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Mark slow sectors bad, or try to revitalize them?

July 15th, 2011, 3:42

Is there any software that would automatically mark slow sectors (access time> 100ms) bad?

Or any software that would let me mark known sectors bad myself manually, for a Seagate hard disk? Didn't notice this kind of functionality in Seatools (either Win or DOS).

OR, software that would try to exercise those slow sectors with magnetically opposed patterns?

My disk has 5 sectors > 150ms and 1 > 500ms (shown by HDDSCAN) and those are just waiting to go bad, i'd rather save myself the trouble.

Re: Mark slow sectors bad, or try to revitalize them?

July 16th, 2011, 4:28

I haven't tried this (Makebad), but it may be what you are looking for:

makebad-new-utility-avoid-weak-red-brown-sector-t6538.html

http://files.hddguru.com/download/Software/Makebad/

Re: Mark slow sectors bad, or try to revitalize them?

July 16th, 2011, 6:39

Thanks, but seems it only can mark sectors as UNC, relying on the OS to mark them bad clusters later (=disk will not look perfect on sector level). Will check if possible to do permanent reallocation with MHDD and even a manual list of slow sectors, if need be..

Annoying that Seatools considers 500ms+ sectors still perfectly good instead of giving an option to mark them bad already :x

Re: Mark slow sectors bad, or try to revitalize them?

July 17th, 2011, 4:04

It is IMPOSSIBLE to add defects to lists manually without knowing organization of firmware or how to do it / specialistic equipment. It is possible to 'make bad' and it is locked out BY FILE SYSTEM or make a soft error that is added to grown defect list later but it is just cosmetic.
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