Possible bad sectors on HDD?

NiSMo

OSNN Junior Addict
Joined
7 Jan 2004
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15
hi guyz,

im just wondering is there an app that u can use in windows to test a drive and see if it has bad sectors? i used the windows scandisk but that doesnt actually tell u if you have bad sectors or not..

i have used various DOS based hdd testers and 2/2 have come bak and told me it has bad sectors...

the drive is a Maxtor 200gb SATA drive, and i have used the Maxtor disk wipe utility but still bad sectors :(

is there any way to get them fixed/or any other solution?

thanx in advance :)
 
I had a bad sector problem with a western digital drive, 160 SATA. i used the Data Lifeguard tools and it corrected the problem.

made me skeptical if they were even bad sectors at all.
doesnt maxtor have any kind of diagnostic software? i am unfamiliar with Disk Wipe.
 
NiSMo said:
hi guyz,

im just wondering is there an app that u can use in windows to test a drive and see if it has bad sectors? i used the windows scandisk but that doesnt actually tell u if you have bad sectors or not..

i have used various DOS based hdd testers and 2/2 have come bak and told me it has bad sectors...

the drive is a Maxtor 200gb SATA drive, and i have used the Maxtor disk wipe utility but still bad sectors :(

is there any way to get them fixed/or any other solution?

thanx in advance :)

You can run from a CMD prompt "chkdsk /f" and that will run CHKDSK on your drives, and also tell you 100% if you have bad sectors.
 
jimi_81 said:
I had a bad sector problem with a western digital drive, 160 SATA. i used the Data Lifeguard tools and it corrected the problem.

made me skeptical if they were even bad sectors at all.
doesnt maxtor have any kind of diagnostic software? i am unfamiliar with Disk Wipe.

sorry it wasnt called disk wipe... it was powermax or something along those lines... it formated the disk to all zero's and stil nothin :(

i will give that a go aswell thanx kcnychief...

i will get bak to you guyz asap
 
NiSMo said:
sorry it wasnt called disk wipe... it was powermax or something along those lines... it formated the disk to all zero's and stil nothin
MaxBlast is used for setting up, copying, zeroing out or formatting a drive while PowerMax is a diagnostic utility.

To check for bad sectors you would want to use PowerMax.
 
Yeah, a chkdsk /f on each partition should come back and tell you (if you're in a winNT based OS including 2k/XP). If it's win9x, scandisk can tell you...

BTW, if you're started getting bad sectors on your drive, you might want to think of replacing that soon, or at the very least start keeping quite regular backups of your data. When a drive starts developing bad sectors, it's a problem that can grow worse, as the sectors around those that already had gone bad, begin to experience a similar fate as well...

I have a friend who used to own a 1.6 GB Western Digital drive back in the day (and his model was found to have had problems with this). That was pretty much the fate of his drive too... It started to go, but it wasn't all too long after that he ended up having to just replace the thing...
 
American Zombie said:
MaxBlast is used for setting up, copying, zeroing out or formatting a drive while PowerMax is a diagnostic utility.

To check for bad sectors you would want to use PowerMax.

ok, well i have done the diagnostics on the 2 drives using powermax, and neither have come back with any errors at all.... the strange thing is, that i have used 3-5 other diagnostic programs and at least one of the drives comes back as having bad sectors etc...

cos i definately know that one of the drives is noisy cos it makes a noise after about 10mins, then stops...then 10 mins later a weird noise... etc..

so what do you guys recommend?
 
anyone?? thanx guyz, just need to clear this stuff up! :)
 
jimi_81 said:
I had a bad sector problem with a western digital drive, 160 SATA. i used the Data Lifeguard tools and it corrected the problem.

I don't believe bad secotrs can be 'corrected.'

I agree with Son Goku, if they are going bad think about replacing it soon--in my experience it just begins to snowball from here.
 
mfarley said:
I don't believe bad secotrs can be 'corrected.'

I agree with Son Goku, if they are going bad think about replacing it soon--in my experience it just begins to snowball from here.

the only problem is that the Maxtor diagnostic tools dont detect anything wrong with either of the drives and i can return a 'possible faulty' HDD, or can i?

the funny thing is, that i try EVERY other HDD tester, (WD, Seagate, IBM, Hitachi etc) and they ALL report errors on both disks, and then i try the maxtor one and NOTHING... what is with that?

i think i will be sending these drives back for sure!!

thanx for the help and advice guys!

regards,
Nathan
 
Most, and I stress MOST vendors won't give you too much of a problem. As long as you say the drive is bad, they will just try to run through some steps like have you tried this, have you tried this blah blah blah. Just say yes and you will be fine :)
 

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