I've got a WD 160GB hard drive that is reported by SMART to have 20 read errors and about 3 unrecoverable sectors. Previously, I've had a WD 640GB drive which reported to have bad sectors a while ago, but after writing zero's to the drive and doing a full format, the SMART values all went back to 0 and everything worked fine.
So I am just wondering if you guys could recommend some good hard drive tools to check the 160GB drive and maybe do a full test to verify if the sectors are indeed bad or not. I think I tried to run either Spinrite or HDD Regenerator, but I think it did not work with larger disks. Most tools Ive come across do not go into the same amount of detail as the Spinrite or HDD Regenerator tools...maybe you guys could recommend a good alternative?
And yes, I am aware that the drive could very well fail in the future, but it's not too big of a deal because it will be used in a spare "guest" machine. My only annoyance with bad sectors is that sometimes it could cause the machine to freeze/stutter.
What tool to fix bad sectors/full scan on larger SATA drive?
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HDDScan(Erase scan) or MHDD(MAKEBAD)
If there's no data on the HDD, zero-fill it like you did before. If it's a secondary HDD and has no OS, boot to Win and run HDDScan Erase scan. Only writing over will either reallocate or validate uncorrectable sectors back into normal use. After zero-fill, you will have to re-partition and re-format the drive but that way you'll also clear the partition level (software) bad sector markers related to unrecoverable sectors (which shouldn't exist after overwriting them once).
I don't know how Spinrites and HDD Regenerators work, nor do I care. Zero-fill is brute force, if it doesn't work, nothing does. If the uncorrectable sectors persist, then you'll just have to "CHKDSK X: /R" to make a OS level bad sector scan. This scan will mark uncorrectable sectors as unusable on the software level, and it should fix any freeze/stutter issues with the HDD. This fix will be effective as long as number of uncorrectable sectors remain constant and there's no growth in their number. If there is growth, you'll need to rescan "CHKDSK X: /R" but even constant re-scanning doesn't prevent data loss of files that get corrupted when a NEW uncorrectable sector forms.
I "fixed" one disk with MHDD's MAKEBAD function. It can artificially create uncorrectable sectors on a HDD. I had some clusters where uncorrectable sectors formed and disappeared randomly. This caused the need for constant "CHKDSK X: /R" to prevent freeze ups. So I made a huge "bad" sector area around the unstable part of HDD and then run "CHKDSK X: /R" to mark every sector of that synthetic bad sector area as bad. Just make sure you don't zero-fill the HDD that has been MAKEBAD'ed as it will fix the uncorrectable errors and undo the fix. (I don't know if it'll reallocate those phony bads or re-enable them for regular use. That is, use of excessive MAKEBAD can in worst case scenario make you run out of spare sectors for reallocation. Use it sparingly and only on HDDs that are plagued with growing bad sectors that are clustered close to each other.)
Also note, using MHDD functions (especially but not limited to MAKEBAD) is outright hardcore nerd job. Don't do it if you don't know how to locate the unstable LBAs. I don't remember anymore whether I did it by finding which one are the damaged files and locate their physical location on the platters with some defragmenting tool, or whether I located the unstable LBA range with HDDScan read or verify scan. The former method required that you take into consideration the partition offset (first LBA of partition is not first LBA of the disk. Defragmenting tools talk about clusters, not LBA, plus the offset trouble. MHDD does it on hardware level, thus it doesn't recognize the presence of partitions. You may need to do math).
I don't know how Spinrites and HDD Regenerators work, nor do I care. Zero-fill is brute force, if it doesn't work, nothing does. If the uncorrectable sectors persist, then you'll just have to "CHKDSK X: /R" to make a OS level bad sector scan. This scan will mark uncorrectable sectors as unusable on the software level, and it should fix any freeze/stutter issues with the HDD. This fix will be effective as long as number of uncorrectable sectors remain constant and there's no growth in their number. If there is growth, you'll need to rescan "CHKDSK X: /R" but even constant re-scanning doesn't prevent data loss of files that get corrupted when a NEW uncorrectable sector forms.
I "fixed" one disk with MHDD's MAKEBAD function. It can artificially create uncorrectable sectors on a HDD. I had some clusters where uncorrectable sectors formed and disappeared randomly. This caused the need for constant "CHKDSK X: /R" to prevent freeze ups. So I made a huge "bad" sector area around the unstable part of HDD and then run "CHKDSK X: /R" to mark every sector of that synthetic bad sector area as bad. Just make sure you don't zero-fill the HDD that has been MAKEBAD'ed as it will fix the uncorrectable errors and undo the fix. (I don't know if it'll reallocate those phony bads or re-enable them for regular use. That is, use of excessive MAKEBAD can in worst case scenario make you run out of spare sectors for reallocation. Use it sparingly and only on HDDs that are plagued with growing bad sectors that are clustered close to each other.)
Also note, using MHDD functions (especially but not limited to MAKEBAD) is outright hardcore nerd job. Don't do it if you don't know how to locate the unstable LBAs. I don't remember anymore whether I did it by finding which one are the damaged files and locate their physical location on the platters with some defragmenting tool, or whether I located the unstable LBA range with HDDScan read or verify scan. The former method required that you take into consideration the partition offset (first LBA of partition is not first LBA of the disk. Defragmenting tools talk about clusters, not LBA, plus the offset trouble. MHDD does it on hardware level, thus it doesn't recognize the presence of partitions. You may need to do math).
If there is only a few bad sectors you should try running the manufacturer's diagnostic tool. Do a full scan and see if it lets you "repair" the bad sectors. Usually this is just remapping them to spare sectors. Some drives do this automatically and some need the diagnostic tool. Most drives have about 100 or so spare sectors and when they run out then there is nothing you can do except try a zero fill.
As to Spinrite and HDD Regenerator. Spinrite is about 90% snake oil and 10% last resort data recovery. Most of the time using it will do nothing useful or in some cases make the situation worse. Only use it on a drive that is going to be junked but you need some data on it and EVERYTHING else has failed. Do not use if you are going to send the drive to a professional recovery company, it can overwrite good data and then there is nothing anyone can do.
I don't know of any specific tests of HDD Regenerator, but it certainly sounds like snake oil.
As to Spinrite and HDD Regenerator. Spinrite is about 90% snake oil and 10% last resort data recovery. Most of the time using it will do nothing useful or in some cases make the situation worse. Only use it on a drive that is going to be junked but you need some data on it and EVERYTHING else has failed. Do not use if you are going to send the drive to a professional recovery company, it can overwrite good data and then there is nothing anyone can do.
I don't know of any specific tests of HDD Regenerator, but it certainly sounds like snake oil.
"If there is only a few bad sectors you should try running the manufacturer's diagnostic tool. Do a full scan and see if it lets you "repair" the bad sectors. Usually this is just remapping them to spare sectors."
There's no reason to do that. You can run extended SMART self-test in Windows. It's exactly the same as running it in DOS with official manufacturer's tool. There's no difference because the self-test is self-test. The tool merely gives an order to the HDD to analyze it's own condition autonomously.
"Repairing" is just overwriting. Zero-filling (or one-filling, or random-filling) = overwriting. Thus zero-filling = "repair". You don't need manufacturer's utility for that purpose.
"Most drives have about 100 or so spare sectors and when they run out then there is nothing you can do except try a zero fill."
Incorrect logic. Zero-filling turns "uncorrectable sectors" into "reallocated bad sectors". When spare sectors run out, uncorrectable can no longer be turned into reallocated, and zero-filling will lose it's effect!
So it's exactly the opposite to what you said. Zero-filling helps only when there's still unused spare sectors left. After that, the only solution is to do "CHKDSK X: /R" to make uncorrectable sectors unusable on software level.
There's no reason to do that. You can run extended SMART self-test in Windows. It's exactly the same as running it in DOS with official manufacturer's tool. There's no difference because the self-test is self-test. The tool merely gives an order to the HDD to analyze it's own condition autonomously.
"Repairing" is just overwriting. Zero-filling (or one-filling, or random-filling) = overwriting. Thus zero-filling = "repair". You don't need manufacturer's utility for that purpose.
"Most drives have about 100 or so spare sectors and when they run out then there is nothing you can do except try a zero fill."
Incorrect logic. Zero-filling turns "uncorrectable sectors" into "reallocated bad sectors". When spare sectors run out, uncorrectable can no longer be turned into reallocated, and zero-filling will lose it's effect!
So it's exactly the opposite to what you said. Zero-filling helps only when there's still unused spare sectors left. After that, the only solution is to do "CHKDSK X: /R" to make uncorrectable sectors unusable on software level.
I had one Samsung that made the system hang when trying to read one specific sector on the HDD. The HDD made noises like it was spinning up or reloading the heads. The Samsung utility I tried recognized the bad sectors but couldn't fix them. At first even HDD regenarator hanged while trying to "Fix" the sector. Only when I tried to enter a sector number manually, in the vicinity of the bad sector, did the program start to do its "magic." I can only guess that it did several passes of writes into the area around the bad sector or maybe using some low level command even into the sector. After that the HDD stopped hanging.washu wrote:I don't know of any specific tests of HDD Regenerator, but it certainly sounds like snake oil.