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General discussion

Bad block on disk.

by RayGo75 May 2, 2009 11:05PM PDT

I have a Vostro 1500 running Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 and all other updates.

I run Windows Live One Care for virus protection, firewall setting, spyware detection and backups.

Recently I was having a problem doing a backup with a new external drive. I then tried to do the same backup on the external drive I had been using with the same results, after running for over an hour it would hang. I ran the tuneup function in One Care which said there was a problem with the hard drive and it scheduled a chkdsk for the next reboot. This had happened once before but chkdsk did not find any problems, not so this time. So much for the history lesson.

Now when I boot my machine it wants to run a chkdsk and if I let it run it gets to the following message:

89% complete (25311216 of 28933969 free clusters processed)

where it stops, the two number are different each time I run chkdsk but not by much.

I also ran a system check from hitting the F12 key during boot and the Pre-boot Sytem Assessment Build 4106 came up with the following error:

Error Code 0142

Msg Error code 2000-0142

Msg Unit 1 Drive Self Test Failed Status Byte=79

I then ran the disk test in the program that came up after that and got the following failures:

In the read test:.....

Test Results Fail

Error Code 0F00:0244

Msg: Disk_0 Block 299181333 Uncorrectable data error or media is write protected

and in the Verify Test...

Test Results Fail

Error Code 0F00:1A44

Msg Disk_0 Block 299181333 Uncorrectable data error or media is write protected

So as you can see I have identified the bad block I just need a way to mark it bad so it will not be used anymore.

Thank you in advance for any help you can give me.

Discussion is locked

5 Posts
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Many of these are in warranty still.
by r. proffitt Forum moderator May 2, 2009 11:10PM PDT

Let dell replace the drive.

And while chkdsk does have an option to do this, I find my data to be worth having a drive without issues.
Bob

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chkdsk hangs
by RayGo75 May 2, 2009 11:20PM PDT

I will see if I can get a replacment for the drive from Dell.
The problem still is that chkdsk is not doing what is sappose to do. When it gets to the bad block it just stops and I have to shut down and reboot. You can see the frustration in doing this over and over with the same results.
Also with the bad block my backup fails. I have one other option for backing up my HD that I will try but if that fails I am SOL.

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Expectations versus realities.
by r. proffitt Forum moderator May 3, 2009 12:19AM PDT

Even in Vista, CHKDSK only does so much. For years I've seen it do both minor miracles and fail to deliver. Let's be sure not to give it more than a "I hope it works" expectation level.

There is SPINRITE but for the price you often can replace the drive.
Bob

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out of warrenty
by RayGo75 May 3, 2009 5:04AM PDT

Well I checked with Dell and my Laptop is out of warrenty so that is not an option.
I was able to backup my HD with the software that came with my Seagate external drive but it did not backup everything. It seems Seagate disk manager will not backup files if the hidden flag is turned on. Frankly I want those files backed up too. A backup should backup EVERY FILE. I can understand if a file is in use that it is not backed up but I want everything else backed up. Sorry I am just venting.
I am going to see how much a new HD will cost for my laptop and make do until I can afford one.
Thanks for you help.

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Just today I did a backup. (just sharing)
by r. proffitt Forum moderator May 3, 2009 7:31AM PDT

We have a new laptop in the family so before we booted it for the first time I wanted an image of the hard disk so I was assured I could start exactly as it was out of the box. For this I used a spare hard disk that was larger than the laptop drive and G4U plus the usual USB hard disk adapter.

I let my son boot it up and make the restore media and for the final backup we cloned the restore media and packed it all away in zip lock bags and foam so if the box was tossed off the roof it should be fine.

I have backup.
Bob

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