Trust HDD w/ repaired bad sectors?

[Ptyrider]

Guess there's no way of knowing for sure, but would you trust a 3-year-old
Seagate 40G HDD that set off SMART indicators and had 5 bad sectors, since
repaired w/ HDD Regenerator and chkdsk (sector scan) on WinXP? No reason I
know of for its developing the bad sectors in the first place.

Checks out fine now, but I wonder if should be using it for my main drive
or even as a backup drive, or just bin it and replace w/ new drive.

 

[Michael C]

Guess there's no way of knowing for sure, but would you trust a 3-year-old
Seagate 40G HDD that set off SMART indicators and had 5 bad sectors, since
repaired w/ HDD Regenerator and chkdsk (sector scan) on WinXP? No reason I
know of for its developing the bad sectors in the first place.

Checks out fine now, but I wonder if should be using it for my main drive
or even as a backup drive, or just bin it and replace w/ new drive.

It might go for ever or it might fail completely tommorrow. I guess that's
not much different from a brand new HDD but the chances are probably greater
it will fail. If you're backing up already then it's maybe ok to use it.
That said, if I get any bad sectors I always bin the drive.

Michael

 

[Raymond Sirois]

Guess there's no way of knowing for sure, but would you trust a 3-year-old
Seagate 40G HDD that set off SMART indicators and had 5 bad sectors, since
repaired w/ HDD Regenerator and chkdsk (sector scan) on WinXP? No reason I
know of for its developing the bad sectors in the first place.

Checks out fine now, but I wonder if should be using it for my main drive
or even as a backup drive, or just bin it and replace w/ new drive.

Once a drive has developed bad sectors, I take it out to the range and
use it for target practice. I find I can generally hit one at 50
yards out with my .357 and no bench rest.

Raymond Sirois
SysOp: The Lost Chord BBS
607-733-5745
telnet://thelostchord.dns2go.com:6000

 

[Bob Day]

No.

 

[Alceryes]

Guess there's no way of knowing for sure, but would you trust a 3-year-old
Seagate 40G HDD that set off SMART indicators and had 5 bad sectors, since
repaired w/ HDD Regenerator and chkdsk (sector scan) on WinXP? No reason I
know of for its developing the bad sectors in the first place.

Checks out fine now, but I wonder if should be using it for my main drive
or even as a backup drive, or just bin it and replace w/ new drive.

I've never used HDD Regenerator.
Try Downloading and running Powermax.
http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/M...tware Downloads/ATA Hard Drives&downloadID=22
Do a full low-level scan (warning - drive is erased). Then use it for
non-crucial data. It's possible that it's just a fluke. It may last several
years with only 5 bad sectors.
--


"I don't cheat to survive. I cheat to LIVE!!"

- Alceryes

 

[theyak]

Guess there's no way of knowing for sure, but would you trust a 3-year-old
Seagate 40G HDD that set off SMART indicators and had 5 bad sectors, since
repaired w/ HDD Regenerator and chkdsk (sector scan) on WinXP? No reason I
know of for its developing the bad sectors in the first place.

Checks out fine now, but I wonder if should be using it for my main drive
or even as a backup drive, or just bin it and replace w/ new drive.

I have a maxtor 30 gig that was dying. It kept getting more and more bad
sectors. More and more windows errors. I ran Maxtor's disk utils on it,
low leveled it. And now it's working fine. SMART still tells me I'm in
danger, but it's doing great for archived mp3s and the like.

My second oldest drive still in use, BTW. The oldest is a 6.4 WD (250
bucks... heh) with 412K worth of bad sectors. Been like that for years.
Running very happily in a 333 under the desk.

 

[kony]

Guess there's no way of knowing for sure, but would you trust a 3-year-old
Seagate 40G HDD that set off SMART indicators and had 5 bad sectors, since
repaired w/ HDD Regenerator and chkdsk (sector scan) on WinXP? No reason I
know of for its developing the bad sectors in the first place.

Checks out fine now, but I wonder if should be using it for my main drive
or even as a backup drive, or just bin it and replace w/ new drive.

Generally speaking it can't be trusted anymore.

You could do some write read verify testing to see if it
passes that, otherwise it might not even be worth the time
to use in an unimportant role. I wouldn't use it for the
main drive anymore though, particularly on a frequently used
or important system.