Please help, please

N

naheed

Guest
I have a labtop but the hard drive has some bad sectors on it. Is there anyway to get rid of them? I have heard of a low level format but i dunno how that work. The hd is only a couple years old and just came up. How can i get the computer to just skip over them?

PS i am leaving in 3 days so i need somthing quick.
 
boot from a floppy and run scandisk and it should mark them as bad and u should be okay. if its bad then try formatting the whole HD, install the new OS and then run scandisk to detect the errors. the other option is to buy another HD obviously.
 
Computers don't just *overlook* bad sectors.

If your hd does contain bad sectors, a low-level format would not be able to fix them. If these sectors are mearly corrupt and beyond the reach of the OS, then it would fix those.

To perform a low-level format (also known as zeroing the drive), you will need to either find a generic low-level formatting tool or find out who manufactors the hd and get their tool. NOTE: Low-level formatting erases EVERYTHING from the HD. After performing the format, there will be nothing left on it.
 
Well as far as I know there is a way to do a low format however I don't know what it is or where to a program or whatever it is to do it. As for getting rid of them I don't think there is a way besides a low level format and I would think that might not even get rid of them, so the only other option I can think of is to replace the drive. If your file system is FAT32 I would convert it to NTFS since you are running XP. There is another thread that as the way's you can do that.thread with convert FAT32 to NTFS commands
 
or he could partition around them if they are centrally located for the most part which would make some space not available obviously. i think it would be a little advanced to do though. if data integrity is not your thing then not to worry but i wouldnt chance my data with a drive not working correctly. low-level formatting will most likely mess it up more especially in todays IDE standards etc...
 
naheed if you are running fat32 & are really desperate you can get a program called spinrite. It is under 100kb but it will cost you big bucks. Around US$90. It will repair your hard drive if possible. I had bad sectors & now they are all gone.
 
i have spinrite and it wont run because it says my hd is offline or is unwritable. I am currently reformatting it and then i guess i have to run spinrite. Is this how u use it
'
 
A drive with bad sectors is bad news.. it could run for a while yet but still cause problems with writes.. it could also fail on you as the bad sectors multiply.. if it's under warranty get it replaced and if not, buy a new one..
 
There is a manual for spinrite at the site. Download it & have a look through it. It is in pdf format.
 

Members online

No members online now.

Latest profile posts

Also Hi EP and people. I found this place again while looking through a oooollllllldddd backup. I have filled over 10TB and was looking at my collection of antiques. Any bids on the 500Mhz Win 95 fix?
Any of the SP crew still out there?
Xie wrote on Electronic Punk's profile.
Impressed you have kept this alive this long EP! So many sites have come and gone. :(

Just did some crude math and I apparently joined almost 18yrs ago, how is that possible???
hello peeps... is been some time since i last came here.
Electronic Punk wrote on Sazar's profile.
Rest in peace my friend, been trying to find you and finally did in the worst way imaginable.

Forum statistics

Threads
62,015
Messages
673,494
Members
5,621
Latest member
naeemsafi
Back