HDD bad sector, please help

[witzar]

Hi.
My HDD has a bad sector. This prevents my PC (with Windows XP) to boot.
The chkdsk was not able to fix it.
I've also run some hdd diagnostics tool and it informed me that
the bad sector has number about 600 (so it is located near beginning of disk).
Is there anything I can do to fix it?

[lcoughey]

Stop trying to fix it. Backup your data immediately. If you cannot backup your data, seek the assistance of a data recovery professional who can, without risking losing all your data.

[harddrivespecialist]

I agree with Luke, stop trying to fix it, backup and get a new drive. Then you can try to fix your bad sector.

[SAjunky]

1. Backup data and stop using this drive. Very TRUE.
2. Seek the assistance of a data recovery professional. Nonsence, you have one bad. Ignore it.
3. Bad sector doesn't mean drive is failing. Try rewrite affected area, zero fill is offered by many utilities. Use utilities like MHDD, Victoria to evaluate drive condition. SMART, scan delays tell us about drive condition. Post results here.

[witzar]

I've fixed it with mhdd. Thanks for help.

[SAjunky]

Glad see it fixed. However I encourage you to do default scan (2xF4) and check for delays. Also SMART attributes might give more information, it will help to decide whether it is advisable to continue use this drive or not.

[witzar]

I encourage you to do default scan (2xF4) and check for delays.

I understand that color of each block displayed during scan informs about the delay.
But I do not know which values are good and which are bad.

Also SMART attributes might give more information, it will help to decide whether it is advisable to continue use this drive or not.

I did it also but my knowledge of the subject is too poor to judge the results. Is there a way to post them here so you could help me interpret smart attr values? Is it possible to save mhdd results to a file on hdd?

I have a feeling that my hdd works somewhat slower after the failure (but I'm not certain about it), so I'm worried.

[SAjunky]

Yip, post it here. Log file or sreenshot, retype it, whatever.

[Keatah]

Just keep an eye on the drive. Be sure it doesn't grow new bad sectors.
All drives have a handful of bad sectors from day one.
All drives might have a few bad sectors form from time to time. But if they begin increasing quickly you have a problem.

One of my laptop drives has 2 reallocated sectors that have formed this last year. And as long as another year goes by without another one cropping up, we're ok.

[witzar]

Ok, here are results of a (partial) scan and smart att of my hdd.
Now please explain what it all means

Code:

8.07.2012  15:13:02    | MHDD 4.6 (c) Dmitry Postrigan | FREEWARE
8.07.2012  15:13:02   Changing mode to: IDE
8.07.2012  15:13:48   Changing mode to: IDE
8.07.2012  15:13:48   Device selected: 1
8.07.2012  15:13:56   
8.07.2012  15:13:56   MHDD>SCAN
8.07.2012  15:13:56   ExcelStor Technology J360  LBA: 120,103,200
8.07.2012  15:13:56   SN: VNVB05E200RNKA  FW: V22OA63A
8.07.2012  15:14:13   Scan started
8.07.2012  15:14:13   MODE: IDE
8.07.2012  15:14:13   Device: ExcelStor Technology J360
8.07.2012  15:14:13   F/W: V22OA63A
8.07.2012  15:14:13   SN: VNVB05E200RNKA
8.07.2012  15:14:13   -------------------------------
8.07.2012  15:14:13   Lap : 1
8.07.2012  15:14:13   LBA scan: 0 to 120103199
8.07.2012  15:15:17   ţ LBA Timeout: 6269175
8.07.2012  15:15:17   Last scanned LBA: 6269429
8.07.2012  15:15:17    Blocks <   3ms = 18530
8.07.2012  15:15:17    Blocks <  10ms = 5463
8.07.2012  15:15:17    Blocks <  50ms = 590
8.07.2012  15:15:17    Blocks < 150ms = 2
8.07.2012  15:15:17    Blocks < 500ms = 0
8.07.2012  15:15:17    Blocks > 500ms = 0
8.07.2012  15:15:17   No warnings, no errors
8.07.2012  15:15:17   Done
8.07.2012  15:25:22   
8.07.2012  15:25:22   MHDD>SMART ATT
8.07.2012  15:25:22   Getting SMART attributes...
8.07.2012  15:25:22   SMART READ ATTRIBUTES
8.07.2012  15:25:23   HDD: ExcelStor Technology J360; FW: V22OA63A; SN: VNVB05E200RNKA
8.07.2012  15:25:23   --------------------------------------------------------
8.07.2012  15:25:23   SMART attributes:
8.07.2012  15:25:23               Name                        Val Worst Raw
8.07.2012  15:25:23   Att #   1 : Read error rate           : 100  100  0 
8.07.2012  15:25:23   Att #   2 : Throughput performance    : 100  100  0 
8.07.2012  15:25:23   Att #   3 : Spin up time              : 107  107  9896091 
8.07.2012  15:25:23   Att #   4 : Number of spin-up times   : 100  100  3612 
8.07.2012  15:25:23   Att #   5 : Reallocated sectors count : 100  100  0 
8.07.2012  15:25:23   Att #   7 : Seek error rate           : 100  100  0 
8.07.2012  15:25:23   Att #   8 : Seek time performance     : 100  100  0 
8.07.2012  15:25:23   Att #   9 : Power-on time             :  97   97  22701 
8.07.2012  15:25:23   Att #  10 : Spin-up retries           : 100  100  0 
8.07.2012  15:25:23   Att #  12 : Start/stop count          : 100  100  3336 
8.07.2012  15:25:23   Att # 192 : Power-off retract count   :  97   97  4325 
8.07.2012  15:25:23   Att # 193 : Load/unload cycle count   :  97   97  4325 
8.07.2012  15:25:23   Att # 194 : HDA Temperature           : 161  161  34 
8.07.2012  15:25:23   Att # 196 : Reallocate event count    : 100  100  0 
8.07.2012  15:25:23   Att # 197 : Current pending sectors   : 100  100  0 
8.07.2012  15:25:23   Att # 198 : Offline scan UNC sectors  : 100  100  0 
8.07.2012  15:25:23   Att # 199 : Ultra ATA CRC Error Rate  : 200  200  0 


[SAjunky]

In my opinion disk is in good condition.
About SMART some doubt about raw values for read and seek error rate. Both zero, too good to be true, but it might be normal for this drive model.
Two sectors with longer delay (<150ms), still acceptable and not many counts.

One question: how did you fix the bad? By mhdd with erase delays? If so, this sector has probably corrupted information. It is in system area (first +/-600 LBA). Your OS might be unstable at times, but likely it will never show up. You didn't note exact LBA, if you did, you could find out which file/folder belongs to and restore it from original disk.

[BlackST]

Device: ExcelStor Technology J360
F/W: V22OA63A



....

[witzar]

One question: how did you fix the bad? By mhdd with erase delays? If so, this sector has probably corrupted information. It is in system area (first +/-600 LBA). Your OS might be unstable at times, but likely it will never show up. You didn't note exact LBA, if you did, you could find out which file/folder belongs to and restore it from original disk.

I believe I've fixed it using scan with remap turned on.
The bad was between 600 and 610.
I could try to replace those files, but how do I find path/filename for a specific block?

[SAjunky]

I believe I've fixed it using scan with remap turned on.
The bad was between 600 and 610.
I could try to replace those files, but how do I find path/filename for a specific block?

There are many disk utilities. Such utility must understand file system you have formatted hard drive. This disk comes probably preformatted. In Windows go to computer management -> Disk Management, you can find by drive letter to which physical device and partition it is assigned. You will see how disk is partitioned (one or multiple partition).

I can't point you to specific Windows program, but there is a DOS utility called DMDE. Your job is to find out name of the file (or it could be some other file system structure though). If it is normal file, it is simple you can replace it in Windows.

BTW, BlackST is giving some clue, but honesty I missed it...

[witzar]

BTW, BlackST is giving some clue, but honesty I missed it...

???