How to remove DELAYED sectors on HDD

[CYRIX]

Hello, recently a friend was gifted to me 5 different old hard drives, and I decided to scan them with the HD REGENERATOR program, but one of them SEA GATE 40 GB turned out to have 3 DELAYED sectors. I tried to fix them by use setting the REGENATE ALL SECTORS option, but still these DELAYED sectors are still there. I tried with other programs like VICTORIA but this program brought out even more errors and defects. Then I also tried with HDAT2, but there the results were that the hard drive is clean without any errors.

After a lot of reading on the internet, for weeks, I came across your forum. I've been trying different options with MHDD for almost a month now, carefully reading the entire manual, and then trying everything step by step with the ERASE, then ERASE DELAYES, then REMAPPING options. I ran another scan with HD REGENERATOR, but again those DELAYED sectors are still there! How can I remove these DELAYED sectors? Please someone with more experience help. Thanks in advance!

P.S.
I specify that, I tested these programs under pure DOS, no Windows! I even start MHDD with BIOS off so it can work directly with the hard disk controller!

 

[Murphy]

You can't repair bad sectors, delays mean the drive has sectors with long access time, essentially they're partway through going bad.

Honestly if it were me i wouldn't risk using a drive with bad sectors, much less if it's only 40GB as you can pickup +256GB HDD for less than £20 these days.

 

[Philtor]

Yeah this seems like a lot of effort for a 40GB drive

If I was that keen on fixing it, I would be looking into a low level format as it was known.

 

[andy_mk3]

It's a hardware issue that can't be fixed. For a 40GB drive, I assume (hope?) it's being used for some kind of retro pc. If so you can continue to use it ensuring that you understand it may fail completely one day, but it may still have years of life in it yet, there's no telling. If you're not using it for a retro pc, then bin it I think!

 

[CYRIX]

Yes of course I already did that by low level formatting it with the KILL DISK program, and then formatting it with HDAT2, and finally running the Low Level Form with MHDD, but before to do that, I turning it off in the BIOS so that MHDD can to process the hard disk directly from the controller!

By the way, I'm basically a connoisseur of old hardware, and also collector, and I often use such old hard drives mostly for operation system LINUX installation, especially when I'm making a router with a firewall or a home server. But I would never keep important information there.

 

[Murphy]

You can't repair bad sectors so no amount of formatting will be able to recover them.

If you need to use the drive the best option would be just to format and partition it as you would normally and then run chkdsk...

chkdsk

Reference article for the chkdsk command, which checks the file system and file system metadata of a volume for logical and physical errors.

learn.microsoft.com

with the /f /r /x switches to try fixing any errors on the disk/partition table, mark bad sectors on the disk/partition table as unusable, and takes the drive offline while it's being scanned.

After that I'd probably run chkdsk but without those switches after the systems been in use for a day or two in order to check that the problems not got worse (if there's a mechanical issue with the drive new bad sectors can be created), if chkdsk doesn't flag any newly created bad sectors after a few days then it's probably safe'ish to use but you'll probably still want to keep an eye on it by checking it once a week to start with and as you get more confident that it's not creating more bad sectors once a month or something like that depending on how much use it gets.

 

[CYRIX]

You can't repair bad sectors so no amount of formatting will be able to recover them.

If you need to use the drive the best option would be just to format and partition it as you would normally and then run chkdsk...

chkdsk

Reference article for the chkdsk command, which checks the file system and file system metadata of a volume for logical and physical errors.

learn.microsoft.com

with the /f /r /x switches to try fixing any errors on the disk/partition table, mark bad sectors on the disk/partition table as unusable, and takes the drive offline while it's being scanned.

After that I'd probably run chkdsk but without those switches after the systems been in use for a day or two in order to check that the problems not got worse (if there's a mechanical issue with the drive new bad sectors can be created), if chkdsk doesn't flag any newly created bad sectors after a few days then it's probably safe'ish to use but you'll probably still want to keep an eye on it by checking it once a week to start with and as you get more confident that it's not creating more bad sectors once a month or something like that depending on how much use it gets.

Thanks for the comprehensive answer, but the topic is not about "bad" sectors, but about DELAYED sectors... The hard disk does not have a single "bad" sector, but there are 3 DELAYED sectors, and this worries me. Therefore, I would like to remove them somehow.

 

[Nemiyen]

I don't think you can remove delayed sectors either. They are a sign the disk is going bad and unless this is for a backup of a backup, I wouldn't risk using the drive to be honest.

If the drive "brains" are any good then it shouldn't be using these delayed sectors any more and you should see some reallocated sector use going up, hopefully.

 

[Murphy]

Thanks for the comprehensive answer, but the topic is not about "bad" sectors, but about DELAYED sectors... The hard disk does not have a single "bad" sector, but there are 3 DELAYED sectors, and this worries me. Therefore, I would like to remove them somehow.

There's no such thing as delayed sectors as far as file systems go, delayed sectors is something the programs you're using to scan the drive are reporting, as previously explained they're sectors with longer access times.

As in: Instead of it taking 0.1ms to read the sector it's taken more than 0.1ms...

HDD Regenerator's Delays Detected

• If you see delays under Windows, it is recommended to rescan the drive from a bootable regenerating CD or flash.
• If your hard drive is external, it is recommended that you connect it as an internal drive.
• Generally, 1-2 delays are not a problem.

Permanent delays mean that the hard drive has sectors with long access time. A drive with permanent delays is actually a failing drive and may cause data losses. You can try to regenerate such sectors using the "Regenerate all sectors in a range" option. Also, the delays can be regenerated in the “scan and repair” mode, if the following both conditions are met:

1. The hard drive has been completely scanned at least 1 time.
2. The hard drive does not contain bad sectors.

HDD Regenerator Info - Abstradrome bad sector repair. Hard drive data recovery software.

Recovery software. Regenerate hard disk drives. Recover lost data. Free trial download available.

www.abstradrome.com

Basically RTFM.

 

[darael]

Have you tried SpinRite on the drive? To be honest though, I'd still be heavily reluctant to trust the drive afterwards.

 

[CYRIX]

There's no such thing as delayed sectors as far as file systems go, delayed sectors is something the programs you're using to scan the drive are reporting, as previously explained they're sectors with longer access times.

As in: Instead of it taking 0.1ms to read the sector it's taken more than 0.1ms...

HDD Regenerator Info - Abstradrome bad sector repair. Hard drive data recovery software.

Recovery software. Regenerate hard disk drives. Recover lost data. Free trial download available.

www.abstradrome.com

Basically RTFM.

Yes, the hard drive was scanned with several different programs such as Sea Gate Tools, HDAT2, MHDD, VIVARD of course under pure DOS, because the listed programs are on HIRENS'S BOOT system bootable CD under DOS. As far as I've read, scanning hard drives and fixing errors is only done under pure DOS, because then everything works at the machine level, and programs have full access to the device controller!

The hard drive is ATA, attached directly to the motherboard. But the most interesting thing is that when I scanned it with the programs listed above, they show that there are no DELAYED sectors! Only HD REGENERATOR shows it. Otherwise, not a single "bad" sector has been found so far.

 

[Armageus]

But the most interesting thing is that when I scanned it with the programs listed above, they show that there are no DELAYED sectors! Only HD REGENERATOR shows it.

Because as you've already been told "delayed sectors" aren't an actual thing outside of your HD Regenerator program. Essentially all it is doing is providing some basic benchmarking of the drive reads/writes as part of the testing - other programs clearly don't do this and just report good/bad sectors.

Otherwise, not a single "bad" sector has been found so far.

Because a "delayed sector" isn't a bad sector. It can be caused by normal operation of the hard drive e.g. it detecting bad sectors and mapping them out and replacing with some "spare" sectors. The "delay" is caused by the drive having to seek elsewhere to read these reallocated sectors.

 

[CYRIX]

As far as I understood from other people, they explained to me that DELAYED sectors actually they are ex BAD sectors, that had already been replaced with spare sectors from the spare area, and because of that they are slow to access.