Need Software To Detect Bad Sectors On Harddisk

[bluedragon 0]

Is there a good free/opensource software to detect and repair/remove Bad Sectors on Hard Disks. I am running Windows XP.Thanks

[salamangkero 0]

Considering that you have Microsoft Windows XP on your system, I think good old CHKDSK may be enough.To detect(and repair) bad sectors, try:CHKDSK Z: /ROf course, replace Z with the appropriate drive letter

[pedro-kun 0]

If you download the "Universal Boot CD" (UBCD), or even "Hiren's Boot CD", you should have a free cd with lots of tools for diagnostics and repairs of most systems... miniPE xt also comes in handy, if you like GUI's better (also, certain graphical tools have no console equivalent).As far as bad sectors are concerned, I believe that hdat2 does the trick (you can find it in the UBCD, under Disk Diagnostic tools, or something like that )However, I don't know how it works if the disk is SATA... I believe the IDE Legacy option in the bios makes it work if it didn't :)Anyway, even if you don't use it regularly, UBCD is a nice thing to have around You never know when you might need it

[isdrobotica 0]

go to sharewareconnection dot com and in the searchbox write repair bad sectors or something like that and a bunch of tools will appear...they are shareware

[travstatesmen 0]

If you are experiencing bad sectors on a modern hard disk drive then you should consider replacing the drive immediately. Drives manufactured since about 1995 have an area in the center rings of the disk platter that is not normally used for regular data storage. These sectors are used to automatically swap out bad sectors. All disk drives get bad sectors, but they are managed by re-addressing the vector to one of these spare sectors. You won't even see a bad sector showing up, because the hard drive electronics automatically compensate in this way. The only time that you will experience bad sectors is when that area of spare sectors is already full, which would indicate that you have a serious problem and should consider getting the disk replaced. Storage is very cheap these days, and replacing a 500GB hard drive is not as financially scary as it used to be.

 

Oh, and I love pedro-kun's reply. I'm a big fan of WinPE, BartPE, and UBCD tools! See my thread about WinPE.

Edited September 16, 2008 by travstatesmen (see edit history)

[bluedragon 0]

Thanks for all the replies.. The drive is quite new.. I bought it only 4 months back.. And its a Seagate , so a Five year warranty is there , But I want to know whether there are actually bad sectors on the drive or not. Bcoz I tried the SeaTool that Seagate offers and there is some Short DST and Long DST test. First when I tried Short DST it failed and suggested I run Long DST. So I tried Long DST and it showed some 22 errors. It was taking long to I went for a snack and when I returned it was showing Long DST passed after fixing the erros. Now When I tried Short DST it failed again. I want to know why it happened to this drive.. I've seen people run drives for 20yrs without a bad sector and this one failed in only 4 months.. Is this bcoz Seagate has reduced quality ??NEways.. I'll try to find some of the Above Listed tools@pedro-Kun -- I couldn't find Hiren's Boot Disk.. I was looking for it on google but i couldn't find a proper one. if you would be kind enough to provide a link that would be great . thanks@Salmangkero -- I tried running that but it failed one time and Second time it gave some files unreadable error.. I didn't try it the third time bcoz it was deleting too many file.. and Oh.. It was the one that showed me 12KB in bad sectors the first time, just after failing.P.S. DST is short for Drive self Test.