I just picked up a 1TB disk for 15 pounds because it has one bad sector, and I was just wondering if I am safe to use it really. Im thinking since its obviously marked as bad, wont the drive just not use that sector? Ive always found bad sectors a bit wierd since no one seems to ever say what they actually are just "it has bad sectors".
Does one bad sector actually matter?
- Thread starter Bigdogbmx
- Start date
No one does not matter, it may not even be truly bad. Just that it has been marked as bad, there are tools to recover then "chkdsk" is one but unless it increases I wouldn't worry about it.
Personally I would back the contents up (as you always should do) just in case, but I am a bit OCD about this.
Personally I would back the contents up (as you always should do) just in case, but I am a bit OCD about this.
Thanks for the replies, I dont have anything on it so Im not too worried, just wondered if it was going to lose any data I do put on there. Im fairly sure it is bad since I ran a low level format and then put NTFS back on and its still marked as bad, but Ill try one of those repair utils and see what happens.
as long as it's not sector 0, you are fine.
in which case you would have boot issues.. but again it can bypassed.
you can locate were the bad sector is and create an unpartitioned space around it.
this will keep trouble free.
don't worry though.. it will serve you fine.. just don't use it on a raid0 configuration
Merry Xmass all
in which case you would have boot issues.. but again it can bypassed.
you can locate were the bad sector is and create an unpartitioned space around it.
this will keep trouble free.
don't worry though.. it will serve you fine.. just don't use it on a raid0 configuration
Merry Xmass all
Soldato
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I've heard that writing zeros to whole drive can some times recover bad sectors, but I'm a little wary.
I did have a hard drive with a bad sector once and continued to use it for a long time after, but in this case the bad sector appeared straight after I had power cut incident in my house, hence it wasn't completely random.
Though, if bad sectors start appearing randomly for no apparent reason , I'd be worried
I did have a hard drive with a bad sector once and continued to use it for a long time after, but in this case the bad sector appeared straight after I had power cut incident in my house, hence it wasn't completely random.
Though, if bad sectors start appearing randomly for no apparent reason , I'd be worried
I remember back in the days of 500MB drives I had one that started developing bad sectors.
I think it's okay as long as it's not finding new ones every time you do a scan, if it is then you're likely to get data going missing every so often.
I think it's okay as long as it's not finding new ones every time you do a scan, if it is then you're likely to get data going missing every so often.
Yep, a rather sexy beige 486 DX2-66. 4MB RAM, 540MB HDD. I had to pay for an optical drive which was driven through an interface on my sound card as IDE wasn't the "standard" back then.
Oh lovely days. Doom, Ultimate Soccer Manager and Quake Shareware.
Oh lovely days. Doom, Ultimate Soccer Manager and Quake Shareware.
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Ah, the old "Sound Blaster Multimedia" upgrade.
A sound card with IDE pinouts, a 2 speed CD rom and a copy of the Encyclopedia Brittanica!!
A sound card with IDE pinouts, a 2 speed CD rom and a copy of the Encyclopedia Brittanica!!
LOL - I remember building PC's when 40Mb drives were the rave....
I can also remember the first time I held a 1Gb drive, it was SCSI and the size of a house brick!!
Back on topic... 1 bad sector does not make a bad drive, the firmware on the drive will normally just mark the sector as bad so it doesn't get used.
I would be concerned about the bad sector. Modern disks normally have a small reserved block of sectors at the end of the disk, and if one sector goes bad, the drive should flag it, and enable one of the spare sectors at the end.
If the bad sector has made it to the OS it either means that the drive has run out of spare sectors... or simply that the OS has made a booboo and flagged a perfectly good sector as bad (in which case reformatting the drive will recover it).
In general with IDE drives, sectors do fail from time to time, but you never get to see them, unless so many have failed the drives has run out of spares.
If the bad sector has made it to the OS it either means that the drive has run out of spare sectors... or simply that the OS has made a booboo and flagged a perfectly good sector as bad (in which case reformatting the drive will recover it).
In general with IDE drives, sectors do fail from time to time, but you never get to see them, unless so many have failed the drives has run out of spares.
I agree with Corasik's post.
Have you attempted to RMA that drive directly with the manufacturer. It may well still be under warranty and sure it'll be a bit of a hassle sending it off, but you'll end up with a brand spanking new 1TB drive for your £15.
Have you attempted to RMA that drive directly with the manufacturer. It may well still be under warranty and sure it'll be a bit of a hassle sending it off, but you'll end up with a brand spanking new 1TB drive for your £15.