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Data recovery and disk repair questions and discussions related to old-fashioned SATA, SAS, SCSI, IDE, MFM hard drives - any type of storage device that has moving parts
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Tool to identify files affected by bad sectors in FAT/NTFS

May 10th, 2008, 7:09

Hi all,

I'm looking for a tool to easily identify which files in a FAT or NTFS file system are effectively affected by bad sectors. It should be easy to use as I'd like to have it for my colleagues who don't know much about CHS, LBA and files systems at all.
This should avoid hard disks that have small defects within operating system files or similar, which could be fixed by the guys in the shop, being sent to me for more expensive work.

Re: Tool to identify files affected by bad sectors in FAT/NTFS

May 10th, 2008, 7:19

When a hdd suffer bad sectors, then u should immediately backup ur files. any kind of hd tool u should not use directly to the hd. data might loss more.

better to contact data recovery company if datas are important.

Re: Tool to identify files affected by bad sectors in FAT/NTFS

May 10th, 2008, 9:58

Sure. Now back to reality: most of the customers who bring their notebooks in the shop would pay 50 Euros or somewhat to get their holiday photos back, but not more. Furthermore, most of these hdds are either beyond repair or have only logical or minor surface defects.
I don't want those candidates on my bench, so the guys in the shop make an image of the hdd as soon as the customer agrees to buy a new hdd and pay for some basic efforts to get some data back.
Afterwards, it would be helpful to know which files are actually damaged to decide whether a Windows repair, a system file check or a complete installation is required and which data can be safely recovered.
Why should we let the customer leave the shop without any attempt to get their stuff back at a low price or, on the other extreme, always recommend a multi-hundred-euro job when there are lots of possibilities in between that are more than sufficient for 90 percent of our customers?

Now it's your turn :)

PS. by the way you misunderstood my first posting: we would never run a tool on a bad hdd which tries to write or "repair" anything, the last guy who used chkdsk /f at first on any hard disk had to leave months ago. We only want a tool to check the disk for bad sectors and tell us which files are affected after making an image.

Re: Tool to identify files affected by bad sectors in FAT/NTFS

May 10th, 2008, 10:30

shaun,
I use Winhex for finding-out of damaged files,
But it is manual work, a plenty of files will check up difficultly.

Automatic programs for similar search did not meet.

It is senseless.
As has already noted shahij, it is impossible to use a HDD if it does not hide Bad sector.
It any more not the work, and hack-work. ;)

Re: Tool to identify files affected by bad sectors in FAT/NTFS

May 11th, 2008, 14:26

CHKDSK or SCANDISK Never should be run when a hdd containing bad sectors. Cos, those are not bad sector fixing tool, those are developed for fixing file system.

Winhex could be used for your expected job which already said by Tomset
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