hard drive. It contained 8KB in bad sectors. The report was there. as I iterated, the drive was cloned. The physical damage to the old drive as profitt rightly said was not and cannot be cloned, but the report was there and was cloned.

I was invited to download HD Tune 2.55 I got therefrom information about the present disc as wel as it's health and more particularly a scan of the disc. The legend showed the color gray for the drive, Green for it's good health but not red denoting damage.

I gather from the results obtained that the files are on the drive. They cannot be read or fixed unless a clean install is done and/or the files marked as $bad sectors will be skipped but the scan report will always be seen every time a check **** scan is done. however,I will have no problems unless the drive picks up more bad sector.

I thought I would write in to let you guys know what occurred and have your further comments.

Thanking you again.

standeb

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Let's go with the forum learned advice.

by r. proffitt Forum moderator Jun 26, 2009 11:02PM PDT

ready?

"We only lose what we didn't backup."

You have a firm grip on the situation that if it stay with this many bad sectors it is stable and can be used. This does not mean we can ignore our backup lesson.
Bob

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8 bad sectors in Hard Drive. File System NTFS.

by standeb Jun 27, 2009 11:07AM PDT

Hello Bob,

You are right. I go with the forums advice.

Did more reading. I shall be doing what I must before I get into real trouble.

Thank you guys for all the time and patience you have expended.

Best regards.

standeb

8 bad sectors in Hard Drive. File System NTFS.

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