Is this hard drive usable or should I buy a new one?

UberTiger

UberTiger

UberTiger

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My housemates laptop died earlier this week and they couldn't get into windows, even after running all the windows recovery stuff.

The partition ended up showing as RAW so we couldn't access the data.

I managed to copy all the data to a partition on one of my HDD using a USB SATA dock and save their data.

I've just started running an HD Tune error check on the drive to see if it's still usable and I've got this so far.

Is the HDD a write off now because of the damaged sector and should I buy a new one or would it be okay to format and re-install windows on it?




ImageShack.us
 
One bad sector is not the end of the world, though it could be a sign that the platter surface is degrading (and you might find some more). How old is the drive? How did you manage to copy the data from a RAW partition? (IE can you see all the files/folders on the backup? If so, most should be uncorrupted).

If the Master Boot Record (MBR) gets corrupted, you have BIG problems restoring your data and the file structure. It's usually (always?) on Sector1-Cylinder0-Head0, which looks to be OK on your scan. If not, try free TestDisk which can scan and recover the backup MBR (hopefully).

Advice : After you've recovered what data you can, the drive should be OK to re-use after a full format/scandisk/chkdsk etc., but watch the drive's status closely (I use Hard Disk Sentinel Pro to monitor and log Health/Performance/Temps, but nothing is infallible). And get your mate to buy an external drive and run backups/images regularly (if he's rich , buy a new HDD/SSD and an external backup drive).
 
UberTiger said:
Is the HDD a write off now because of the damaged sector and should I buy a new one or would it be okay to format and re-install windows on it?
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Buy a new one. Hard drives have spare capacity where faulty sectors can be re-mapped to. This is done transparently to the operating system (i.e. the OS still thinks it is addressing the original sector, when in fact the head is seeking to a completely different location on the disk). If your OS (in this case, HD Tune Pro) can see a bad sector, it is because the hard disk firmware hasn't been able to re-map it, which essentially marks the beginning of the end of that drive. Even a single faulty sector (depending on the location) can corrupt a drive, so why risk it?
 
Thank you both for the replies.

Dennis - The drive is from an older ebay laptop, so it's probably had a fair bit of use. I used a program called RawCopy to copy the data to a partition I created on my of the HDDs in my desktop.

I thought I would then have to use some kind of data recovery tool to actually access the data, but once it was all copied over to my desktop the files were accessible again. So I immediately backed up all the important docs to an external drive :)

Once the error scan finished that original red block was the only one to show up.

Ideally he really didn't want to fork out for a new drive, but he was only using 60GB worth of space so I talked him into buying a 120GB SSD which was only £50 last night. Price seems to have gone up a bit today.

So hopefully crisis averted, data saved and he'll be back up and running so he can write his reports for work tomorrow!

I was considering ordering a cheap 2.5" USB caddy to use the old drive as an external backup drive but I guess I should just scrap it due to the reasons you've given in your post rotor?
 
It's easy to be wise after the event, which is why people spend a fortune on backup software/hardware when they've just lost some valuable data. Looks like your friend had a close escape.

If it's a work laptop, it's worth splashing out on a decent backup "solution" (ie software + hardware), or at least a cheap external USB drive + Windows Backup. As a skinflint, I'd struggle to throw out a drive with just one bad sector, but for work use it's not worth the risk.

PS Good find on the SSD, but remember it still needs backing up!

PPS Don't bin that drive, send it to me! :)
 
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Indeed, hindsight is 20-20. Hopefully all the time I've put in to helping him save the data and get back up and running will equate to a few quid off the rent this month or at least a few pints :D

He has to use the laptop for work to write up reports daily, so it's very important to his work, however it's not supplied by, paid for or maintained by them :rolleyes:

I've set him up with dropbox and told him to save all his important work reports directly there so they get backed up immediately as he works on them. Then to back up regularly, once a week or more to the 3.5" external drive he has.

PPS lol - Well, if you think the drive is good enough to still use with the one bad sector I might just go ahead and pick up a caddy for it to store and transport non critical files :)

Thanks again for your help :)
 
UberTiger said:
I was considering ordering a cheap 2.5" USB caddy to use the old drive as an external backup drive but I guess I should just scrap it due to the reasons you've given in your post rotor?
Click to expand...

Unless you can get a caddy for £5 or something like that, why throw good money after bad? Murphy's law clearly states that the drive will fail at precisely the worst possible time (like when you've briefly used it to backup your stuff while you reformat your main disk), and it's not like disks are that expensive these days? For storing ISOs, or something completely disposable, then fine, use a known faulty disk, but otherwise, don't. =)
 
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