How many BAD SECTORS is too many BAD SECTORS

eldiablo696 · 9 Mar 2011 at 18:07

Well

please see the following readout from 'command prompt' > 'chkdsk, as of 09/03/2011':

39070048 KB total disk space
13089224 KB 35641 files.
18160 KB 4524 indexes.
1914948 KB bad sectors.
151396 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
23896320 KB available on disk.

I have had exactly this many bad sectors for over a year that I am aware of. So they may have been there for quite a few years. My PC is about 7 years old.

I have only experienced a few seconds of grinding during start up recently, once.

I am awaiting a new hard drive.

I am posting this info, based on much research. I have read many articles telling of 'multiplying like rabbits' when someone is advising someone else with 7 or 8 bad sectors.

The reason I am posting this info, is to dispell the myth that even 1 bad sector is too much. Causing many to panic and spend more than they should based on the current advice out there.

Most Hard Drives come straight out of the factory with Bad Sectors. They merley mask them with coding. So when you look for them using software, they do not appear. So seeing 1 or two bad sectors is not the end of the world...unless they are virus related and 'multiplying like rabbits'.

Most will give this advice genuinely and with nothing to gain, as this is the safest advice. (Or to cause panic buying).

I am not proud of so many bad sectors, nor am I saying that you can let bad sectors accumulate to anywhere near this amount.

But, that you should not believe everything that you read. Had I checked a few years ago, I would have paniced. I would have replaced my hdd prematurely (not a word a man likes to hear) and it would have £cost$ me a hell of lot more that £3.60 (off EBay).

In my case it paid to wait for a good deal to come along and not panic buy.

So, you can take this info as you want.............

Rroff · 9 Mar 2011 at 18:09

Any bad sectors is bad - you have no way of knowing how its going to go so important to have any data you don't want to lose backed up and a replacement plan in place if they start showing up.

Obviously a disc can go bad at any time but with the symptoms showing and the weighting of chance of it getting worse its better to replace it in a managed fashion instead of waiting until it goes **** up.

95thrifles · 9 Mar 2011 at 18:15

Ermm I disagree with OP and agree with Rroff, for me 1 is too many and I would take steps to rectify straight away, especially if you have important data stored, my HDDs have 0 bad sectors so not sure why you would think "most" come out factory with some

SparkyG · 9 Mar 2011 at 18:19

Agree 1 is bad enough...

However I have had a HDD that has lasted a long time with bad sectors but on the other hand I have had quite a few that have broken down quickly upon discovery of bad sectors

eldiablo696 · 10 Mar 2011 at 10:28

I must say that I agree with all of the replies.

I just wanted to address the fact that all of the results from my research seem to categorically say the same thing.

And all had the same affect on me, causing me to panic...

I just wanted to give my factual example, as an alternative view.

The article, where i found the info on most HDDS having bad sectors from the factory, is via the following wiki link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_sector

If you then scroll to the very bottom of the page and select the link:

Bad sector remapping techniques:

http://www.mjm.co.uk/sectorremapping.html

Again, I agree with what others have said.........

Technics · 10 Mar 2011 at 10:38

If you have important informaton stored on your bad drive and can't sort it id get a new one fella. Never seen bad sectors in any of my five drives.
Good luck though if your going to try solve it yourself

eldiablo696 · 10 Mar 2011 at 17:34

Installed new hard drive

I just installed a sold as 'unused' Hard drive in my pc.

Only, this Hard Drive has 8gb of files on it.

Also

In properties in shows:

8.04gb used
68.6gb free

That adds upto 76.6gb

It is supposed to have 82.3gb (as per manufacturers and sellers spec)

Any ideas why 82.3gb - 76.6gb = 5.7gb

Why can i not use 5.7gb

I am waiting for seller to reply to my e-mail, your thoughts on how I should handle this, please.......

eldiablo696 · 10 Mar 2011 at 17:41

Also is it possible that just having it sit in my pc as a slave is improving my performace.

My pc is still booting from old drive, but everything is so much faster. Like internet etc.

Curio · 10 Mar 2011 at 17:42

eldiablo696 said:
I just installed a sold as 'unused' Hard drive in my pc.

Only, this Hard Drive has 8gb of files on it.

Also

In properties in shows:

8.04gb used
68.6gb free

That adds upto 76.6gb

It is supposed to have 82.3gb (as per manufacturers and sellers spec)

Any ideas why 82.3gb - 76.6gb = 5.7gb

Why can i not use 5.7gb

I am waiting for seller to reply to my e-mail, your thoughts on how I should handle this, please.......

Drives always format to less than the advertised amount. It's perfectly normal and nothing to worry about. I'll let you research why yourself

eldiablo696 · 10 Mar 2011 at 17:52

Nice..............

I wanted to save myself coming across another article that says something totally different.

Good or bad, I will stick with the advice from OCUK.............with a little research

Used to do things the other way around and talked myself out of doing/trying things.

An overclocker in the making....

thegoonden · 10 Mar 2011 at 20:05

One IS too many....but I note that some drives can chuck a bad sector or two and leave it at that for years....others suffer a sort of "creeping death" as if there is actually a problem with the data holding coating on the disc flaking off.....like on tapes/floppies....the head catches or interacts with the edge of the damage and sloughs more oxide (or whatever they use on HD's) off the surface.

eldiablo696 · 11 Mar 2011 at 13:00

I kind of see what you are saying.......

Probably the best explanation I have come across so far...........

cammy5477 · 11 Mar 2011 at 13:36

why would you want to play bad sector roulette with your hard drive.....
and you bought a £3.60 drive of ebay to replace it? you deserve to lose your data and i look forward to the post with title" im a gimp whos lost all his data! please help me get back the precious photos of my kids" because i for one will just laugh....

Liampope · 11 Mar 2011 at 13:55

eldiablo696 said:
I just installed a sold as 'unused' Hard drive in my pc.

Only, this Hard Drive has 8gb of files on it.

Also

In properties in shows:

8.04gb used
68.6gb free

That adds upto 76.6gb

It is supposed to have 82.3gb (as per manufacturers and sellers spec)

Any ideas why 82.3gb - 76.6gb = 5.7gb

Why can i not use 5.7gb

I am waiting for seller to reply to my e-mail, your thoughts on how I should handle this, please.......

That is entirely to do with the different meanings of the prefixes Kilo, Mega, Giga, etc in standard science/engineering and in computer data speak. Normally, the meaning of Kilo is 1,000, Mega is 1,000x1,000 = 1,000,000, etc, but in computer data a Kilobyte is 1,024 bytes, a Megabyte is 1,024x1,024 = 1,048,576 bytes, etc.

Manufacturers of storage devices can legitimately 'lie' about the capacity of their devices by choosing to use the 'normal' meaning of the prefixes, and pretty much always do. In this case we have a manufacturer reporting 82.3 GB, but they actually mean 82,300,000,000 bytes taking the 'normal' definition of Giga as being 1,000,000,000. But the actual amount of computer data the device can store is 82,300,000,000 / 1024 / 1024 / 1024 = 76.6 GB.

Very misleading, but that's how it is! So sorry, your missing 5.7 GB of storage never existed!

eldiablo696 · 11 Mar 2011 at 15:02

Everything is backed up and new hard drive is in place.

Am in the process of copying over to new.

The drive is new and is double the size of my current hard drive.

Yes, £3.60, I even managed to get a £2 refund. So, £1.60

The drive has passed manufacturers test drive tool and two complete virus scan, using two didfferent pieces of software (approx 5 hours in total).

Chkdsk reports no bad sectors.

Is there anything I am missing before I copy over etc etc

Thanks for the laugh scammy, I nearly wet myself reading your reply......... Having a bad day?

cammy5477 · 11 Mar 2011 at 17:11

eldiablo696 said:
Thanks for the laugh scammy, I nearly wet myself reading your reply......... Having a bad day?

yeah it was a bit of a rant

anyways glad your getting it sorted

pv123 · 11 Mar 2011 at 17:18

Yeah, I just go my 2 ssd drives (500GB each) for £2, thankfully I got a £1.50 refund, so just 25p each.

£3.60 HDD? WTF? If you can get it for that price than you should buy as many as possible and re-sell them.