dunno where to post this so I'm posting it here

k so this is essentially a unique topic cause I googled it extensively
there's a couple such topics elsewhere but they always end up degenerating offtopic with answers like "you'll lose your data" (the drive is empty & not even partitioned atm) or "get a new drive" (not an option I wanna keep this one so there ^^) or "use PC3000" (a scam app for millionaires so doesn’t count) or "use the scsi command xxx" (mine is not an scsi drive just a normal sata drive) or get a usb-to-ttl adapter (those are apparently as rare as this topic itself - not for sale here anyway. I also don't buy anything on the web so forget ebay or amazon)

so I'm hoping this one will stay ontopic

for starters this is my hdd: seagate momentus 7200.4 laptop drive
model ST9250410AS
manufactured 2011 so it's a "young" drive

problem is simple:
I've some bad sectors
I'm quite certain they're physically damaged, and most likely all contiguous (1 bad "block")

and those bad sectors are NOT due to aging

the drive was in perfect health (cf. Crystaldiskinfo smart stats. no bad or reallocated sectors)

but a few days ago it was accidentally dropped
just an inch height maybe but it was during a write operation

the writing stopped for a few seconds like the drive froze (then resumed)

so I redid an hdtune surface scan & now there was 1 red block
Crystaldisk showed several "pending sectors" or something but I didn't count them

but: I did a hard disk wipe (write zeroes) and afterwards the red block disappeared in the next surface scans it was all green

which means those bad sectors (107 in total) were remapped to the spare ones & added to that infamous G-list

and that's the problem: I DON’T WANT THAT

everyone knows sector remapping kills performance it's like tripping on a wire plus it accelerates wear & tear

in fact there should be no G-list there should only be a P-list (which gets updated everytime there's a bad sector)*
that way we lose a bit of capacity (a few kb out of several gb big deal) but at least performance & lifespan are unaffected

so basically my questions are:

1) is it possible to do a TRUE surface scan (which will bypass the hard disk controller, ignore remapping & show the REAL bad sectors just like before they were reallocated?)

the goal is to locate the bad sectors physically on the disk then partition the drive so that the bad sectors will be in unpartitioned space. this way even if they get remapped again at least they'll never be used
I intended to partition my drive anyway

failing this,
2) is it possible to easily erase that damn GLIST via normal software means only?
ie. reset the SMART 'reallocated sectors count' stat to 0
so that once again a surface scan will show all the bad sectors on the disk
for the same goal: partition the drive to avoid those bad sectors

and finally:
3) is it possible to permanently disable sector remapping? (and transfer all the sectors on G-list over to the P-list so they never get used)

Why will you try to fix a six years old drive...when it's not going to better even if you do a self scan on it...those bad blocks are going to increase no matter what you're doing as the drive was dropped (not only surface was affected but also the heads at the drop). If you still want to store data on it, just store movies or music or other stuff that is not unique.

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I tested the drive (after the bad sectors were relocated) there's no sign the heads were damaged or any other part of the drive (other than the reallocated sectors)

I say this cause I put several copies of a huge file on the drive (enough to cover most of the drive) then compared their hashes with the hash of the original: the copies were all identical to the original

also it was a tiny drop (about an inch maybe). Seagate drives & their "g-sense" protection can't be that crappy can they?

anyway back to topic:

1) is it possible to do a TRUE surface scan (which will bypass the hard disk controller, ignore remapping & show the REAL bad sectors just like before they were reallocated?)

the goal is to locate the bad sectors physically on the disk then partition the drive so that the bad sectors will be in unpartitioned space. this way even if they get remapped again at least they'll never be used
I intended to partition my drive anyway

failing this,
2) is it possible to easily erase that damn GLIST via normal software means only?
ie. reset the SMART 'reallocated sectors count' stat to 0
so that once again a surface scan will show all the bad sectors on the disk
for the same goal: partition the drive to avoid those bad sectors

and finally:
3) is it possible to permanently disable sector remapping? (and transfer all the sectors on G-list over to the P-list so they never get used)

Are you sure about that? Because..



doesn't mean anything.

if the heads were damaged that means there wood be read/writing errors right? but there were no read/write errors cause all the hashes matched (ok so the files didn't cover the entire disk there was a few gb at the end but what are the odds. also the accident happened while the drive was writing at the beginning of the disk just where hdtune showed a red block during surface scan before anything was remapped)

else what are the signs of a damaged head?


anyway back to topic :

1) is it possible to do a TRUE surface scan (which will bypass the hard disk controller, ignore remapping & show the REAL bad sectors just like before they were reallocated?)

the goal is to locate the bad sectors physically on the disk then partition the drive so that the bad sectors will be in unpartitioned space. this way even if they get remapped again at least they'll never be used
I intended to partition my drive anyway

failing this,
2) is it possible to easily erase that damn GLIST via normal software means only?
ie. reset the SMART 'reallocated sectors count' stat to 0
so that once again a surface scan will show all the bad sectors on the disk
for the same goal: partition the drive to avoid those bad sectors

and finally:
3) is it possible to permanently disable sector remapping? (and transfer all the sectors on G-list over to the P-list so they never get used)