Hi, long time viewer, first time poster.

First. Thanks you Dmitry for your excellent program Mhdd.
I have been able to recover quite a few drives with it.
This forum certainly comes up in a lot of google searches I do... thanks for the info.

PROBLEM:
I currently have one drive that operates perfectly, except it has one warning sector that takes longer than 150ms to access (brown).
Is there a way to manually reallocate a sector that isnt classed as bad using MHdd?

WHAT IVE TRIED:
I have tried using the erase command, then erasewaits, then remap, but the sector still shows up.

I had a bit of a look through these forums, but could not find much info other than people essentially saying no, or to mark it as bad so OS will not use it, but this is not really ideal.
However, I thought I'd ask just in case.

Thanks again
JoshAU

Well you don't explain what make and model of disk you have.

Try to do the smart extended test on the disk, this may force a reallocation.

Since the mhdd scan shows you the number of the block that is slow, you could also try to scan a small part of the drive that includes this block and set it to repeat. It may eventually be reallocated.

No, SMART ext test most probably won't force reallocation (it's not the purpose). The fact it is BROWN is likely because the block is already in G-list. Only moving to P or whatsoever is called in his specific drive will "kill" the bad block (not show anymore) but this can't be done with free tools.

I wouldn't expect a G list sector to take 150-500ms but less than 50ms?

Since almost every seek/read takes less than 20.. are you sure it's not retrying?

Anyway, the smart attributes can be examined to see if there are any reallocations.

It's not retrying.. it is going to the alternate location and it needs extra time.
On the smart atts you find the number of pending realloc. sector.
The optimal would be moving to P list, the perfect solution in this case, where everything else failed, would be selfscan. but this is MUCH FAR BEYOND end user.

Ok, you have more experience than I, so I yield to you. But I don't understand, why would this take 150ms or more, when any other seek+read on a modern disk happens in less than 20ms?

Because the head has to move to another track. The remapped location is no longer sequential with the others. I don't usually see that big a difference with remaps, though. Usually 50-75ms , rarely up to, certainly not 250+ unless your drive has other issues.

Can you explain why there are *two* lists? As I understand it, one is for defects found during manufacturing, and the other is for defects found during later operation. Why can't there just be a single list? When a physical sector is found to be bad, why can't a remap entry be added to one big list? Why does it matter when the defect was found? (ie. why do there need to be *two* lists?)

P.S. I'm a retired professional software developer. For me, this is all for interest only. I do not have a bad hard drive. I do not need any data recovery services. I have no intention of entering the DR field, at any time in the forseeable future. I'm just trying to understand things better!

Factory list (P-) is static. User list (G-) is dynamic. The drive skips sectors in the P-List like they don't even exist. The drive uses replacement sectors for sectors in the G-List.

Performance-wise, bad sectors being in the P-List is better than being in the G-List. However there is no way to add to the P-List without changing the LBA of every sector after the one added to the P-List. This is fine if you are going to zerofill afterwards, but would not work on a drive with data.

The ultimate answer to your question is that it has to be like that to preserve user data.

_________________
You don't have to backup all of your files, just the ones you want to keep.

Use the search function in the forum or that thing...ga...gug...GOOGLE!!

Cant you just program MHDD to treat this "brown Sector" as a bad sector by altering the conifg files etc. If you change the acceptance time for a bad sector then maybe you can remap it.

Just an idea

_________________
The last I heard of God he was worshiping me

@drccsc: Thanks for the info.

@BlackST: I've probably used google more than you've had hot dinners. But thanks anyway, I always enjoy being told the obvious.

It doesn't seem. What do you know about HOT DINNERS as you are still in need of SPOON FEEDING?

Thank you all for your variety of ideas....

@fistron
Sorry, didnt realise make and model would be required when discussing a single sector in an otherwise perfect drive.

@HDD_MASTER
Thanks for the info. I had hoped that I could do that within mhdd by editing the conf files, but it didnt appear to make a difference....although I'll have another look.
Obviously it should be possible to reduce the level that mhdd considers a sector as bad, although the maker og MHdd may have not enabled such changes, to avoid people erroneously marking a large number of sectors as bad and quickly using up spare sectors.

@blackST
While google is a great tool, advice to use it is not so great.
I do agree that people should search a forum prior to posting however.

Given that most hard disk related searches that involve a bit more than an end user can understand will probably lead them straight to this forum anyway.

thanks
JoshAU

Dude, you're a classic internet hero. If *you* went to an expert forum and asked a simple question, you'd expect an answer, or a link, or a productive suggestion on how to obtain it. You wouldn't expect a childish GOO GOO GOOGLE answer. But perhaps I'm being unfair - perhaps you dribble when you type at the keyboard?

What do you want? Here the answer to the original question was posted many times here - use the search function. In a few words : when mhdd gives up or is useless, you need one of the hw specialized tools we use or more deep knowledge NOT FOR OPEN FORUM . Dig in your pockets the thousands $-€ necessary otherwise send it to a pro. Or if possible search another solution on youtube and other forum and refer to them for everything. Are you happy now?

You seem to have a basic comprehension problem.
- My question was nothing to do with MHDD.
- I explicitly said that I do not have a hard disk problem.
- I am not looking for a "solution" of any description.
Perhaps you should purchase some spectacles.

Oh, Jesus. BlackST you are a complete cocky nerd without any social skills. Stay at home, as you do for sure, day and night, and try to get customers with your childish way of dealing with the rest of the people. T_C asked a question that HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH MHDD OR DATA RECOVERY, so ANSWER IT OR SHUT UP YOUR DRIBBLING MOUTH. So 2027 posts already? How many of them did actually help somebody? How many were to freaking remind the existence of GOOGLE? GOD's SAKE! Take your NOT FOR OPEN FORUM knowledge to the grave if you want but please, STOP.

No I won't stop. I won't give free advice about how to move G into P for specific case, I won't help using any commercial tool on open forum, nor I won't disclose any other proprietary info that also means how drive works. About "NOT ON OPEN FORUM" answer to Mr. Shahij, HE knows everything. Other people receive help from me and so do I, happily. If there's a thing that must stop is asking for solutions that are at cost or involve use of tools - legit or not this is another problem and the problem is not limited to it - or proprietary info. As you see, all the answers are becoming generic as the net is now full of BS and the "answers" are all copy of other info collected and mostly not verified. Some people discriminate between BS and useful and maybe make it work - when possible - but real valuable info is now elsewhere and the discussions, even between us, are now behind closed doors. Sorry, that's life. Will this explain the point of view ?

Zero to do with the question I asked in this thread.

Zero to do with the question I asked in this thread.

Zero to do with the question I asked in this thread.

In this thread, I asked a generic question, which could easily have been - AND WAS BY SOMEONE ELSE - answered with a generic answer that didn't disclose any proprietary information whatsoever.

BlackST, in years gone by, I answered over 6000 technical questions in some other forums (nothing to do with hard disk drives). I know from personal experience, that after several hours of answering questions, you get tired, and can make mistakes. That's what you did here. You started by giving my innocent question a stupidly offensive answer (GOO GOO GOOGLE). Then you chose to follow this up with irrelevant objections that were noithing to do with what I had posted. You clearly didn't read what I posted, or, got confused about who posted what.

The simple answer would have been to "man up" and admit your mistake. "Sorry T_C, I got your post mixed up with someone else's." But apparently, you're not capable of doing that. This does not speak well of your ability to self-criticize. I hope that you are more straightforward with your customers, when you have made a mistake.

That is my last comment here.