SeaTools | Can't fix bad sectors?

[Charles]

Hello,

I have a Seagate disk that I can't format thoroughly. I went to
Seagate's web site and downloaded their SeaTools software. I did a
long self test on the HDD which detected around 70 errors. It asked me
if I wanted to fix these bad sectors, which I did. Then I reran the
long self test, and the errors are still there. What can I do?
Thanks,

 

[GlowingBlueMist]

Hello,

I have a Seagate disk that I can't format thoroughly. I went to
Seagate's web site and downloaded their SeaTools software. I did a
long self test on the HDD which detected around 70 errors. It asked me
if I wanted to fix these bad sectors, which I did. Then I reran the
long self test, and the errors are still there. What can I do?
Thanks,

The following is an excerpt from the Seagate Web site, from the SeaTools DOS
version.

"A log for each drive is saved to the RAM drive.

The following conditions may apply:
- Passed
- Passed after Repair (Seagate and Maxtor only)
- Failed
- User Skipped Repairs
- Aborted
"Passed after Repair" is a special condition where bad sectors were detected
as unreadable and the user gave permission to SeaTools to attempt to
reallocate blank replacement sectors which was successful. The drive is now
considered a good drive. A few defects are usually not a cause for concern.
For example, there are nearly four hundred million sectors on a 200GB drive.
Nonetheless, you should run the LONG Test more often to see if there is a
trend of growing defects."

If you run the same long test the same actual bad blocks should show up as
being there. What counts is if the program was able to map the bad blocks
out of use and replace them with some from the replacement area. Only the
log file will tell you what the program actually did.

Assuming the repair worked, when you try formatting the hard drive with the
OS make sure to choose the long format, not the short one. The long format
will look for bad sectors and try to map them out of use, the short format
does not look for bad blocks and leaves them to be found later by the OS
when it tries to actually save something on them. With luck the OS will
then skip them and move on to another working block.

If the bad block count is increasing then the drive is toast or will soon be
as the defect count should not increasingly grow on a drive in good working
condition.

 

[Charles]

The following is an excerpt from the Seagate Web site, from the SeaTools DOS
version.

Thanks. Yeah, this is exactly what happened in SeaTools, but Windows
can't format the HDD, it stalls at 21%. I guess there's not much I can
do then.

 

[Pen]

Thanks. Yeah, this is exactly what happened in SeaTools, but Windows
can't format the HDD, it stalls at 21%. I guess there's not much I can
do then.

SpinRite can probably fix it.
http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm

 

[kony]

Thanks. Yeah, this is exactly what happened in SeaTools, but Windows
can't format the HDD, it stalls at 21%. I guess there's not much I can
do then.

Regardless of whether the Seagate tool could correct it,
this is a sign that at least some part of the disk subsystem
is unreliable and shouldn't yet be used. If they were
logically bad but not physically bad, you would need to
correct that instead, otherwise the problem is still likely
to repeat itself.

By the time a drive has this many bad sectors that it didn't
invisibly remap, to the extent that they are still present
after repairing with the manufacturer's tools, the drive is
too unreliable to use. Check to see if it is under warranty
still, but if it were old enough to not be under warranty it
was often the case that the drive is old enough it should've
soon been replaced anyway, pre-emptively to avoid data loss
before it happens. I wish hard drives lasted forever but
being a storage device they are practically always better
replaced than gambled upon.

 

[Plato]

I have a Seagate disk that I can't format thoroughly. I went to
Seagate's web site and downloaded their SeaTools software. I did a
long self test on the HDD which detected around 70 errors. It asked me
if I wanted to fix these bad sectors, which I did. Then I reran the
long self test, and the errors are still there. What can I do?

The drive may be bad. Zero fill it. If errors still exist, toss the
drive.