Cut (disable) some sectors at the beginning?

[fartinger]

Hi folks,
is there any way for people without expensive hard-drive repair tools to cut (better DISABLE) some sectors at the beginning? I got a 1 TB WD GP drive (WD10EACS-00D6B0) that worked very well but..... from sector 0 - 100000000 (the first ~ 50 GB) are garbage. SMART over HDDScan says that reallocated sectors count is worse.
But nevertheless, after LBA 100000000 the drive should be completely ok. In my (computer-nerds) opinion it's pollution to throw it away

[Vulcan]

From your info so far, it isn't clear to me how you have identified only the first 50GB as having a problem. Also, since you say:

after LBA 100000000 the drive should be completely ok. [my emphasis]

... so it seems that you're not completely confident in the rest of the drive either.

Personally, given the relatively low price of drives compared with the inconvenience (or worse) of lost data, it seems a false economy to use a drive which has an undiagnosed (and therefore unknown severity) problem. Therefore I would not do what you are suggesting.

However if you really want to do this, then since HPAs are at the end of the disk (high LBA) in my experience, not the start which you want to "cut", that method won't suit you. Therefore one obvious way to achieve your goal is to create a partition in the area you don't want to access, and set the hidden bit in the partition type byte for that partition in the MBR (doesn't matter if you set it as hidden FAT, or hidden NTFS etc.). You don't need to actually format the "faulty" partition. Then any OS which respects that hidden bit won't allocate a drive letter to that partition.

That's where I would start, if I was crazy enough to try to use a partly faulty disk. Don't say you weren't warned about the risk about using the rest of the disk!

[Nick_CT]

Is the drive not still under warranty?

[fartinger]

... so it seems that you're not completely confident in the rest of the drive either.

I did some fast tests and was to fool at this point to test the rest unless I know how to hide the beginning (but based on my "experience" I'm sure to 99% that after LBA 100,000,000 the drive is good)

Therefore one obvious way to achieve your goal is to create a partition in the area you don't want to access, and set the hidden bit in the partition type byte for that partition in the MBR (doesn't matter if you set it as hidden FAT, or hidden NTFS etc.).

Thanks, I already know this very well, but the main problem is that some, I would say, important sectors at the beginning are worse so I can't start to create partitions. LBA 0 is "good", but I think when I want to create a partition under windows, even when I say "quick format it" he has to create a filesystem and this takes some sectors at the beginning... But especially this sectors are garbage

That's where I would start, if I was crazy enough to try to use a partly faulty disk. Don't say you weren't warned about the risk about using the rest of the disk!

I use tons of such disks for not really highly important stuff, e.g. for video-cutting this drive would be optimal instead of wasting the environment in a garbage dump. And the crazy is, most drives are not faulty for years now, no matter if some SMART-attributes are bad or not, I'm happy with some world's garbage

But nevertheless a solution how to archive my goal would be great. As someone who studied a form of informatics but with more software- instead of real hardware-experiences I assume a solution is to modify the controllers firmware and move the offset from LBA 0 to LBA 100,000,000 so the controller assumes 100,000,000 as the "new" zero-start. But how to do that?

[fartinger]

Is the drive not still under warranty?

No, I wonder myself, but there are some 1 TB drives around who don't have warranty at all.

[Vulcan]

... so it seems that you're not completely confident in the rest of the drive either.

I did some fast tests and was to fool at this point to test the rest unless I know how to hide the beginning (but based on my "experience" I'm sure to 99% that after LBA 100,000,000 the drive is good)

It's your choice. My experience (especially on some specific drive models) is very different.

Therefore one obvious way to achieve your goal is to create a partition in the area you don't want to access, and set the hidden bit in the partition type byte for that partition in the MBR (doesn't matter if you set it as hidden FAT, or hidden NTFS etc.).

Thanks, I already know this very well

So to avoid me wasting my time, it would be nice if you explained what you had already considered - otherwise I just repeat what you say you already know.

but the main problem is that some, I would say, important sectors at the beginning are worse so I can't start to create partitions. LBA 0 is "good", but I think when I want to create a partition under windows, even when I say "quick format it" he has to create a filesystem and this takes some sectors at the beginning... But especially this sectors are garbage

Remember I said you do not need to format the partition. Just create the partition. That is a big difference. I can think of several ways to do this, but you probably know them already...

I assume a solution is to modify the controllers firmware
[...] But how to do that?

You won't have the necessary firmware manipulation tools (because if you had them, I'm sure you would have said this already), so this option is not available as DIY for you. That is why I explained the option above which is available for you.

I expect you do not need more help, so good luck with that disk!

[fartinger]

Remember I said you do not need to format the partition. Just create the partition. That is a big difference. I can think of several ways to do this, but you probably know them already...

Oh, I'm verry sorry, I explained it in forum but didn't do this anyway on my drive
Now I left my preferred LBA-range in completely unformatted state as I want and.....it works as I want. Thanks very much anyway for giving advise!

[shmizan]

Remember I said you do not need to format the partition. Just create the partition. That is a big difference. I can think of several ways to do this, but you probably know them already...

Oh, I'm verry sorry, I explained it in forum but didn't do this anyway on my drive
Now I left my preferred LBA-range in completely unformatted state as I want and.....it works as I want. Thanks very much anyway for giving advise!

sorry for bumping such an old thread, but I've encountered this thread because I'm in the same situation.
the first 120000 sectors of the HDD are not bad by any test, but the HDD is making noises trying to read them (a few of them not all) and is doing so really slowly.
as a result, boot hangs for 15 seconds until drive is identified, and Windows loading takes 2 minutes extra when the HDD is connected to the motherboard.
I want to do exactly what the OP did, from the same reasons.
unfortunately I can't PM or send him an email since I've only registered.
someone knows how exactly he left the first sectors range "unformatted" ?
I take it he didn't just made a partition out of it and hid it as he ruled it out earlier in this thread..

[fartinger]

120000 sectors * 512 Byte (for "old" hard drive up to 1 TB or so) = 58,59375 MB.
Leave about 100 MB completely unformatted and create a partition behind this. You can also leave 1 GB unformatted if this space doesn't matter to get sure (or hope) that these sectors wouldn't be visited anymore. Good luck

[shmizan]

thanks for your comment!
by unformatted do you mean unallocated?
I've gone the extra mile and used Acronis Disk Director to create 1GB of unallocated space before the partition (was taken from empty space of the current partition so no formatting or partitioning was needed, data kept)
I've also used KillDisk to write 3 passes of zeros to that unallocated space.

is that what you did (give or take)?