If by that response you mean that the data on the malfunctioning drive is
useful to you, then the advice you have received from philo is exactly
correct - install a new hard drive so that all your further diagnostic and
recovery efforts can continue without any need to write anything to or make
any changes to the problem drive. That is the most effective way to
maximise your chances of recovering your data. Anything else is a waste of
time.
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"SpamMePlease(NOT)" wrote in message
...
I have only one word to say DATA.


"philo" wrote in message
...

"SpamMePlease(NOT)" wrote in message
...
Hi

Have a hdd which has suddenly developed bad sectors/clusters.

Currently I cannot boot to windows so I booted to the command prompt and
ran
a surface scan dos utility with the auto fix switch.

This surface scan dos utility has been running day and night for 4 days
and
has 1200+ bad clusters.

What I want to know is whether the bad clusters it is marking as bad
clusters will be permanetely marked as such; i.e. the hdd will know not
to
use this space again even if I try to restore an image of the partition?



Don't waste your time...
install a new HD!!!!