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HDD suddenly has bad sectors



 
 
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  #1  
Old April 17th 07, 03:22 PM posted to microsoft.public.win98.disks.general
SpamMePlease\(NOT\)
External Usenet User
 
Posts: 5
Default HDD suddenly has bad sectors

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?


  #2  
Old April 17th 07, 03:53 PM posted to microsoft.public.win98.disks.general
Ben Myers
External Usenet User
 
Posts: 356
Default HDD suddenly has bad sectors

Scandisk records bad clusters in the file allocation table, so if the recovery
software overwrites or replaces this, the sectors involved will be as accessible
as they were when the backup was created. Scandisk uses the computer's
BIOS to examine and repair hard drives, so if the BIOS is misconfigured or
too old to handle the drive, the results shouldn't be trusted.
Most hard drive manufacturers have diagnostic software available for
download.

Maxtor and Seagate http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/
Western Digital http://support.wdc.com/download/inde...n&pid=999&swid

Ben

"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?


  #3  
Old April 17th 07, 09:57 PM posted to microsoft.public.win98.disks.general
Jeff Richards
External Usenet User
 
Posts: 1,526
Default HDD suddenly has bad sectors

Scandisk is a file system diagnostic and repair utility, not a disk
maintenance utility. If you run Scandisk and ask it to repair the file
system while the disk drive itself is still faulty then it will simply
compound the problem.

Depending on the cause of the problem, it's likely that the more you use the
disk the worse the errors will get.

You need to get a hard disk drive diagnostic program from the www site of
the disk drive manufacturer and use it to determine the extent, and possibly
the cause, of the problem. Once you know what you are up against you can
develop a recovery plan, such as installing the drive in a different machine
and copying all your important data off to a different drive.

However, I would guess that the Scandisk attempts at repair, and the length
of time that it is taking, has already corrupted the data to the extent that
there may be little that is recoverable.

Clusters that Scandisk marks as bad are simply removed from the view of the
file system. They can be ignored when the disk is formatted, and will
re-appear, unless the format process also marks them as bad.. Whether or
not they are recovered if you do an image restore depends on the particular
restore you are using - some do and some don't. I would expect an 'image'
restore to ignore Scandisk's bad sector allocations, however some restore
processes that are called 'image' really aren't. However, Scandisk
attempts to access the bad sectors may cause the drive's internal logic to
flag the sectors as bad. In this case they become permanently marked as bad
in the drive's electronics and cannot be recovered.
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"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?



  #4  
Old April 17th 07, 10:55 PM posted to microsoft.public.win98.disks.general
philo
External Usenet User
 
Posts: 1,318
Default HDD suddenly has bad sectors


"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!!!!


  #5  
Old April 17th 07, 11:31 PM posted to microsoft.public.win98.disks.general
SpamMePlease\(NOT\)
External Usenet User
 
Posts: 5
Default HDD suddenly has bad sectors

Well I do have a problem with a corrupt FAT hence my use of Scandisk.
Scandisk has only covered about 1% of C drive partition.

How can I get the data off the disk? If the FAT is corrupted can it be
repaired? Surely the FAT on a partition must be working for the data on that
partition to be found and moved off to another drive?

I have another computer I could connect the drive to and jumper it to act as
a slave. However if the FAT is corrupted how can the other computer read the
slave drive?



"Jeff Richards" wrote in message
...
Scandisk is a file system diagnostic and repair utility, not a disk
maintenance utility. If you run Scandisk and ask it to repair the file
system while the disk drive itself is still faulty then it will simply
compound the problem.

Depending on the cause of the problem, it's likely that the more you use
the disk the worse the errors will get.

You need to get a hard disk drive diagnostic program from the www site of
the disk drive manufacturer and use it to determine the extent, and
possibly the cause, of the problem. Once you know what you are up
against you can develop a recovery plan, such as installing the drive in a
different machine and copying all your important data off to a different
drive.

However, I would guess that the Scandisk attempts at repair, and the
length of time that it is taking, has already corrupted the data to the
extent that there may be little that is recoverable.

Clusters that Scandisk marks as bad are simply removed from the view of
the file system. They can be ignored when the disk is formatted, and will
re-appear, unless the format process also marks them as bad.. Whether or
not they are recovered if you do an image restore depends on the
particular restore you are using - some do and some don't. I would
expect an 'image' restore to ignore Scandisk's bad sector allocations,
however some restore processes that are called 'image' really aren't.
However, Scandisk attempts to access the bad sectors may cause the drive's
internal logic to flag the sectors as bad. In this case they become
permanently marked as bad in the drive's electronics and cannot be
recovered.
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"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?





  #6  
Old April 17th 07, 11:35 PM posted to microsoft.public.win98.disks.general
SpamMePlease\(NOT\)
External Usenet User
 
Posts: 5
Default HDD suddenly has bad sectors

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!!!!




  #7  
Old April 18th 07, 01:27 AM posted to microsoft.public.win98.disks.general
AlmostBob
External Usenet User
 
Posts: 187
Default HDD suddenly has bad sectors

There are disk utilities that operate on the drive, and rebuild the files
without the FAT

--
-
Adaware http://www.lavasoft.de
spybot http://www.safer-networking.org
AVG free antivirus http://free.grisoft.com/
Etrust/Vet/CA.online Antivirus scan
http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/virusinfo/scan.aspx
Super Antispyware http://www.superantispyware.com/
Panda online AntiVirus scan http://www.activescan.com
Panda online AntiSpyware Scan
http://www.pandasoftware.com/virus_info/spyware/test/
Catalog of removal tools (1)
http://www.pandasoftware.com/download/utilities/
Catalog of removal tools (2)
http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/n...aspx?CID=40387
Trouble Shooting guide to Windows http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/
Blocking Unwanted Parasites with a Hosts file
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm
links provided as a courtesy, read all instructions on the pages before
use
Grateful thanks to the authors/webmasters
_
"SpamMePlease(NOT)" wrote in message
...
Well I do have a problem with a corrupt FAT hence my use of Scandisk.
Scandisk has only covered about 1% of C drive partition.

How can I get the data off the disk? If the FAT is corrupted can it be
repaired? Surely the FAT on a partition must be working for the data on

that
partition to be found and moved off to another drive?

I have another computer I could connect the drive to and jumper it to act

as
a slave. However if the FAT is corrupted how can the other computer read

the
slave drive?



"Jeff Richards" wrote in message
...
Scandisk is a file system diagnostic and repair utility, not a disk
maintenance utility. If you run Scandisk and ask it to repair the file
system while the disk drive itself is still faulty then it will simply
compound the problem.

Depending on the cause of the problem, it's likely that the more you use
the disk the worse the errors will get.

You need to get a hard disk drive diagnostic program from the www site

of
the disk drive manufacturer and use it to determine the extent, and
possibly the cause, of the problem. Once you know what you are up
against you can develop a recovery plan, such as installing the drive in

a
different machine and copying all your important data off to a different
drive.

However, I would guess that the Scandisk attempts at repair, and the
length of time that it is taking, has already corrupted the data to the
extent that there may be little that is recoverable.

Clusters that Scandisk marks as bad are simply removed from the view of
the file system. They can be ignored when the disk is formatted, and

will
re-appear, unless the format process also marks them as bad.. Whether

or
not they are recovered if you do an image restore depends on the
particular restore you are using - some do and some don't. I would
expect an 'image' restore to ignore Scandisk's bad sector allocations,
however some restore processes that are called 'image' really aren't.
However, Scandisk attempts to access the bad sectors may cause the

drive's
internal logic to flag the sectors as bad. In this case they become
permanently marked as bad in the drive's electronics and cannot be
recovered.
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"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?







  #8  
Old April 18th 07, 10:10 AM posted to microsoft.public.win98.disks.general
SpamMePlease\(NOT\)
External Usenet User
 
Posts: 5
Default HDD suddenly has bad sectors

Well say a little more, like names and places where I may view such
utilities.


"AlmostBob" wrote in message
...
There are disk utilities that operate on the drive, and rebuild the files
without the FAT

--
-
Adaware http://www.lavasoft.de
spybot http://www.safer-networking.org
AVG free antivirus http://free.grisoft.com/
Etrust/Vet/CA.online Antivirus scan
http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/virusinfo/scan.aspx
Super Antispyware http://www.superantispyware.com/
Panda online AntiVirus scan http://www.activescan.com
Panda online AntiSpyware Scan
http://www.pandasoftware.com/virus_info/spyware/test/
Catalog of removal tools (1)
http://www.pandasoftware.com/download/utilities/
Catalog of removal tools (2)
http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/n...aspx?CID=40387
Trouble Shooting guide to Windows http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/
Blocking Unwanted Parasites with a Hosts file
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm
links provided as a courtesy, read all instructions on the pages before
use
Grateful thanks to the authors/webmasters
_
"SpamMePlease(NOT)" wrote in message
...
Well I do have a problem with a corrupt FAT hence my use of Scandisk.
Scandisk has only covered about 1% of C drive partition.

How can I get the data off the disk? If the FAT is corrupted can it be
repaired? Surely the FAT on a partition must be working for the data on

that
partition to be found and moved off to another drive?

I have another computer I could connect the drive to and jumper it to act

as
a slave. However if the FAT is corrupted how can the other computer read

the
slave drive?



"Jeff Richards" wrote in message
...
Scandisk is a file system diagnostic and repair utility, not a disk
maintenance utility. If you run Scandisk and ask it to repair the file
system while the disk drive itself is still faulty then it will simply
compound the problem.

Depending on the cause of the problem, it's likely that the more you
use
the disk the worse the errors will get.

You need to get a hard disk drive diagnostic program from the www site

of
the disk drive manufacturer and use it to determine the extent, and
possibly the cause, of the problem. Once you know what you are up
against you can develop a recovery plan, such as installing the drive
in

a
different machine and copying all your important data off to a
different
drive.

However, I would guess that the Scandisk attempts at repair, and the
length of time that it is taking, has already corrupted the data to the
extent that there may be little that is recoverable.

Clusters that Scandisk marks as bad are simply removed from the view of
the file system. They can be ignored when the disk is formatted, and

will
re-appear, unless the format process also marks them as bad.. Whether

or
not they are recovered if you do an image restore depends on the
particular restore you are using - some do and some don't. I would
expect an 'image' restore to ignore Scandisk's bad sector allocations,
however some restore processes that are called 'image' really aren't.
However, Scandisk attempts to access the bad sectors may cause the

drive's
internal logic to flag the sectors as bad. In this case they become
permanently marked as bad in the drive's electronics and cannot be
recovered.
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"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?









  #9  
Old April 18th 07, 10:20 AM posted to microsoft.public.win98.disks.general
Jeff Richards
External Usenet User
 
Posts: 1,526
Default HDD suddenly has bad sectors

Rebuilding the FAT is not a significant problem, although it isn't always
100% successful. The data can be easily copied off the drive without a
FAT - the FAT only assists in identifying how that data is organised into
files, and there are many ways of doing that.

But that's not the issue. If the data on that drive is worth anything to
you at all, then the first step is to find out whether or not the drive is
working properly, and what options might therefore exist for getting
whatever is recoverable off the drive. Anything else you do with that drive
simply reduces the chances of getting at that data.
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"SpamMePlease(NOT)" wrote in message
...
Well I do have a problem with a corrupt FAT hence my use of Scandisk.
Scandisk has only covered about 1% of C drive partition.

How can I get the data off the disk? If the FAT is corrupted can it be
repaired? Surely the FAT on a partition must be working for the data on
that partition to be found and moved off to another drive?

I have another computer I could connect the drive to and jumper it to act
as a slave. However if the FAT is corrupted how can the other computer
read the slave drive?



"Jeff Richards" wrote in message
...
Scandisk is a file system diagnostic and repair utility, not a disk
maintenance utility. If you run Scandisk and ask it to repair the file
system while the disk drive itself is still faulty then it will simply
compound the problem.

Depending on the cause of the problem, it's likely that the more you use
the disk the worse the errors will get.

You need to get a hard disk drive diagnostic program from the www site of
the disk drive manufacturer and use it to determine the extent, and
possibly the cause, of the problem. Once you know what you are up
against you can develop a recovery plan, such as installing the drive in
a different machine and copying all your important data off to a
different drive.

However, I would guess that the Scandisk attempts at repair, and the
length of time that it is taking, has already corrupted the data to the
extent that there may be little that is recoverable.

Clusters that Scandisk marks as bad are simply removed from the view of
the file system. They can be ignored when the disk is formatted, and
will re-appear, unless the format process also marks them as bad..
Whether or not they are recovered if you do an image restore depends on
the particular restore you are using - some do and some don't. I would
expect an 'image' restore to ignore Scandisk's bad sector allocations,
however some restore processes that are called 'image' really aren't.
However, Scandisk attempts to access the bad sectors may cause the
drive's internal logic to flag the sectors as bad. In this case they
become permanently marked as bad in the drive's electronics and cannot be
recovered.
--
Jeff Richards
MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)
"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?







  #10  
Old April 18th 07, 10:24 AM posted to microsoft.public.win98.disks.general
Jeff Richards
External Usenet User
 
Posts: 1,526
Default HDD suddenly has bad sectors

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!!!!






 




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