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isolating bad sectors

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  • isolating bad sectors

    does anyone know of any utility that can fix or isolate bad sectors on a hard drive?? i`ve tried reformatting several times and all it does is mark them as bad...thanks in advance, nexus

  • #2
    Unless the manufactorer of the drive has a low level format tool on their site for download then there's really nothing you can do about bad sectors. When scandisk marks the sectors as bad Windows will not write to them and if bad sectors keep poppin' up then ya have a drive that is certainly on death row. :smokin:

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    • #3
      Well I guess its time to dig a hole in the back yard and say my goodbyes to it! ...anyone need a couple of good magnets??
      thanx wiggo.

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      • #4
        If they are all in one area, (and the drive is still good) you can partition around them.

        I have done it. It is ALOT of dinking around, but the idea is to make small partitions around the bad sectors, and then just delete the partitions when you are done, and have the space behind the flaw within it's own partition. You have to write down alot of the numbers, and possibly even use percentages to calculate where exactly they are, and then over and under estimate a few hundred megs to make sure you get it.

        I had an old crappy quantum BIGFOOT haha, that had two areas with alot of bad sectors, and it was unstable so I figured I'd give my plan a shot, and after about 15 hours of formatting, partitioning, etc, etc, etc, I was able to get it to work! Only to have it completely fail within a few weeks.. haha :P

        Tools like partition magic are very handy for this, but it certainly can be done in DOS. Let me know if you have any questions that i didn't quite explain.

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        • #5
          Ah a topic I am quite familiar with. I had an old IDE 5 GB hard drive. Looked like it was going to **** the bedpan you know... bad sectors and a little louder than normal. There are several hard drive formatting programs out there but they are difficult to come by. I know that there are currently ones for Western Digitals and IDEs. As long as you don't have any physical damage to the drive (scratches, etc) you should be able to save it using one of these programs.

          However, if you don't have a hard drive that has a formatting program, you are pretty much stuck format c: ing and trying to work around the bad sectors.

          Another thing, most hard drives will let you know when it is time to chuck them. A friend of mine was having problems and the hard drive would shut off the entire computer after making a sound similar to marbles dropping on a glass table. Also, hard drives can also cause your other devices to not work properly or not at all. In this instance it messed with her floppy drive and it would work.

          Anyway, the funny ending to my story is after I replaced my IDE 5 GB with a 60 GB WD... I used the old 5 GB in a computer I built for a friend who desperately needed a newer computer so they could use a cable modem and it works like a charm! BTW, Western Digitals are cool to have cuz if it happens to have some fatal problems in the beginning - like not being able to write to c within the first 30 days that you've had it in the system. You can call them up with a 1-800 number and send the hard drive back to them and get a new one within 9 business days. :thumb:

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          • #6
            30 days ehh?

            www.mwave.com will replace Western Digitals at any point in the first year you own it (if you bought it from them of course)

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            • #7
              Well, actually I had been using it for 30 days when it **** the bedpan but I had it for about a year.

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              • #8
                9 days?!! 30 day warranty - wot a rip off?!?!??!

                i get 1yr warranty, same-day replacement (not direct from manufacturer but who cares)

                9 days is just wrong, its almost painful, and if a drive craps out in 30 days i know i'd be wanting an exchange, not just a replacement! LOL

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