Bad sectors on hard drive

[Jim]

Hello,

I have a laptop running Windows 2000 Professional. I
replaced the hard drive a while ago, but lately have been
having trouble with bad sectors. It started when programs
started hanging up, hard drive making repetive noises
(clicking, etc..like it was laboring to find files). Now
upon boot, it runs CHKDSK, and had found 100's of "File
record segment XXXXX is unreadable." It then says it is
removing,etc.. Each time I boot this automatically runs
now.

But within Windows, I encounter the same problems with
apps hanging and the HD making noise. I believe I have
physical damage to some sectors(or virus). I want to
reformat and fix then reload.

My question is: What is the best way to take care of this
to 'mark' the bad sectors so they are not used when I
reload. Do I reformat, then use FDISK or something?

I have heard that CHKDSK /R will fix. This is actually
what is run when I boot each time. If I run plain CHKDSK
in a DOS window, it ends saying "CHKDSK cannot continue in
read-only mode" so then I try CHKDSK /R and it says "The
type of the file system is NTFS. Cannot lock current
drive" and then "CHKDSK cannot run because the volume is
in use by another process" and asks me to schedule it for
boot.

Any ideas??

Jim

 

[Dave Patrick]

Some AV locks the drive before chkdsk can gain exclusive access to the
drive, hence it can't run. In this case you can boot the recovery console
and run
chkdsk /r
from the command line. (/r implies /f and /p)

To start the Recovery Console, start the computer from the Windows 2000
Setup CD or the Windows 2000 Setup floppy disks. If you do not have Setup
floppy disks and your computer cannot start from the Windows 2000 Setup CD,
use another Windows 2000-based computer to create the Setup floppy disks.
Press ENTER at the "Setup Notification" screen. Press R to repair a Windows
2000 installation, and then press C to use the Recovery Console. The
Recovery Console then prompts you for the administrator password. If you do
not have the correct password, Recovery Console does not allow access to the
computer. If an incorrect password is entered three times, the Recovery
Console quits and restarts the computer. Once the password has been
validated, you have full access to the Recovery Console, but limited access
to the hard disk. You can only access the following folders on your
computer: %systemroot% and %windir%

(be sure you're backed up before hand)

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect


| Hello,
|
| I have a laptop running Windows 2000 Professional. I
| replaced the hard drive a while ago, but lately have been
| having trouble with bad sectors. It started when programs
| started hanging up, hard drive making repetive noises
| (clicking, etc..like it was laboring to find files). Now
| upon boot, it runs CHKDSK, and had found 100's of "File
| record segment XXXXX is unreadable." It then says it is
| removing,etc.. Each time I boot this automatically runs
| now.
|
| But within Windows, I encounter the same problems with
| apps hanging and the HD making noise. I believe I have
| physical damage to some sectors(or virus). I want to
| reformat and fix then reload.
|
| My question is: What is the best way to take care of this
| to 'mark' the bad sectors so they are not used when I
| reload. Do I reformat, then use FDISK or something?
|
| I have heard that CHKDSK /R will fix. This is actually
| what is run when I boot each time. If I run plain CHKDSK
| in a DOS window, it ends saying "CHKDSK cannot continue in
| read-only mode" so then I try CHKDSK /R and it says "The
| type of the file system is NTFS. Cannot lock current
| drive" and then "CHKDSK cannot run because the volume is
| in use by another process" and asks me to schedule it for
| boot.
|
| Any ideas??
|
| Jim

 

[Dan Seur]

Jim -

1. You should download and run the manufacturer's drive diagnostic for
that drive, from their website. It'll be a bootable diskette image. When
booted it will report drive anomalies/problems it detects, and may be
able to repair some. It will advise you to contact tech support for
further instructions if problems cannot be corrected; tech support may
offer you a free replacement drive.

2. Many drive failures are progressive, and that may be what you are
experiencing. In the case of bad sectors, for instance, imagine a
slightly misaligned head tearing up the oxide surface, or a tiny piece
of dust doing the same thing as it gets shoved around in that
environment of microscopic clearances. Think of a snowplow pushing
gravel. Back up any precious data on that drive immediately.

3. The autocheck run at boot is a normal W2k response to a variety of
drive conditions W2k can detect at boot. Some conditions have nothing to
do with hardware failure (sudden power loss in the middle of a disk
access operation may leave files and/or indexes imperfect, for example),
but yours sounds like a warning of impending doom. Or doom itself.

4. Any unusual noise from a drive is a Very Bad Sign.

5. Simply marking bad sectors (the diagnostic can do this) by any method
is no help if the number of bad sectors is constantly increasing.

6. If you have a "general utilities" suite on that machine that has
disk-inspection capability, such will probably report bad problems. If
you can get it to run at all.

7. Laptops are not invulnerable to rough handling, although they're
usually designed to tolerate some. It's not unheard of for a replacement
drive to be bad. Either of these scenarios might account for your
misfortune.

HTH and good luck.

 

[Dan Seur]

Jim - I should have added that chkdsk /f or /r can never run on a
partition that cannot be "locked for exclusive use." This is ALWAYS the
case for the system partition, which the system necessarily always holds
available for its own use. Therefore, the /f or /r chkdsk for that
partition is able to run ONLY during boot, before the OS is fully loaded
and takes control.