Bad sectors: how to single out the file(s) in the bad sectors?

[scientia2002]

Hi there:
I have a FAT32 (Maxtor) HD in excellent state (accoring to SMART
test) . However, after a crash I made a chkdsk /f and then /r but I
noticed a 32K in bad sectors. The chkdsk /f /r did not give me any
further feedback on where the bad sector is or which file may be
corrupted.

Is there a way to find what is the (possible) file that may be ended
up in that bad sector?

I have too many files in the HD to check individually each of them if
they are corrupted or not and the HD is 90% occupied of files.
Thank you

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Go to Start, Control Panel, Folder Options, View, Advanced Settings
and verify that the box before "Show hidden files and folders" is
checked and "Hide protected operating system files " is unchecked. You
may need to scroll down to see the second item. You should also make
certain that the box before "Hide extensions for known file types" is
not checked. Next in Windows Explorer make sure View, Details is
selected and then select View, Choose Details and check before Name,
Type, Total Size, and Free Space.

In Windows Explorer search All Users ensuring you have selected
Advanced Options and clicked on the box before Search System Folders,
Search Hidden Files and Folders and Search Sub-Folders. Search
criteria "*.chk" without quotes.
http://www.filext.com/detaillist.php?extdetail=chk

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[scientia2002]

Search criteria "*.chk" without quotes.

Thank you. There were no chunk files created after the 32K bad sector
appeared. (when *.chk files are created the command-dos black window
does tell you about them, by the way. I had instead no messages of
this kind, when I did chkdsk /F /R).
I also tried Scandisk with all the (two) options checked. No avail
either.

 

[dobey]

Hi there:
I have a FAT32 (Maxtor) HD in excellent state (accoring to SMART
test) . However, after a crash I made a chkdsk /f and then /r but I
noticed a 32K in bad sectors. The chkdsk /f /r did not give me any
further feedback on where the bad sector is or which file may be
corrupted.

Is there a way to find what is the (possible) file that may be ended
up in that bad sector?

I have too many files in the HD to check individually each of them if
they are corrupted or not and the HD is 90% occupied of files.
Thank you

You only need to run chkdsk /r, as /f is implied
/f only checks and fixes the files / file system. /r checks the entire
disk - free space included.

Maybe using the /v option would give you a message.
Did you look in Event Viewer? I'm not sure about FAT32, but NTFS disk checks
results are written under the Application part of Event Viewer, under
WinLogon.

As someone pointed out, any recovered files will be saved as *.chk, usually
in a hidden directory called FOUND on the disk. These could be parts of any
file.

In any case once the sectors are marked as bad, they won't be used again, if
there was a file there that could not be read, the readable part most likely
would have been recovered as a *.chk file after you ran chkdsk /r.

If I were you I would backup everything, then run chkdsk /r every few days.
Make a note to see if the number of bad sectors are increasing or not. This
is a sign the disk is on the way out.

I wouldn't rely on the SMART info solely.

HTH.

 

[scientia2002]

Thanks Dobey for the info about chkdsk /r.
What is precisely strange is that no such chunk file appeared. The
event list, does not hint to anything specifically related to the HD
which is a slave one connected to the PC by means of a mobile IDE rack-
box.
When it hung up, the light of the box was constantly red, though there
was not up/download activity from that HD (I tought it was a problem
of dusty connectors). Now the problem seems solved (no hung ups), but
the 32K bad sectors is not tranquilizing. I have a back up, though I
do not want updating it if some files in the above HD is now
corrupted. For that reason was better for me singling out what was and
what is (if any) the file involved in the bad sector.

 

[Gerry Cornell]

I would try HD Tune (freeware).
Download and run it and see what it turns up.
http://www.hdtune.com/

Select the Info tabs and place the cursor on the drive under Drive
letter and then double click the two page icon ( copy to Clipboard )
and copy into a further message.

Select the Health tab and then double click the two page icon ( copy
to Clipboard ) and copy into a further message. Also do a full surface
scan with HD Tune.



--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[dobey]

I would try HD Tune (freeware).
Download and run it and see what it turns up.
http://www.hdtune.com/

Select the Info tabs and place the cursor on the drive under Drive
letter and then double click the two page icon ( copy to Clipboard )
and copy into a further message.

Select the Health tab and then double click the two page icon ( copy
to Clipboard ) and copy into a further message. Also do a full surface
scan with HD Tune.

Cheers for the utility.

 

[scientia2002]

Thank you so much Gerry! The HDTune is running now in the tab "error
scan". Long process. The two tabs info and health are respectively:
HD Tune: Maxtor 6Y160P0 Information

Firmware version : YAR41BW0
Serial number : Y47MK1WE
Capacity : 128.0 GB (~137.4 GB)
Buffer size : 7936 KB
Standard : ATA/ATAPI-7
Supported mode : UDMA Mode 6 (Ultra ATA/133)
Current mode : UDMA Mode 2 (Ultra ATA/33)

S.M.A.R.T : yes
48-bit Address : yes
Read Look-Ahead : yes
Write Cache : yes
Host Protected Area : yes
Device Configuration Overlay : yes
Automatic Acoustic Management: yes
Power Management : yes
Advanced Power Management : yes
Power-up in Standby : no
Security Mode : yes
Firmware Upgradable : yes

Partition : 1
Drive letter : G:\
Label : UC_7
Capacity : 21014 MB
Usage : 98.02%
Type : FAT32
Bootable : Yes

Partition : 2
Drive letter : H:\
Label : UC_8
Capacity : 110054 MB
Usage : 90.89%
Type : FAT32
Bootable : No

HD Tune: Maxtor 6Y160P0 Health

ID Current Worst ThresholdData
Status
(03) Spin Up Time 209 206 63 15388
Ok
(04) Start/Stop Count 253 253 0 84
Ok
(05) Reallocated Sector Count 253 253 63 1
Ok
(06) Read Channel Margin 253 253 100 0
Ok
(07) Seek Error Rate 253 252 0 0
Ok
(08) Seek Time Performance 253 252 187 57248
Ok
(09) Power On Hours Count 251 251 0 45432
Ok
(0A) Spin Retry Count 253 252 157 0
Ok
(0B) Calibration Retry Count 253 252 223 0
Ok
(0C) Power Cycle Count 250 250 0 1234
Ok
(C0) Power Off Retract Count 253 253 0 0
Ok
(C1) Load Cycle Count 253 253 0 0
Ok
(C2) Temperature 253 253 0 45
Ok
(C3) Hardware ECC Recovered 253 252 0 2580
Ok
(C4) Reallocated Event Count 253 253 0 0
Ok
(C5) Current Pending Sector 253 253 0 1
Ok
(C6) Offline Uncorrectable 253 253 0 0
Ok
(C7) Ultra DMA CRC Error Count 193 169 0 30
Ok
(C8) Write Error Rate 253 252 0 0
Ok
(C9) TA Counter Detected 253 252 0 0
Ok
(CA) TA Counter Increased 253 250 0 0
Ok
(CB) Run Out Cancel 253 252 180 1
Ok
(CC) Soft ECC Correction 253 252 0 0
Ok
(CD) Thermal Asperity Rate 253 252 0 0
Ok
(CF) Spin High Current 253 252 0 0
Ok
(D0) Spin Buzz 253 252 0 0
Ok
(D1) Offline Seek Performance 188 188 0 0
Ok
(63) (unknown attribute) 253 253 0 0
Ok
(64) (unknown attribute) 253 253 0 0
Ok
(65) (unknown attribute) 253 253 0 0
Ok

Power On Time : 45432
Health Status : Ok

Which does not notice (for what I can understand) anything
particularly suspicious. But I am not an expert
All the best.

 

[scientia2002]

Just a small addition: The Tab: error scan shows a small square red
(probably the 32K bad sector) and the following result (notice 0%
error, which seems a bit too optimistic):

HD Tune: Maxtor 6Y160P0 Error Scan

Scanned data : 131019 MB
Damaged Blocks : 0.0 %
Elapsed Time : 82:43

 

[Gerry Cornell]

As you the Reports look OK. However, both partitions show totally
inadequate free disk space. The system partition especially so. How
badly fragmented are the files?

What originally prompted you run chkdsk?

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Gerry Cornell]

O.1% is 131 mb!


--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[scientia2002]

You are right in saying that there is file fragmentation. I do the
chkdsk regularly, because I know that the rack mobile HD, may not
connect properly.
Specifically, I did the chkdsk because I had systematically the red
light (activity on the rack mobile box) on, without any apparent
operation.

What I am worried is that the 32K in the bad sector involves a file of
many MB (I have some of 1GB or more). I have a back up almost up to
date, but, I would like to single out the file that ended in the bad
sector and change only this one, rather than throwing away everything.
I am also worried that in making another back-up I am backing up the
corrupted file in place of the previous back-up, which should be good.

That is why I am looking to an utility that tells me eventually what
file is in the bad sector if any.

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Using chkdsk how many bad sectors are there and how many kb are the
total of all bad sectors?

Whenever a hard drive develops bad sectors it becomes a judgement call
whether to keep or ditch the drive. I would monitor the drive and, if
after a number of examinations using chkdsk, further bad sectors
continue to appear the time has come to replace the drive.

Is your main system drive an internal drive and the partitions on the
removable drive intended purely as backups for what is on your
internal drives?


--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[scientia2002]

Thanks Gerry. To your questions:

Using chkdsk how many bad sectors are there and how many kb are the
total of all bad sectors?

32K. It should be 1 sector since 32K is the minimum size of my files,
when they are saved in the HD.

Whenever a hard drive develops bad sectors .....

I agree. But touching wood in these days it remained 32K bad sectors.

Is your main system drive an internal drive and the partitions on the
removable drive intended purely as backups for what is on your
internal drives?

Not exactly. This is a Drive that I carry with me (home and office)
with all my important documents-files: that is why I am using a rack
box.
All the best

 

[frodo]

when chkdsk reports bad sectors, those are sectors that WERE BAD and are
now not being used - they are no longer part of any file at all. So
trying to find what file they are a part of is futile. [the file it was a
part of should still be intact, the failing sector was remapped before
actual data loss].

in a modern HD, bad sector management is done within the drive itself,
automatically, without the OS. _ONLY_ when the drive runs out of spares
(and it has hundreds of spares set aside at the factory) will it start to
report bad sectors to the OS so that it can deal with the issue. At that
point the drive _IS_ failing. a SMART utility will tell you that all the
spares have been used up (if the drive supports SMART - virtually all
IDE's do, but only some SATA's do (for some reason I don't understand)).

as recommended, backup anything important now, and prepare to replace the
drive. keep an eye on the bad sector count reported by chkdsk - it will
most likely go up in the next month or so. When it does that's a sure
sign its dieing, replace it [better yet don't wait for the inevitable, do
it at your soonest convienience].