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

Chet814:

Thanks for your input. I don't think any of these tools apply to my HD which is a Toshiba-branded MK6026GAX. I have a fairly good idea of it's health from the Dell Diagnostic CD which lists just 14 bad blocks. That was 13 prior to yesterday so it doesn't look terminal yet. My question was more about how NTFS handles bad blocks - I am old enough to remember how the FAT filing system did it, but couldn't find anything about NTFS other than Microsoft saying "If you get the Bad Block message often, replace the drive". My hope is that for each Bad Block error I get, that's one (ore) bad block that won't give me trouble again.

Do I have this right?

regards

Peter

Answer 3

Gerry:

Many thanks.  Yes this is what I thought CHKDSK did (it certainly did for FAT filing systems) but I am really trying to establish whether the NTFS filing system marks bad blocks as bad if it finds them during normal use, or do I have to check the event log everytime something goes wrong in case there IS a Bad Block message and then run CHKDSK to hunt it down.

Noted on the difficulty with copying a report from a cmd: prompt. That's not half as difficult as trying to read the report that appears on screen if CHKDSK runs AFTER the computer restarts - it doesn't wait for you to read it!  Maybe restarting to a console screen would work.

Regards

Peter

Kendal UK

Answer 4

"Do I have this right?"

Yes, I believe so and as Gerry C J Cornell's reply indicated, "Chkdsk marks the bad sector so that the sector is taken out of use."

Although the hdd may last for quite some time, I'd definitely suggest in keeping frequent backups of your important data and files, just in case...

Regards,

Answer 5

Peter

Please post a copy of the chkdsk report.