NTFS bad blocks errors in the event viewer

Question

I have a Dell 510m with XP and a Toshiba HD. There are a few bad blocks which I can see with the Diagnostic CD. They haven't got worse over the last few years. Recently I saw some "Bad Block" errors in the event viewer. The diianostic CD shows me one more bad block than before.

My question is: When the Bad Block error appears, does that mean that the NTFS filing system has marked that block as bad so it doesn't get used again?  If not, will CHKDSK (the /R option?) find the new bad block and mark it unusable?  If not, is there a way to do this?

There is no option to replace the HD. I just need to keep this laptop going long enough to decide what to buy to replace it.

Thanks

Peter

Answer 1

Peter

24 KB in bad sectors. = 6 clusters so it is presently not a serious problem. However, you need to check regularly for a while to make sure that the number does not increase.

Of course any bad cluster can be bad news if it coincides with the location of a vital system file.

You should also use chkdsk to effect repairs as per this part of the report:

Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap.

Windows found problems with the file system.

Run CHKDSK with the /F (fix) option to correct these.

Use Edit, Find with Volume Bitmap as the Search Criteria for further information:

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

Answer 2

My understanding is that under "normal" circumstances the HD controller is supposed to find and mark the bad sectors so that it's transparent to Windows.  However when that doesn't happen (for whatever reason), you do need to run CHKDSK to find and correct the bad sectors.  This has always worked for me.  There are things that are aren't recoverable such as bearings wearing out or head crashes, but if it's just bad sectors, you should be able to mark them unusable and keep going.  If there is someting on the bad sectors that's being used, recovery will attempt to read it and move it to an alternate sector, but there is a risk that whatever's there could be lost.

 I hope this helps.  Good luck.

Answer 3

Hula_Baloo:

Many thanks. I just wanted to know whether a Bad Block error message was something that was going to come back and bite me over and over again, but if the NTFS filing system (surely not the HD controller?) automatically marks as 'unusable' any blocks which it cannot use, then I only need to be concerned rather than worried and I don't need to panic.

The Bad Block error in question was associated with an application crashing, but that's a separate problem and I think I can handle that.

Answer 4

You may want to check out the HDD Diagnostic Tools that Toshiba has listed on their page below:

Hard Drives - Software Utilities http://storage.toshiba.com/storage-services-support/warranty-support/software-utilities

Each of the three tools have specific requirements so you'll need to check if any are applicable to your specific hdd. If one is for you hdd, perhaps it will give you a better idea of the drive's condition and health.

Regards,

Answer 5

Chkdsk marks the bad sector so that the sector is taken out of use.

Select Start, Run, type cmd and press ENTER. Type "chkdsk c: /f /r" without the quotes and hit ENTER. Make sure you include the spaces indicated. Enter Y when asked whether you wish to run chkdsk on restarting the computer. Exit and restart the computer.

Marking off bad sectors on a hard drive takes time so be patient. Marking off does not repair a bad sector. It places pointers on the drive telling the system not to read or write to those sectors which have been damaged.

If the number of bad sectors continues to increase after you have run the procedure above several times then you should replace the drive. If an important system file is written to a bad sector you can corrupt registry hives and lose the whole contents of the drive.

On the other hand if having run chkdsk you see no more new bad sectors then the drive can work for you for years.

If you just want a chkdsk report on your C partition select Start, Run, type "cmd" without quotes in the box and press the ENTER key. Type chkdsk and press the ENTER key and a report, detailing amongst other things a summary of how the disk space is utilised, is provided. If you want a report on a partition or drive other than C you need to go to that partition. To access F, where F is the required partition you type F: and press the ENTER key.

Copying reports from a command prompt can be tricky. Right click and select Mark. This enables you to highlight selected text and click to copy. You then go to an open Word, Notepad or similar file, right click and paste. The selected text transfers from your clipboard to the open file. You can paste directly into a reply message to most forums.

You can get error reports in Event Viewer coming from the hard disk controller advising that there is a failing cable or a poor connection between cable and motherboard and / or hard drive. Replacing a sata cable is an inexpensive repair.