chkdsk and bad sectors

[billurie]

I'd like an authoritative explanation of the
results from running chkdsk.

After running chkdsk/r five times, the final
indication is "12K Bad Sectors".....the same
after each of the five runs.

Western Digital hath spoken as follows:


"Does it list the 12k worth of bad sectors at the end of the checkdisk?
If it does then it means that the sectors have already been found and
marked as bad. The program is just giving you a summary. That is
probably why Data Lifeguard Diagnostics does not find any bad sectors
because there are no new ones; it only sees the already marked bad
sectors. If checkdisk finds new bad sectors, it will list them during
the scan."

So my hard drive has 12K of bad sectors, which have internally
been marked as such. Assuming that everything in that quotation is
correct, does that mean that my hard drive has had all of its bad
sectors located, and marked as such, and that no data will be
written to those sectors, or taken from those sectors, from now on?
In effect, do I have a perfectly clean, all-usable drive, except with
12K less of available storage space? Thanks for any enlightenment.....

 

[Bruce Chambers]

I'd like an authoritative explanation of the
results from running chkdsk.

After running chkdsk/r five times, the final
indication is "12K Bad Sectors".....the same
after each of the five runs.

Western Digital hath spoken as follows:


"Does it list the 12k worth of bad sectors at the end of the checkdisk?
If it does then it means that the sectors have already been found and
marked as bad. The program is just giving you a summary. That is
probably why Data Lifeguard Diagnostics does not find any bad sectors
because there are no new ones; it only sees the already marked bad
sectors. If checkdisk finds new bad sectors, it will list them during
the scan."

So my hard drive has 12K of bad sectors, which have internally
been marked as such. Assuming that everything in that quotation is
correct, does that mean that my hard drive has had all of its bad
sectors located, and marked as such, and that no data will be
written to those sectors, or taken from those sectors, from now on?

Well, it means that all of the currently bad sectors have been
identified and won't be used. It's no guarantee that more bad sectors
won't develop later, or that those new bad sectors won't corrupt data.

In effect, do I have a perfectly clean, all-usable drive, except with
12K less of available storage space? Thanks for any enlightenment.....

Yes, as long as the number of bad sectors remains constant. If the
number of bad sectors increases, it's a sure sign that the hard drive is
deteriorating and should be replaced.


--

Bruce Chambers

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They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand Russell

 

[billurie]

Well, it means that all of the currently bad sectors have been
identified and won't be used. It's no guarantee that more bad sectors
won't develop later, or that those new bad sectors won't corrupt data.



Yes, as long as the number of bad sectors remains constant. If the
number of bad sectors increases, it's a sure sign that the hard drive is
deteriorating and should be replaced.

Thank you, Bruce. Then I have to take it up with Symantec,
regarding why Partition Magic refuses to perform certain
operations on that partition, giving bad sectors as their
excuse.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Thank you, Bruce. Then I have to take it up with Symantec,
regarding why Partition Magic refuses to perform certain
operations on that partition, giving bad sectors as their
excuse.

Yes, you would. It may be a CYA sort of thing, where Partition Magic,
having detected physical problems (the bad sectors)with the hard drive,
halts before it has a chance to potentially make things worse.


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand Russell

 

[Kerry Brown]

If bad sectors are showing up on a drive then it's time to replace the
drive. All modern drives have spare sectors that are phased in as needed by
the drive's firmware. If Windows is seeing bad sector then these spare
sectors are already used up. If you data is worth anything to you replace
the drive, this one's not to be trusted any more.

 

[billurie]

If bad sectors are showing up on a drive then it's time to replace the
drive. All modern drives have spare sectors that are phased in as needed by
the drive's firmware. If Windows is seeing bad sector then these spare
sectors are already used up. If you data is worth anything to you replace
the drive, this one's not to be trusted any more.

That was my intuition, too, Kerry, but every drive I own
shows bad sectors, and they're reasonably new, with not
all that much usage. I'll get some new drives and see how
long it takes hem to show bad sectors.

 

[Kerry Brown]

Get a utility from the drive manufacturers site and test the drives. If you
have several drives showing this symptom then something else may be wrong.
It could be something like a bad driver, bad cable, bad ram, bad
motherboard, weak power supply, etc. causing Windows to see errors and
assume the sector is bad. It would be very unusual for several drives to go
bad at once unless you were severely mistreating them.

 

[billurie]

Get a utility from the drive manufacturers site and test the drives. If you
have several drives showing this symptom then something else may be wrong.
It could be something like a bad driver, bad cable, bad ram, bad
motherboard, weak power supply, etc. causing Windows to see errors and
assume the sector is bad. It would be very unusual for several drives to go
bad at once unless you were severely mistreating them.

Been there, done that, Kerry. Western-Digital diagnostics
say there are no bad sectors, translation into English
by their techie was "Any bad sectors existing have been marked
and taken out of service". Implication is, it's safe to use
the drive. Doesn't even tell me (as chkdsk does) how many
'bad sectors' have currently been rendered harmless. It's
really a weak Catch-22 for the user.

 

[Kerry Brown]

If you have several drives you may want to purchase something like Spinrite.

http://www.grc.com/spinrite.htm

It will tell you what is really going on with the drive. You can also get
the Ultimate Boot CD

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

It has many utilities to test the drives and other hardware. It would be
very unusual for several drives to fail in the same way (bad sectors) over a
short period of time. You need to find out if this is a symptom of something
deeper that is wrong. Run the memory tests in particular for several hours
or overnight.

 

[Pop`]

I'd like an authoritative explanation of the
results from running chkdsk.

After running chkdsk/r five times, the final
indication is "12K Bad Sectors".....the same
after each of the five runs.

Western Digital hath spoken as follows:


"Does it list the 12k worth of bad sectors at the end of the
checkdisk? If it does then it means that the sectors have already
been found and marked as bad. The program is just giving you a
summary. That is probably why Data Lifeguard Diagnostics does not
find any bad sectors because there are no new ones; it only sees the
already marked bad sectors. If checkdisk finds new bad sectors, it
will list them during the scan."

So my hard drive has 12K of bad sectors, which have internally
been marked as such. Assuming that everything in that quotation is
correct, does that mean that my hard drive has had all of its bad
sectors located, and marked as such, and that no data will be
written to those sectors, or taken from those sectors, from now on?
In effect, do I have a perfectly clean, all-usable drive, except with
12K less of available storage space? Thanks for any
enlightenment.....

Correct, but for the time being. You should monitor the bad sectors for a
month or more, better yet weekly by schedule, and if any more of them
happen, the drive is crashing.
If there is lots of empty space on the drive, "maybe" the bad sectors
will happen where there is no data but that's not guaranteed in any way. If
these bad sectors appeared suddenly and without known cause, you probably
have a drive failing. If they've been marked bad for a long time and no new
ones have appeared, you might be OK; it's up to you and how good your
archival process is, IMO, if you plan to depend on a disk like this case.
If another bad sector pops up within the next few weeks, replacement of
hte drive is in order. If you're not broke, replacement is in order period.
It's sometimes a hard decision to make.

A hard bump or even some software/malware problems can cause bad sectors,
BTW, so if you can attribute it to that, you've "probably" OK going forward,
but keep a close eye on it for a few months. Sectors can go bad slowly.
Data in the bad sectors cannot always (as in often) be recovered.

HTH
Pop`

 

[Pop`]

Get a utility from the drive manufacturers site and test the drives.
If you have several drives showing this symptom then something else
may be wrong. It could be something like a bad driver, bad cable, bad
ram, bad motherboard, weak power supply, etc. causing Windows to see
errors and assume the sector is bad. It would be very unusual for
several drives to go bad at once unless you were severely mistreating
them.

Agreed, especially with new drives. Several would be a big coincidence.
Mfg diagnostics should be considered mandatory here.

Pop`