Difference Between Bad Sector And Boot Sector. What first do if System Crashed.

[veerumits 0]

hi all,I read so many article related to this topic but overall in confusion what is basic difference in between bad sector and Boot sector in Hard disk , if any sector have bad then what is the first precaution that bad sector should not come. what is the first stage that i find, the bad sector may occurs. somebody says that if virus is running continuously in your system then there is a chance to come bad sector. what is it correct? i think that this is not correct virus could not corrupt the hard disk. (bad Sector or boot sector) what you think that virus have capability to do this task or it is due to any electrical fault happening with your Hard disk. i buy a second hand hard disk to my friends he have query please solve this problem.my hard disk have bad sector or boot sector have we scan found bad sector. but i am confusion what i do for this, any extra utility comes to solve this problem very easy without any extra cost. really it is a big issue in between me and my friends what we do. i bye new one or repair it. any way my extra cost is lost so many things are there. so please help me.thanks

[Jeigh1405241495 0]

Alright, well I am no expert in this area but can give a basic rundown on the topic.Boot Sector - This is where a hard drive keeps basic information required for the 'booting' or startup of a system. Many people know the term MBR now or "Master Boot Record" which stores information on where the operating system are found, and the MBR is in the boot sector. Basically, a boot sector contains the information required to get from the motherboard receiving power to actually showing you some type of program on the screen (usually an operating system like windows).Bad Sector - These are COMPLETELY unrelated to boot sectors except that both occur on a hard drive lol. Bad sectors are simply corrupted sections of a hard disk. As far as I know this simply happens over time and cannot be avoided once too much wear and tear occurs on a disk and usually doesn't cause too much trouble in small amounts (some files may be corrupted but otherwise an OS can simply ignore bad sectors on a HD). Viruses, as far as I know, can't cause a bad sector but I'm sure they could manage to erase your boot sector leaving the computer needing some work to get access to the files inside.Hope this helps clear things up a tad. I'm sure someone else will provide more detail.

[veerumits 0]

Alright, well I am no expert in this area but can give a basic rundown on the topic.
Boot Sector - This is where a hard drive keeps basic information required for the 'booting' or startup of a system. Many people know the term MBR now or "Master Boot Record" which stores information on where the operating system are found, and the MBR is in the boot sector. Basically, a boot sector contains the information required to get from the motherboard receiving power to actually showing you some type of program on the screen (usually an operating system like windows).

Bad Sector - These are COMPLETELY unrelated to boot sectors except that both occur on a hard drive lol. Bad sectors are simply corrupted sections of a hard disk. As far as I know this simply happens over time and cannot be avoided once too much wear and tear occurs on a disk and usually doesn't cause too much trouble in small amounts (some files may be corrupted but otherwise an OS can simply ignore bad sectors on a HD). Viruses, as far as I know, can't cause a bad sector but I'm sure they could manage to erase your boot sector leaving the computer needing some work to get access to the files inside.

Hope this helps clear things up a tad. I'm sure someone else will provide more detail.

Thanks to differentiate both thinks bad sector and boot sector and hope that some one sure provide more details but please clarify that if virus erase the boot sector then system should not be working fine after reboot or instantly restart. so what is precaution for this, what i do instantly so my work is not suffering. and window should not corrupted.

[yordan 10]

Thanks to differentiate both thinks bad sector and boot sector and hope that some one sure provide more details but please clarify that if virus erase the boot sector then system should not be working fine after reboot or instantly restart. so what is precaution for this, what i do instantly so my work is not suffering. and window should not corrupted.

OK.Of course, backup your own files (text files, spreadsheet files, pictures) as often as possible.
Secondly...
Basically, what you have to do if you don't want your files be destroyed by a virus in the boot sector is ... don't use the boot sector.
I mean, you data must be on a separate disk, or on a separate partition.
First of all, if your data are on the second disk or on a separate partition, you can at any time boot on a LiveCD and see your files, and put them on a flash disk or burn them on a CD/DVD. So, loosing your boot sector does not loose your date, it makes you loose time. You should right now find a Linux or windows LiveCD, and see how it behaves, it's not harmful (if you boot and use and avoid installing), and you will be ready for action if your boot sector happens to fail.
The boot sector is re-written when you re-install Windows. If you take care installing only your c:\ partition, the installation will not destroy your data. So, it's harmless too. If you happen to have two completely different disks, simply try to powerdown your data disk before doing that, a mistake may occur - and I did a lot by myself.

---
P.S. I'm an expert in that field, but this is not a reason for trusting me, just look how the LiveCD's behave, and think about the advantages of having two different partitions on your system : the data on one partition and the Operating system on the other partition. If you loose your Windows disk the data are still here, just avoid destroying them while re-installing the Operating System. And if you happen to loose your data disk, your Operating system is still here and will be able to read your backup (because you have a backup, right?)

[jjkeenan 0]

If you have problems with bad sector, your physical drive will start to deteriorate. Usually when the windows system files touches any areas with bad sector, it will totally destroys booting. Both bad sector and boot sector errors are pains of the neck. What you need to do, download BartPE Portable CD Booting Windows so that all your files on the hard drive can be recovered. Actually, it is good to have it on hand since it is compose of 3rd party freeware and open source software that could help you with diagnosis in hardware and software.

[zorba4 0]

If you have problems with bad sector, your physical drive will start to deteriorate. Usually when the windows system files touches any areas with bad sector, it will totally destroys booting. Both bad sector and boot sector errors are pains of the neck. What you need to do, download BartPE Portable CD Booting Windows so that all your files on the hard drive can be recovered. Actually, it is good to have it on hand since it is compose of 3rd party freeware and open source software that could help you with diagnosis in hardware and software.

This is partly true, but partly unclear.Bad sectors are some places where the magnetic coating of the disk is damaged.
When you format your hard disk, Windows takes notice where the bad sectors are and defines replacement sectors for data to be written.
That's why, when you install Windows (or when somebody installs it for you) the installation first formats the disk, so the place of the bad sectors are known by the operating system.
If no more bad sectors appear, this is harmless. I have a hard disk which had ten bad sectors, and I used this hard disk without problem during eight years.
The problem starts if new bad sectors appear. If these bad sectors are in an area having data, the data are unreadable. If these bad sectors are in an area with system binary files, these binary files are not usable, suppose this occurs with the file iexplore.com, you have no internet explorer, you cannot surf on the net.
The only moment where you cannot boot your system is when the bad sectors are in the boot area, a corrupted boot sector makes a corruptly booting machine.

[levimage 0]

A bad sector is a sector (physical area) on the hard disk which is loosing/lost is ability to correctly record a readable charge (electro/magnetic). This make reading and writing to this sector hard.

 

Warning signs of a hard drive having bad sectors include: abnormal hard drive activity (the drive keeps trying to read a certain area of the hard disk) which makes clicking or other consistent sounds (hard disk heads moving/searching); you pc/loptop no loading correctly, or programs freeze/shutdown without normal error mesages, and/or if you pc/laptop does not boot at times or halts during the boot process.

 

Pro active steps to prevent bad sectors: Don't hit, jar, drop, shake, crush, or press on a hard drive, especially when it is reading or writing. This also applys for a hard drive that has power applied to it via motherboard, usb, or other methods; and that power was removed/shut off (power outtage, disconnected cable) without a proper windows/apple shutdown (powerdown code) or 'Safely remove hardware' (Microsoft)/ Drag to Trashcan (Mac). These commands send the hard drive a hardware command to move (physically) seat the arms which read the data from the discs in the drive. If they are not set. Then you might accidently damage the locations on the drive.

 

Given the drive arms locations they are always in some area of the drive like the: operating system, pagefile, your data, or reading program information.

 

If you are a tech person you tend to take apart pc and have exposed drives, cables, memory, etc. Beware of you, your work environment (vinyl tile/carpet), tools, and other enviornment factors (humidity) which may cause a static buildup and Electro Static Discharge (ESD) on your pc, hard drive, cables, and or work area. Also some tech like the magenetic screw driver tools - watchout they are clear of your magenetic media (hard drives, flash drives, etc.). Magnetic speakers and other charged cables and their plugs may also be a factor.

 

I hope this helps clarify a little and explains some ways to be more cautious when working/fixing PC(s).