Bad Block on Hard Disk

[Guest]

Hi Everybody.
I'm having a problem that in the Event Viewer in XP Pro SP2 it shows that I
have a bad block on drive D:\
I tried CHKDSK D: /R, but still the bad block.
Now I formated the whole drive and after windows installation I splitted the
drive into 3 partitions.
C:\ - D;\ and E:\
Still it says in the Event Viewer under System:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The device, \Device\Harddisk0\D, has a bad block.
For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Why again after formating and splitting the partition into 3 (before I had
only 2), it is still drive D:\ that has the bad block.
Is my hard drive ready for the trash can?
Before D:\ was my Backup Partition and files been on it for ages even when I
formated and installed windows many times I left D:\ as it is.
But now I formated all and D:\ is empty now.
There is nothing on it.
After creating the partition D:\ I formated just D:\ again, but still this
error message in the Event Viewer.
Is there something I can do to fix this?
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Tommy

P.S.
Here a copy of the complete error message:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Disk
Event Category: None
Event ID: 7
Date: 3/6/2006
Time: 19:26:28
User: N/A
Computer: ENITERPRISE
Description:
The device, \Device\Harddisk0\D, has a bad block.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 03 00 68 00 01 00 b6 00 ..h...¶.
0008: 00 00 00 00 07 00 04 c0 .......À
0010: 00 01 00 00 9c 00 00 c0 ....?..À
0018: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0020: 00 be 12 3a 00 00 00 00 .¾.:....
0028: 9a 93 00 00 00 00 00 00 ??......
0030: ff ff ff ff 01 00 00 00 ÿÿÿÿ....
0038: 40 00 00 84 02 00 00 00 @..?....
0040: 00 20 0a 12 40 03 20 40 . ..@. @
0048: 00 00 00 00 0a 00 00 00 ........
0050: 00 00 00 00 80 19 45 86 ....?.E?
0058: 00 00 00 00 90 d8 48 86 ....ÂØH?
0060: 02 00 00 00 5f 09 1d 00 ...._...
0068: 28 00 00 1d 09 5f 00 00 (...._..
0070: 80 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ?.......
0078: f0 00 03 00 00 00 00 0b ð.......
0080: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0088: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........

 

[Jim]

Hi Everybody.
I'm having a problem that in the Event Viewer in XP Pro SP2 it shows that
I
have a bad block on drive D:\
I tried CHKDSK D: /R, but still the bad block.
Now I formated the whole drive and after windows installation I splitted
the
drive into 3 partitions.
C:\ - D;\ and E:\
Still it says in the Event Viewer under System:

Because all that work does not fix a bad block.

Is my hard drive ready for the trash can? Yes
Before D:\ was my Backup Partition and files been on it for ages even when
I
formated and installed windows many times I left D:\ as it is.
But now I formated all and D:\ is empty now.
There is nothing on it.
After creating the partition D:\ I formated just D:\ again, but still this
error message in the Event Viewer.

All that work does not fix a bad block. Even though the partition is empty,
it has a bad block which make it useless.

Is there something I can do to fix this?
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Tommy

The disk is on its way to disk heaven. You should replace it ASAP.
Jim

 

[Kerry Brown]

In all likelihood the drive is going bad. My recommendation is to replace
it. If you want to try saving it then use the following procedure. If you do
this be aware that the drive could go south at any time. Do not use it to
store important data. Make sure you back it up often.

Go to the hard drive manufacturer's web site and download the free
diagnostic program to check your drive. If it passes that there still may be
a problem. Most manufacturer's will pass a marginal drive so they don't have
to warranty it. If it passes the manufacturer's diagnostics then use this
test to check it further.

http://www.hdtune.com/

If everything still passes then use the manufacturer's utility to zero or
low level format the drive. This will return it to the factory new state.
Use Windows to partition and format the drive.

Kerry

 

[Haggis]

Hi Everybody.
I'm having a problem that in the Event Viewer in XP Pro SP2 it shows that
I
have a bad block on drive D:\
I tried CHKDSK D: /R, but still the bad block.
Now I formated the whole drive and after windows installation I splitted
the
drive into 3 partitions.
C:\ - D;\ and E:\
Still it says in the Event Viewer under System:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The device, \Device\Harddisk0\D, has a bad block.
For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Why again after formating and splitting the partition into 3 (before I had
only 2), it is still drive D:\ that has the bad block.
Is my hard drive ready for the trash can?
Before D:\ was my Backup Partition and files been on it for ages even when
I
formated and installed windows many times I left D:\ as it is.
But now I formated all and D:\ is empty now.
There is nothing on it.
After creating the partition D:\ I formated just D:\ again, but still this
error message in the Event Viewer.
Is there something I can do to fix this?
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Tommy

P.S.
Here a copy of the complete error message:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Disk
Event Category: None
Event ID: 7
Date: 3/6/2006
Time: 19:26:28
User: N/A
Computer: ENITERPRISE
Description:
The device, \Device\Harddisk0\D, has a bad block.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 03 00 68 00 01 00 b6 00 ..h...¶.
0008: 00 00 00 00 07 00 04 c0 .......Ã?
0010: 00 01 00 00 9c 00 00 c0 ....?..Ã?
0018: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0020: 00 be 12 3a 00 00 00 00 .¾.:....
0028: 9a 93 00 00 00 00 00 00 ??......
0030: ff ff ff ff 01 00 00 00 ÿÿÿÿ....
0038: 40 00 00 84 02 00 00 00 @..?....
0040: 00 20 0a 12 40 03 20 40 . ..@. @
0048: 00 00 00 00 0a 00 00 00 ........
0050: 00 00 00 00 80 19 45 86 ....?.E?
0058: 00 00 00 00 90 d8 48 86 ....ÂÃ~H?
0060: 02 00 00 00 5f 09 1d 00 ...._...
0068: 28 00 00 1d 09 5f 00 00 (...._..
0070: 80 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ?.......
0078: f0 00 03 00 00 00 00 0b ð.......
0080: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0088: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........

you can't do much about it ...its a physical thing ...you CAN try
diagnostics from the harddrive manufacturer (if you try the repair utilities
...have everything backed up!)

 

[Doug Kanter]

Take a look at this brief article, and don't miss the links at the end, for
manufacturers' disk utilities.
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/29

 

[Guest]

Hi to you all.
Thanks to all of your for your replies.
That all seems to be useful information.
I will try the low level formating.
At the moment I'm running smoothly without the Bad block error message after
formating D:\ again, but who knows for how long that will last.
Because I was running to very serious problems for the last few days with
several times reinstalling windows, because the system failed me a few times
just after installation.
Anyway, thanks again for the information.
So long.
Tommy

 

[Kerry Brown]

Hi to you all.
Thanks to all of your for your replies.
That all seems to be useful information.
I will try the low level formating.
At the moment I'm running smoothly without the Bad block error
message after formating D:\ again, but who knows for how long that
will last.
Because I was running to very serious problems for the last few days
with several times reinstalling windows, because the system failed me
a few times just after installation.
Anyway, thanks again for the information.
So long.
Tommy

Whatever you do don't trust this drive. Make sure you backup any important
data often.

Kerry

 

[Doug Kanter]

If you begin obsessing about this (and sometimes you should), take a look at
what's probably the best hard disk utility in the known universe, Spinrite:
www.grc.com

I think Gibson writes all his own web site text, and it's a bit corny &
sensational at times. But, Spinrite's been around for years, and it does
exactly what it says it will do. Very unusual these days.

 

[Al Dykes]

If you begin obsessing about this (and sometimes you should), take a look at
what's probably the best hard disk utility in the known universe, Spinrite:
www.grc.com

I think Gibson writes all his own web site text, and it's a bit corny &
sensational at times. But, Spinrite's been around for years, and it does
exactly what it says it will do. Very unusual these days.

Spinrite can't fix a failing disk drive.

 

[Doug Kanter]

Spinrite can't fix a failing disk drive.

That's correct. I don't mean to suggest that the user should ignore bad
blocks, but unless they begin to pop up repeatedly in a short period of
time, they do not necessarily indicate an impending drive failure. I
suggested Spinrite because some of the disk mfrs' utilities are rather
cryptic. Spinrite makes things much clearer for the user.

 

[Admiral Q]

I've run disks with bad blocks in them for years, but... normally a CHKDSK
/R or FORMAT will mark the bad blocks unavailable to the OS so the OS
doesn't try to write to them, so you shouldn't be continually getting the
bad block event. My suggestion is as others, go to the harddrive
manufacturer and get their diagnostic utility or some other more friend disk
diagnostic such as SpinRite and diagnose the disk. Also a low-level format
may correct the problem or I've also seen it exasperate the problem, truely
identifying the need for a new drive - so be prepared.
Note: If you do try a low-level format, be sure to use the manufacturer's
utility for the drive, not a 3rd party or some other manufacturer's utility,
and it may not have the correct geometry information for your drive and
destroy it.