· The system slows down, even if it is just installed.
· BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) appears when working in Windows.
· The system does not start at all.
· Cannot install the operating system.
Inability to work with the disk, as files cannot be opened
· When working with external hard drives, files cannot be opened.
Sector Bits (BAD) are sectors located on the surface of the hard disk that are hard to read or not read at all.
As a rule, the reason why the hard drive starts to work poorly is bad sectors.
There are 2 types of bad sectors - some arise as a result of physical impact on the surface of the hard disk (surface scratches), others - as a result of software errors, they are called logical bad sectors.
Only "Logical" bad sectors can be fixed. In order to fix such blocks, you need to overwrite them with zeros (the so-called low-level formatting), and in the future you can continue to work with such sectors.
Reasons for the appearance of bad (BAD) sectors
The reasons why "Logical" bad sectors could appear is a sector of the hard disk that does not work properly, namely, does not respond to system requests (it cannot be read or cannot write data to itself). When the system is working with such a sector, the system tries to access this block in order to obtain data for processing information, but the sector does not respond, or does not respond correctly, in which case the system marks such a block as not working (broken) and in the future it will no longer be available to it. appeals.
The reasons why "Physical" bad sectors could appear is the surface of the hard disk, with which the head could come into contact and cause a small slight scratch (this can happen if the drive being in operation is shaken or hit), the surface could also be damaged by dust or moisture that got inside the drive. In the case of SSD disks, bad sectors can appear as a result of wear, overheating of microcircuits or moisture. Broken sectors that were discovered after such a physical impact cannot be fixed.
Ways to fix bad sectors
In order to fix the bad (BAD) sectors on your PC or laptop and restore the normal operation of the hard drive, you need to use third-party programs.
You may also have heard about the utilities built into the Windows operating system that supposedly can help in fixing such blocks, but the maximum they can is to mark such sectors as not working and not access them anymore. I also do not advise using any programs that offer to fix bad (BAD) sectors from under Windows OS. This type of program works with the hard disk, referring to it while fixing blocks, so the use of such programs does not give a big guarantee that the bad sector will be fixed.
Consider 2 programs that are most likely to be able to fix bad sectors and restore the performance of your hard drive.
MHDD program
We can also nullify all sectors that are on the surface of our hard disk. We will completely erase all information from each block, and we will be able to bring the speed of the hard drive as close as possible to the factory state. In order to perform the erasure procedure for each block of the hard disk, enter the "Erase" command in the line, agree with all the warnings and wait for the end of the low-level formatting process.
Having done the above procedures, we can easily get rid of the "Logical" bad sectors.
What to do with the "Physical" broken sectors? For this, the manufacturer of the hard disk provided a reserve space (spare sectors), which can be replaced with broken ones. Modern hard drives make Remap on their own, if suddenly such a sector appears on the surface, but sometimes they miss them, which slows down the operation of a laptop or computer drive. In this case, you can use the function of the program "REMAP".
When a bad sector is detected, the "REMAP" option tells the hard disk firmware that when reading or writing this block, the drive will turn to the backup sector, replacing the broken one. This method is good if there are not many bad sectors (no more than 50-70).
In order to remap the bad sectors using the MHDD program, you must enter the "SCAN" command, in the window that appears, select the "Remap" item and translate its value to "ON", after that we press key "F 4" and watch the scanning process. We carry out this procedure only after we tried to nullify the found sectors, so as not to mistakenly mark the "Logical" bad blocks as "Physical".
Also, with a large number of bad sectors, the last option for repairing a hard drive will be to reduce the volume. Thus, we will be able to cut off the part of the disk on which there is a very large number of "Physical" bad sectors, sacrificing disk space.
In order to perform this procedure, you must enter the "HPA" command and specify the values for trimming the drive.
The first value that needs to be specified is the end of the hard disk. The drive is trimmed from the end. The value should be 10,000 more from the number of the last bad sector, which is displayed in the status bar. In my case, this value will be equal to 380515. 
Victoria program
Victoria's program is similar to the previous program, but has a slightly broader functionality, you can read the article on how to use, how to install and how to run this program.
After installing and running the program, select the hard drive we need (if you have 2 or more).
After selecting, press the "F 4" key, in the window that appears we are interested in 2 items.
1. In the first paragraph, select "Linear reading", this configuration will alternately read and write all blocks of the hard disk. We select it, as it will most accurately show the presence of broken sectors
2. In the second paragraph, select "BB: Erase 256 sect". By selecting this option when scanning and detecting bad sectors on the surface of the hard disk, the program will try to nullify such a block. This method will fix only "Logical" bad sectors.
After selecting the desired parameters, press "Enter" and observe the progress of the scan.
After the scan is over, but the bad sectors remain, you need to use the "Remap" function.
To do this, follow the same steps, press the "F 4" key and set "Advanced Remap" in the field where Ignore Bad Block is installed. This parameter can help even if the usual Remap is powerless, this is the advantage of the Victoria program over the previous one. After selecting the desired parameter, press "Enter" and monitor the progress of the scan.
Conclusion
By doing the above operations with your damaged hard drive, you can bring it as close as possible to the factory state. The suggested programs should help you repair and restore your drive, but there are times when hard drives cannot be recovered. The reason for this is the large number of "Physical" bad sectors that took up the entire spare space and there is nowhere to re-partition them, in which case it is necessary to copy all the information to another location and replace the drive.
A hard disk is an important, but far from perfect, component of a personal computer. For some users, it does not work reliably, "crumbles", data from it is lost or is significantly damaged. One of the most common problems with a hard disk is the appearance of so-called "bad" (bad) sectors on it, which become a "headache" for many users. In this article, I will talk about the reasons for the appearance of bad sectors on the hard disk, list a number of programs that allow you to recognize them, and also explain how the hard disk is checked for bad sectors on your PC.
What are bad sectors?
As you know, a traditional hard disk consists of several rotating magnetic disks, over which magnetic heads move, magnetizing any part of the disk and thus writing information on it (in the form of zeros and ones).
The disk itself is divided into tracks, and the latter, in turn, are divided into sectors on which the information necessary for the user is recorded.
Due to certain reasons (I will list them below), information from a number of sectors cannot be read by the hard drive. Such sectors receive the status of "bad sectors", and the system tries to either restore the operability of such a sector (restore), or reassign the address of such a bad sector to the backup sector (remap), or carry out its total cleaning of the bad sector (erase). In the case of remap, spare usable sectors are usually located at the end of the hard disk, and the hard drive spends additional time accessing them, which inevitably affects the speed of the hard disk, loading various applications and programs. Next, I will tell you in what ways you can check your computer's hard drive for bad sectors.
Reasons for the appearance of bad sectors
What are the reasons for the appearance of bad sectors on the HDD disk? They are usually as follows:
- Gradual "crumbling" of the hard disk surface due to its wear, due to which there are more and more bad sectors on the disk;
- Physical impact on the hard drive due to various kinds of external shocks;
- Power surges in the network, directly affecting the integrity of data on the hard disk, and leading to the appearance of bad sectors;
- Incorrect shutdown of the computer (improper operation), as a result of which bad sectors appear on the hard drive.
Symptoms of the appearance of broken sectors
Due to the described reasons, the number of bad sectors on the hard disk becomes more and more, which begins to directly affect the operation of the operating system. In particular, you may notice the following:
- The system boots slowly;
- The system slows down (freezes) when reading and writing data from the hard disk;
- The system refuses to boot at all (quite often - in the middle of the process);
- The computer sometimes restarts for no reason;
- During the operation of the OS, various errors occur regularly.
After we have described the symptoms and causes of the appearance of bad sectors, let's move on to a description of how to check the hard disk for bad sectors.
The best ways to check your hard drive for bad sectors
So how to check for bad sectors (and fix them)? Below I will describe a number of methods that have proven to be effective with various hard drives.
Method 1. We use the system utility CHKDSK
The easiest and most convenient way to find and fix bad sectors on an HHD hard drive is to use the functionality of the system utility CHKDSK.
- To take advantage of its capabilities, start Explorer, right-click on an inactive volume (which does not have an installed operating system), in the menu that appears, select "Properties".
- In the window that opens, go to the "Service" tab, there click on the "Check" button.
- Check the boxes next to the two check options, click on "Run", and wait for the process to finish.
The same can be done for the system volume (on which the OS is installed). The only thing that this may require a system reboot, but after the system reboots, it will start checking the disk for bad sectors.
You can also run CHKDSK from the console. To do this, run the command line as administrator, and enter in it:
chkdsk c: / f / r - (instead of c: if necessary, specify a different letter of the problem drive) press enter and wait for the end of the process.
Method 2. We use the Victoria HDD program to analyze and treat the disk
Victoria HDD is probably the most popular program for checking a hard drive for bad sectors (and for restoring the latter). It effectively checks and repairs bad sectors, has good reviews from specialists, and can be used both in classic graphics mode and in DOS mode.
One of the bonuses of "Wiki" is the ability to read the SMART indicator of your hard drive, which allows you to track the degree of its performance in sufficient detail (the "SMART" tab of the program). In addition, the Victoria program performs "remapping" (reassignment of bad sectors), zeroes bad sectors, conducts a detailed test of the hard drive surface, ranking sectors into different groups depending on the speed of reading information from them.
- To use this program download and run it.
- Then go to the "Test" tab, select "Ignore" there and check the surface for bad sectors.
- If such are found, you should select the "Remap" mode in the same tab, this will allow you to reassign addresses from broken sectors to backup ones.
- If, after remapping, bad sectors remain, you can try to restore them using the "Restore" function, while the "Erase" function completely erases data in bad sectors, writing zeros there.
In general, the functionality of "Victoria" is quite extensive, and to get acquainted with its full description, you need to go to the material about the use of the program.
Method 3. We use the HDD Scan program to check the hard drive for bad sectors
Another program that can check the hard drive for bad sectors is HDD Scan. This is a fairly popular utility that offers several different tests (Surface Test, Smart Offline Tests, etc.). Select Surface Test, check the "Read" checkbox on the right and start checking the disk surface.
The program will analyze the response time of the available sectors, and give us the result in graphical mode.
Method 4. Checking your hard drive with HDD Regenerator
The HDD Regenerator program allows you to check and recover data on the hard disk, the same applies to bad sectors. Note that the program is paid, but those who wish can search the network for its free options.
- To use the capabilities of the program, you need to launch it, select a disk for work, decide on the scan mode (I recommend Normal Scan), and then select the "Scan and repair" option.
- Then it will be necessary to specify the scanning boundaries (starting from sector 0) and monitor the scanning process itself.
- In contrast to the response speed, the sectors will be marked with different letters and colors.
Method 5. Scan the disk with the HDD Health program for bad sectors
Another program for checking the disk surface is bad sectors. HDD Health analyzes the general condition of the disk, provides detailed statistics on the available partitions (using SMART technology, including the general condition of the structure, an indicator of the disk rotation temperature, the presence of bad sectors, and so on).
The icon of the running program is located in the system tray, while the program itself, as necessary, notifies the user of any problems with the hard disk.
Hard disk recovery, deleting BAD (broken) sectors [video]
Usually, checking the hard drive for bad sectors is carried out using special software tools, the Victoria HDD or HDD Regenerator level. The most effective of all the programs listed in the article - Victoria HDD allows you not only to check the surface of the hard disk for bad sectors, but also to restore them, remap and clean them. If bad sectors began to appear on your hard drive, then I recommend using the functionality of the above programs, they have proven their effectiveness in working with hard drives of many users.
In this article, we will tell you about recovering bad sectors of a hard drive and the reasons for their appearance. Step-by-step instructions will help you prepare for this procedure and cope with it yourself.
What are broken sectors
Let's take a quick look at the structure of the hard drive. It consists of several separate disks, above which there are magnetic heads for reading and writing information. When storing data, the heads magnetize certain areas of the disk, divided into tracks and smaller components - sectors. It is in them that the units of information are stored. If the sector becomes unavailable for reading, it is called "broken".
Several signs indicate the appearance of such a problem:
- squeaks, grinding, tapping when the disc is working;
- heating of the HDD surface (in a normal state, this should not happen);
- frequent errors when working and starting the operating system.
Typical Causes
The main reasons for the appearance of broken segments of the hard drive are:
Also, malfunctions of the hard drive may appear due to mechanical damage. They are often caused by dropping the hard disk or computer, damaging the magnetic surface (for example, during transportation). Non-working parts also appear due to factory defects. In this case, they may not appear immediately, but "fall down" over time, rapidly increasing their number to a critical level.
Important! If you suspect mechanical damage or marriage, you should immediately contact a specialist or exchange the hard drive under warranty.
Recovering bad HDD sectors with Victoria
If the appearance of broken segments is associated with software failures, then they can be restored using specialized software. One of such programs for recovering bad sectors of hdd is Victoria. The utility is available in two versions - for Windows and DOS. The most effective recovery will be through DOS, since when the OS is running, some sectors may be busy, which means they are not available for scanning.
Victoria HDD - diagnostic program
Scanning
To get started, we need to do a little preparation. First, you need a disk with a program image recorded on it or a bootable USB flash drive. If everyone can cope with recording an image, then difficulties can arise with the creation of a USB flash drive.
Let's dwell on this step in more detail:
Note! The program takes up very little space, so after installing it, the drive can be used to store other information. In order not to accidentally delete the files necessary for the utility to work, it is recommended to allocate a separate folder for them.
Let's start the scanning process:
Here we need the item "Reallocated sector count", which displays the number of fragments in the reserve zone, as well as "Current pending sectors" where the parts that cannot be read are displayed. If their number is not very high, then the disk should be recovered.
Hard drive recovery
Let's see exactly how this process takes place. Problem segments can be roughly divided into two types. The first ones are not readable due to the mismatch of the information stored in them and its checksums.
This error occurs during a power outage when new data has already been written and the checksums remain old. They simply cease to be recognized and are restored quite easily - by formatting them and writing the correct amounts.
The second type occurs as a result of mechanical damage. In this case, recovery is more difficult, but still possible. The resumption of the performance of such parts is carried out through the use of reserve areas that are on each hard drive.
Let's start recovering each of these types of errors.
Video: HDD - "curing" bad sectors
First, let's try to fix the bad sectors by erasing the information stored in them:
- press F4 and get to the check menu;
- in the menu for selecting operations with unreadable sectors, specify "BB: Erase 256 sect" and press "Enter".
A lengthy process of scanning and restoring bad sectors of the HDD will start. If the program finds a bad sector, it will try to erase it, thereby correcting the error. If a mechanical defect is present, an error will be reported. In any case, you need to wait until the check is complete and then separately fix the sectors with physical faults.
For this:
Now the restore operation will work on a different principle, trying not to erase the bad sectors, but to replace them with space from the spare area.
Important! If there are a lot of such sectors, then the spare space may run out. This will be announced by a special message, and further recovery will become impossible.
After successfully recovering bad sectors on the hard drive, it is recommended to perform a full check of the file system for errors.
This can be done using the CHKDSK utility or in the following way:
Photo: checking disk for errors
Attention! In order for the system not only to find, but also to fix the problems, before starting the scan, select "Automatically fix system errors."
The methods described above will help you easily cope with non-critical cases of the appearance of problem sectors, find and fix them. Accurately following our instructions, any user can do it on their own, even without having a computer education. We hope this information was useful to you.
Problems with hard drives on your computers always arise spontaneously. The main indicator of possible problems with HDD is time! Yes, time is not only a "doctor", but also an absolute destroyer!
Signs indicating the occurrence of problems with the "tin" are very commonplace.
First, there are strange sounds that occur while your hard drive is running: squeaks, clanks and other sound effects.
Secondly, this is the heating of the surface of the hard drive case: as you know, a normal HDD does not heat up at all (well, at most, its surface is a little warm).
Thirdly, frequent "crashes" of the operating system: this indicates a huge number of bad sectors of your hard disk (clusters).
As you can see, friends, there are quite a few reasons. How to solve the problem? There are two solutions:
- buy a new hard drive;
- try to "cure" the old one.
Recovering damaged sectors of a hard drive
First, you should know the reasons that are the catalyst for the emergence of bad sectors on the HDD:
- improper shutdown of the computer;
- viruses and Trojans;
- incorrect removal of programs and games.
How to do it? There is nothing complicated in the procedure, since it is as simple as three kopecks. We go to "Start - My Computer". Hover over any local disk and right-click. A menu will drop out in which you select the last line "Properties". By clicking on "Properties", you open the "Properties: system drive (drive letter)" window. There, in this window, you see several active tabs - click on the "Service" tab. See: three sections have appeared and each section has active buttons? In the "Check disk (Check volume for errors)" section, click on the "Check" button, and then check the "checkboxes" in the "Check and repair bad sectors" and "Automatically fix system errors" items.
Next, click on "Start" and wait for the end of the process. Warning: the process of fixing problems with the hard drive can take a very long time! It directly depends on the condition and "age" of your hard drive. Therefore, do not panic if your disk is “healed” for several hours in a row: this is normal for old or badly damaged HDDs. Attention: if your broken disk (for example, C) is currently busy with work, then the OS will prompt you to check the sectors at the next system boot. We agree, click "OK" and restart the system. That's it: now your disk has started to "heal". You just have to wait until the end of the process. After that, we check the disk for adequacy: we try to run programs and applications, and monitor the speed and quality of execution. But you should still take into account that the old hard drive will sooner or later, but surely be covered with a "copper basin"! Therefore, if your HDD is old, be prepared to replace it. Good luck!
For example, let's take a real hard disk with bad sectors.
Friends, the smallest unit of information on a hard disk is a sector, the amount of user data is 512 bytes, if the information in a sector cannot be read, then the sector is unreadable or, in other words, bad. All operating system freezes occur when reading information from such a sector.
This WDC WD5000AAKS-00A7B2 hard drive (500 GB) is really faulty,
The operating system on it constantly freezes and periodically at boot it starts checking the hard disk for errors. The last straw for the owner of the hard drive was that it was not possible to copy important data to another disk, and even reinstalling the operating system ended with another freeze on unpacking Windows files, replacing the installation disk with the operating system did not work, the freeze was repeated at another stage of the installation.
It was then that the question arose of what to do with this hard drive, because one of the partitions contained important data and had to be copied.
Victoria launch
Launching the Victoria program as administrator... We agree with all warnings about working in a 64-bit system.
We select the initial tab Standard. If we have several hard drives, in the right part of the window, select the required hard drive with the left mouse, in our case WDC WD5000AAKS-00A7B2
and go to the SMART tab,
press the Get SMART button, the GOOD message will light up to the right of the button and S.M.A.R.T. will open. our chosen hard drive.
5 Reallocated Sector Count - (remap), denoting the number of reassigned sectors, this means spare sectors on the spare tracks end and soon there will be nothing to reassign bad sectors.
Go to the Tests tab.
Hard disk surface test in Victoria!
In the right part of the program window, check the Ignor item and the read item, then click Start. This will run a simple hard disk surface test without correcting any errors. This test will not bring any good or bad effects on your hard drive, but when the test is over, we will know what state our hard drive is in.
It starts scanning the surface of the hard disk and after a while bad sectors are found. After 40 minutes, Victoria gives us the following result:
A lot of good sectors with good read latency no more than 5 ms - 3815267
There are also sectors with a bad read latency of 200 ms
There are no sectors with an unsatisfactory read latency of more than 600 ms (candidates for bad blocks), but ...
What is really bad, there are full-fledged bad sectors (bad blocks), information from which could not be read at all - 13!
13 bad sectors (bad blocks), all of them start in the area of 6630400, and end at 980,000,000, that is, they are scattered throughout the hard disk. Bad block numbers must be recorded. Friends, it is quite possible that all our problems with the hard drive can be due to these 13 bad ones and we need to get rid of them, but first, let's make a sector-by-sector image of the sick screw.
The victim's hard drive WDC WD5000AAKS-00A7B2 (500 GB) was divided into two partitions: drive D: with an operating system of 120 GB and drive E: with data of 345 GB.
Before working with the Victoria program, we will secure ourselves and make a full image of the disk E partition: the volume is 345 GB and we will extract the data from the image. We will make the image in another DMDE program and place it on another physical disk SAMSUNG HD403LJ (400 GB), I will show you how to do it.
Disk management of my computer
Left-click to enlarge screenshot
Important data is located on the New volume (E :) with 347 GB of WDC WD5000AAKS hard drive (total 500 GB), so we will create an image of the partition (E :)
Create a sector-by-sector image of the (E :) partition on a SAMSUNG HD403LJ hard disk (400 GB), there is only one partition without data on it New volume (F :)
The third physical disk in the system is the SSD (120GB) drive (C :), which houses our running Windows 8.1 operating system, which we are currently in.
Creating a sector-by-sector image of the entire hard disk or the desired partition in the DMDE program
Also DMDE is a very good tool for making sector-by-sector copies of a failed hard disk.
We go to the DMDE program website http://dmde.ru/download.html and download the program, click the GUI for Windows.
DMDE is downloaded in the archive, unzip it and run the file dmde.exe.
Then we select the language Russian.
We accept the terms of the License Agreement. In the initial window of the program, we need to select either a Physical device (that is, a completely hard disk) or a data partition to create an image.
We only need the volume (E :), so we mark our WDC WD5000AAKS hard drive with the left mouse, then we mark the item Logical drives
and the (E :) section, then click OK.
Menu. Create Image / Clone ...
Place for recording, click Disk.
New volume (F :) and OK. It is necessary that the partition on which the sector-by-sector image of a faulty hard disk (or a partition with unreadable data) will be created should be at least as large as this disk.
All data will be deleted on the new volume (F :), agree Yes.
The creation of a sector-by-sector copy of the partition (E :) of a sick WDC WD5000AAKS hard disk begins on a new volume (F :) of another healthy SAMSUNG HD403LJ hard disk, which lasts 6 hours (the image is removed from especially "bad" screws for several days) and hangs tightly at 83 percent, after waiting a couple of hours, I clicked on the Abort button!
Friends, if we interrupt the creation of the image of the sector-by-sector section at the very end (after all, 83%), then we will have two options, as Suvorov used to say - "either the chest is in crosses, or the head is in the bushes."
After interrupting the operation, we go to the New volume (F :) and see if there is any data on it and ... they are, all the main things that we needed the DMDE program managed to transfer to the disk (F :), almost all the data read without errors. This means that our case is not complicated and the beds are mostly software-based.
But in some cases, not everything will be so rosy, and when you try to enter a section with a sector-by-sector copy, this error will be waiting for us: Access to F: \ is denied. The file or folder is damaged. Reading is impossible.
Access to F: \ is denied. The file system is not recognized. Make sure all required system drivers are loaded and the volume is not damaged.
But even in this case, we will not give up and will do so.
What to do if creating a sector-by-sector image goes wrong
Friends, the process of creating a sector-by-sector copy does not always end successfully even after several hours, but if you stop creating a sector-by-sector copy, the data in it may be unreadable.
Or, in the process of creating a sector-by-sector copy, such an error will appear " The request was not completed due to an I / O error on the device"(see screenshot below) indicating that DMDE could not read the information in the bad sector (the sector number is indicated in the error) in this case, click
"Retry", there will be a repeated attempt to read information from this sector and it may end in success. If this error with the same sector appears again, then press
"Ignore" and the creation of the sector-by-sector image will continue, but we will lose information in this sector and as a result, a single file will not open in a sector-by-sector copy. If the error "The request was not completed due to an I / O error on the device" appears too often, you can select
"Ignore everything" and similar errors will be skipped, or you can press the button
"Parameters" and adjust DMDE accordingly for such a difficult case. Click the Options button in this window.
"Reverse", sometimes it brings results.
And press again "Parameters".
In this window, check the box "- Is always"... If you select this option, the operation will continue even
in case of an error related to the lack of readiness of the device. If this option is not checked, then on some "bad" hard drives a warning will be displayed with the expected response of the user, that is, the image will not be created on the machine.
Auto retry count on CRC error - 0
Fill bad sectors (hex)
Then OK and OK, the creation of a sector-by-sector image begins.
Left-click to enlarge image
This option of settings also proved to be workable.
Skip I / O Errors - Always
Don't wait if your device isn't ready - Is always
Retry count on CRC error - 0
The number of auto retries if the sector is not found - 0
In general, I would advise you to study the manual for the DMDE program http://dmde.ru/manual.html or http://dmde.ru/docs/DMDE-manual-ru.pdf, you can also wait for our article on creating a sector-by-sector image of a faulty hard drive with various programs, in which we will even consider creating a bootable USB flash drive with the DMDE program.
- If DMDE does not help you, then you can try other programs, for example. Of course, there are still ways with which you can make a sector-by-sector image of a bad screw, for example, boot from some Linux-based operating system, for example Ubuntu, but I will not describe the process itself and I’d better write a separate article. You can also run the safecopy utility under Linux.
- What to do if, nevertheless, you cannot make a sector-by-sector copy of the hard disk, you choose. You can contact a good and proven service for data recovery and a sector-by-sector copy from your hard disk will be removed using special expensive equipment by specialists, for example, using the same PC-3000 complex. If you do not feel sorry for your data, then you can take a chance and run algorithms in the Victoria program that rid the surface of your hard disk of bad sectors (bad blocks), as described below, the hard disk after this operation can come back to life.
- Important: Kazan(the developer of the program Victoria) promises that the most innovative algorithm for hiding bad blocks BB = Advanced REMAP is NOT destructive for data, but in some cases it can be destructive for your files, since even the most advanced algorithm of Victoria Advanced REMAP hiding defects (remap), this is for any change in the translation of the screw, which means the loss of user data (details below. I want to say that sometimes it happened that Victoria will cure the hard disk of bad drives and you will even be able to copy the information from such a hard drive, but unfortunately not all information is readable ...
So, in our case, the DMDE program managed to make a sector-by-sector copy of a sick hard disk, namely a new volume (E :), although in some places DMDE hung a little, but everything ended successfully. A sector-by-sector copy of the new volume (E :) is an exact copy and is located on volume (F :). All available data is successfully read and copied.
The main task has been solved and user data has been saved, now we proceed to the procedure for treating the hard drive.
How to get rid of bad sectors (bad blocks) using the Victoria program
Friends, now let's imagine that we did not manage to make a sector-by-sector image of a hard disk with bad blocks and we didn’t come up with anything else and decided to rid our hard drive of bad blocks in the Victoria program, in the hope that after hiding the bad sectors we would be able to read and copy the information to your hard drive.
Note: it is difficult to get rid of the screw from bad blocks in a running Windows, especially if, for example, you have a laptop with one hard drive and an operating system is installed on the same hard drive and you want to cure the same operating system from bad blocks. In such cases, they create a bootable USB flash drive with Victoria, boot a laptop from it and get rid of bad sectors. I propose to create a bootable USB flash drive in the next article, and now we will find out how this is done right in a working operating system, I will demonstrate everything to you.
Remap
In the main window of Victoria, check the Remap item, which denotes the algorithm for reassigning bad blocks to sectors from backup tracks during scanning. The test is in Read mode, that is, from beginning to end and press the Start button.
While the scan is in progress, let's talk about this.
1. What happens with this Remap algorithm? An attempt is made (several times) to forcibly write information to the bad sector of the hard disk if the attempt is successful, then the sector becomes healthy and is removed from the list of bad blocks (no remap occurs). If the write attempt is unsuccessful, then the diseased sector is reassigned to the healthy sector with a reserved track of the hard drive specially designed for such cases.
2. Remap is the reassignment (replacement) of a sick sector, assigning its LBA number to another physically healthy sector from the backup track. Information from the sector (at the time of reassignment) hangs in the RAM of the screw, and as soon as the sector is reassigned, it is written back.
Remap is basically not destructive for information, if your data is lost, then only in one bad sector, but you must admit that the data in the bad block was already unreadable. In the second case, the data will simply be transferred to the sector from the backup track.
Result. As I said, it is difficult to fix anything in a running Windows and Victoria cannot perform a remap. After 20 minutes, the same result, 13 bad blocks, and you and I will have to make a bootable USB flash drive with Victoria and work in DOS.
How to scan a specific area on your hard drive in Victoria
If you know the exact addresses of bad sectors, you can set the exact scan parameters in the Victoria program. For example, we know that our bad blocks start from sector 770,000,000, then in paragraph Start LBA: (be careful, in some cases your data on the hard drive will be deleted).
- Most often, you come across software (software) bads, which are removed most quickly by zeroing - the Erase algorithm, and even if writing to the zeros sector is unsuccessful, a Remap may well occur, since the hard drive's firmware may consider such a sector to be bad. If Erase does not help, then you can choose Remap, but as we know, the chances of Remap being produced on a running Windows are slim.
- In some cases, soft (software) bads can be removed even by simple formatting using Windows itself. The whole difference between the existing bad blocks: physical and software, read our article. In a nutshell, I will explain that physical bads (physiologically destroyed sector) cannot be restored (only remap, reassignment is possible), and logical (software, sector logic errors) can be restored.
- Friends, we can, but then our article will be even longer, we will also do this in the next article.
I do not want to experiment on our WDC WD5000AAKS hard drive, since in the next article I plan to cure it of bad blocks in DOS mode using a bootable USB flash drive with the Victoria program and still return the hard drive with intact data to the owner of the hard drive cured of bad blocks.
I'll just show you on another hard drive how to run this test on a running Windows.
In the main window of Victoria, select our hard drive and go to the Tests tab, check the Erase item (be careful, in some cases your data on the hard drive will be deleted)- when an unreadable sector is detected, it forcibly overwrites the entire block of 256 sectors with zeros, of course, information is completely lost in the whole block of sectors, but if overwriting occurs, the block returns to work (becomes healthy).
The test is in Read mode, that is, from beginning to end and press Start.
Often, when "zeroing" in a running Windows, the following errors will appear:
Block (bad sector number) try Erase 256 sectors... Failed to overwrite block of sectors.
Algorithm Write
The Write mode does not look for any bad sectors, but simply immediately overwrites all the information on the hard disk by filling all sectors with zeros, this is in the jargon of the repairmen "Writing across the entire clearing", this algorithm is able to cure the hard disk of bad read latency, but n After such a test, it will be impossible to restore data on the hard disk, so copy all important files to the portable hard disk beforehand.
