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#1
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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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