For those who are poorly familiar with a computer and do not know what DOS is, it is better not to repeat everything that will be described in this article, since here we will talk about how to restore damaged HDD sectors.
And so you found out that you constantly have a disk check at boot, or the hard drive began to slow down a lot. You are talking about scanning with some utility in read mode (read) or any program from this article. Thus, you made sure that you have slow sectors that respond longer than 500 ms, or BAD sectors, then this article is for you.
How to fix broken sectors
If your disk periodically disappears or does not see each other at all, then this is already a problem, most likely with the controller, cable (loop) or power supply, but we will talk about BED sectors and very slowly read cells, in general about software errors of the hard disk ...
So you found (HDD checker program) that you have slow sectors on your hard disk (usually red or brown). The decision to apply low-level formatting (Erase), we do it with the program MHDD and just, forget the programs that work from under windows, they will not help you like HDDscan and Victoria.
Attention!!! All the operations described below can lead to partial or complete deletion of information on your hard disk drive (HDD).
So we boot from the boot disk where this MHDD program is, these are the collections of STEA Live, Hiren boot cd, or make your own boot disk or USB flash drive.
Stage 1. Getting rid of slow (red) sectors
Launch MHDD, type the command Erase, the list of all commands can be viewed by the F1 command, the program will ask you to specify the scan range, do not change anything, press Enter by default, wait. If the red sectors remain, then you will have to run the command Erase waits
Stage 2. Getting rid of bad sectors
We launch MHDD, type the Remap command, and the program will automatically scan the hard disk and replace bad sectors with spare ones, I do not recommend running this program with a large number of red and bad sectors in the hard disk partitions.
You can also clean the HDD from bad sectors manually, while not the entire hard drive, but partially along the range of addresses.
We execute the command SCAN, as soon as the BAD sector appears, we remember its number, stop the ESC process, run the command Erase and we indicate the range in this case, if there is one bad sector, then its number and the next, that is, we add one, then we run the command again Scan and we look at the appearance of new broken sectors, we repeat the procedure.
The video shows the whole process well:
If scanning takes a very long time for you, then no program will help you. And you will have to buy a new hard drive already.
P.S .: I am attaching a link to a video showing the operation of the MHDD program for general information
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18 comments to write How to recover damaged bad (BAD) sectors of HDD
Dear yura200, if you would carefully read the article, then it says that Erase- this is low-level formatting, well, I hope the word formatting, do you understand what it does?)
yura200, I am very sorry that you have experienced such difficulties, but all that you do is your personal desire. In the text, the third paragraph:
So you found (HDD checker program) that you have slow sectors on your hard disk (usually red or brown). Decision to apply low-level formatting (Erase)
P.S .: And for interest you can look at the translation, it also says a lot erase- erase, delete (from memory).
Danila Are you sure you have an HDD in your laptop? and not SSD, because with the second disks, the MHDD and Victoria programs do not work.
Andrey unless you need to pop the leftover data from the hard drive, but I wouldn't use such a drive in the future.
Max yes this is really bad
Well, you give a hint. booted from MHDD wrote how you have it in the first paragraph of Erase and erased all Windows did not help even restore through the archive right now I put on a new Windows.
So what for to write the first point, write erase well that after installing Windows it could roll back right now all the way. The most interesting thing is that I wanted to start this business from the D disk and there are family vidyashka pictures that I would have grabbed with grief, but it's good that MHDD did not see the D disk and only the C disk was formatted. I push here so that others do not rub the whole screw. And where in what place in the text do you say that Erase is formatting? When I used Mhdd, I used erase when grouting block troubles. Correct the text.
Good afternoon.
Can you tell me how to make the program work on a laptop? Neither MHDD nor Victoria can see my hard drive.
Dear! If you see orange or red on your disk during the test, or even an X in a square, then do not torment him, he is finished. These people are just trying to somehow support them with a stroke, and then you see what they then become, and the glands, after you have thrown off the pictures, are one way to a well-deserved rest. And don't listen to or read the recovery bullshit.
Indeed, on the ASUS X552EA laptop, the MHDD program does not see a 500 GB WD HDD (not an SSD, and not a hybrid, normal one).
I played with the BIOS - this way and that ... alas, the MHDD program opens from the bootable USB flash drive, but does not see the disk, no matter how hard I tried.
It is necessary to set the HDD operation mode SATA Standart IDE INSTEAD OF SATA AHCI
I want to check and fix the bad sectors in dos (I checked it in winows before with Victoria) But I can't switch from AHCI to IDE in BIOS, there is nothing similar. Hp laptop (they wrote that they removed this function) How can you help?
Put this hard drive in the system unit and run it there and, if necessary, configure the BIOS.
Respect and respect to the author! The user does not have the funds for a new hard drive, and the system engineer is vital ..., so I found along the above trajectory that, in addition to the first 42 gigs of crosses, there are two more thirds of the working space .., and the person is grateful!
Thanks a lot for the article!
It was necessary to restore the functionality of the old disk. I scanned its state with the MHDD program (found it on an old CD-reanimator), found several dozen "red" sectors, but did not know that the ERASE command was exactly what I needed. I thought it was a simple erasure of information.
Now, after processing the disk with ERASE, I scanned it again. Result - not a single BED!
The question is if there are bads in the first 4 gigs and the last 4 gigs, and there are 2047 of them, is there any reason to strain to recover?
Is 653 bads really bad? Erase won't help?
Hello bortvlad. Is it worth bothering with the treatment of bad? Windows so monitors and corrects cells as much as it can. And it will not write down the info in the bed. The loss of speed is negligible. And replacing cells from the spare area changes the desired table, which, in my opinion, will only speed up the death of the HDD. If it's really a very tight low-level formatting and use the disk for archiving movies, games .... What can you say about this software: Low Lewel Format Tool?
Recover your hard drive using special programs. They allow you to test the hard drive, as well as fix minor malfunctions. Often, this is enough to continue fruitful work. From the article you will learn about one of them called Victoria.
What is the utility capable of?
Victoria HDD test is completely free. Also, the program has many functions and is designed not only for professionals, but also for inexperienced users. So, now you will learn how to check the hard drive with the Victoria program.
Modes
In its work, the utility can use standard Windows toolkit (API) or work in standalone mode through ports. Offline mode provides more reliable data, features additional recovery tools, and allows you to test not only internal, but also external drives.
What is the use of the utility?
The Victoria program allows you to:
- speed up your computer;
- ensure the stability of both programs and the operating system itself.
This is allowed by its such capabilities:
- repair of faulty sections of the hard disk;
- replacement of damaged sectors with spare;
- wiping out broken sectors.
Do I have to use Victoria?
Experienced users will note that it is possible to correct the bad sectors of the drive by replacing them with backup ones using the means of the OS itself (operating system). Correct, but for this you need to check the hard disk volume. However, this method has some drawbacks, for example, work with the active partition occurs exclusively in DOS mode, there is no detailed information, there is no possibility of choosing a method for treating the malfunction. Therefore, it is better to perform hard drive recovery using victoria hdd, which is devoid of these shortcomings.
Working with the program
If you decide to use the program in question, it is best to look for the most recent version. After all, it has already fixed the errors that were in the previous ones. You do not need to install the utility. It is distributed in archive form. Unpack the resulting archive and go inside. There you will find only one executable file vcr447.exe. To make it easier to use, make it a shortcut on the screen.
If your PC is running Windows 7 or higher, then you need to run the file only as an administrator. After right-clicking on the shortcut, select the entry "Run as administrator" from the context menu and click on it.
Before opening the Victoria program window, several pop-up windows will appear in front of you in turn:
- Unknown error.
- Invalid handle.
- PortTalk driver not installed.
This is warned by specialists that there is no driver for working with ports in the system yet. Click OK and that's it.
Getting Started
The graphical interface of the utility opens on the Standart tab. In the right part of it, indicate the disk to be checked. Even if he is the only one, you still need to point to him. Then his data will appear on the left.
Important! It is strictly forbidden to enter any passwords. This option is for specialists only. Next, go to the Smart tab and on the right side click on Get Smart. The table will display the 242 parameters of your hard disk.
The system removes this data from the disk immediately after installing it on the PC, and Victoria takes it from the system. You can look at them, but pay the most attention to the fifth item, the Health column. It contains the information for which you launched the utility. What does the color of these circles mean?
- green - HDD sectors feel great;
- yellow - there are problems;
- red - parameter values are invalid.
The Raw column displays how many bad sectors of the disk were detected.
Test tab
Move to the Test tab. The scanning process is based on measuring the length of time elapsed from sending a request to returning a response from each sector of the drive. When scanning a disk, the utility evaluates the scanned sectors and sorts them by color and state (to the left of the colors of the sectors, the maximum allowable response time in milliseconds is indicated):
- three gray - fine;
- green - not bad;
- orange - satisfactory;
- blue or red is bad.
The actions according to the selected modes will be applied to the sectors of the HDD that you mark.
Modes of operation
The utility has four modes of operation:
- Ignore - check without trying to cure bad sectors;
- Remap - replace bad sectors with spare ones;
- Restore - an attempt to restore damaged sectors programmatically;
- Erase - deleting bad blocks from disk memory using low-level formatting. You can't just try the mode, since there is a possibility of damage to areas that may still work in the future. The first three will be enough.
What are the reserve sectors?
The operating system separates a spare area on the hard disk. Most often, it is the slowest of all and is located closer to the center of the HDD. Its size is approximately equal to 10% of the total volume. When bad sectors appear, the OS moves data from them to this spare area. True, she does not do this herself, but during the launch of disk checks for errors using Windows tools or using external programs.
Diagnostics
If you have already selected the mode and marked the sectors for treatment, then click Start.
Attention! If after pressing Start the diagnostics did not start, then, most likely, you did not mark your drive with the mouse on the Standart tab. You need to go back, do it and run the check again.
The testing process can be observed on the screen. In earlier versions of Victoria, the sectors being tested were displayed as a grid.
However, such a graphical display put a significant load on the processor with large volumes of hard drives. As a result, in the latest version 4.47, the developers have replaced the grid with a graph that appears within a few minutes after the start of the scan.
Rendering is disabled if you uncheck the Grid checkbox.
Meaning of buttons
After starting the test, the name of the Start button changes to Stop, which allows you to stop the process by pressing it.
If you press the Pause button, it will change its name to Continue, scanning will pause. Click on it, and everything will continue from the same place where it left off.
Attention! Exit all programs that may access the hard disk being scanned. If they are not removed from memory, the readings will lose accuracy, and the number of orange sectors will increase significantly. This will happen due to the fact that some of them will use open source programs.
Will the life of a hard drive last thanks to Victoria?
You can programmatically cure up to 10% of bad sectors, as well as restore the operation of any of the sectors on the active volume if this is the result of system failures. Victoria does not fix physical damage.
However, if the bad sectors are restored, and the remaining ones are moved to the spare area, then the disk will still serve. True, it is better not to use it to install the system, but only as an additional one.
· 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.
The computer hard drive is a very sensitive component. Errors in its file system, broken sectors on the surface, mechanical problems sometimes cause a complete failure of the computer system.
The same problems are typical for flash drives, which in their essence are practically no different from a hard drive. How to determine the presence of errors and bad sectors and how to fix them, if possible?
A little bit of theory
Many people simply confuse file system errors and bad sectors. Therefore, we will try to explain the difference between these phenomena and the reason for their occurrence. Also, we will determine what the symptoms of manifestations of errors that have appeared on the surface of the hard drive may turn out to be.
Filesystem errors
When people talk about hard disk errors and trying to fix them using the chkdsk utility built into Windows, they usually mean file system errors. Such errors are associated with metadata problems describing the file system itself: errors in the $ Bitmap, $ BadClus files, the main file table, various indexes.
For example, errors in the NTFS $ Bitmap file can cause the system to misrecognize the amount of free space on a volume. And problems with the $ BadClus file can lead to incorrect identification of bad sectors and an attempt to write data to such sectors, which will cause the computer to freeze completely.
Broken sectors
The nature of the broken sectors is somewhat different. The hard disk is “sliced” into sectors at the factory during production. It is then that its logical structure is created, then it receives magnetic properties for recording data. These structures become faulty as a result of the gradual degradation of areas of the hard surface, which become so due to careless handling of the hard drive, which accidentally fell to the floor or was hit on the case even with an ordinary screwdriver.
Testing programs that fall on parts of the degrading surface detect the so-called bad or bad sectors - bad sectors. Sectors that have lost their magnetic properties do not allow reading and writing data to them. It is possible to eliminate the faulty structures of the hard drive. For this, manufacturers create special reserve areas of sectors. When a bad sector appears, diagnosed at a specific address, its address is reassigned to a sector from this spare area.
Symptoms of errors and bad sectors
We have already described a little about the symptoms of file system errors above. However, the symptoms are sometimes very varied. Here are some manifestations of errors and bad sectors that have arisen in the hard drive.
- Noticeable freezing of the operating system when performing read and write operations.
- Failure to load the operating system. For example, the download continues only until the download notification and the Windows logo appear.
- Frequent occurrence of errors in the operation of the operating environment.
- Extremely slow and unproductive operation of the operating system.
Here is a far from complete list of error manifestations associated with file system problems and the presence of degrading areas of the hard disk. What to do in such cases?
Checking errors using Windows
Checking and correcting file system errors in Windows is carried out by a standard utility of this operating environment called chkdsk. It can also be useful for troubleshooting bad sectors caused by viruses and can be run either in a graphical environment or from the command line. Let's consider the most accessible option for its implementation in a graphical environment.
Checking an inactive volume
Checking an inactive volume is the most straightforward. It can be executed entirely in graphical mode. An inactive volume is a partition that does not have a current operating system installed. This can be a connected hard drive or, for example, drive D.
Press the button "Check".
The utility is launched from the "Service" tab of the volume properties. In this tab there is a button "Perform check". If you click it, the chkdsk utility window will open. To check for bad sectors that appeared as a result of software errors, check the box next to the corresponding option. Then, just click the "Run" button - the utility will check and correct errors.
The chkdsk utility checks volume D, diagnosing bad sectors as well.
Checking the system volume
Checking and correcting errors on the system volume, where the operating environment in effect at the time of the check is located, is carried out slightly differently. The utility detects such a volume as connected, and therefore warns that it cannot perform a check, but offers to perform it on the next reboot.
The chkdsk utility reports that it cannot check the disk.
After restarting the computer, the user will find that during boot, after the Windows logo appears, a black screen appears. This black screen gradually fills with lines of text. This is the chkdsk utility that checks the system volume of the hard drive. After checking and the necessary corrections, it will demonstrate the result, and then the operating system will continue to boot.
Chkdsk checks volume C after reboot.
Programs for checking the hard disk for bad sectors
There are a number of applications in the software market that can test the surface of a hard drive. In this case, not one volume is tested, but the entire surface of the hard drive. Of course, the user can independently set the boundary sectors and test individual areas. To identify bad sectors, a sector read test is usually performed.
Important: the test results for the presence of bad sectors should be considered in conjunction with SMART indicators, such as Reallocation Sector Count, Reallocation Event Count.
Data Lifeguard Diagnostic
This utility was created by the developers of the Western Digital company. It is available for download on the official website of the company. Lifeguard Diagnostic works great with hard drives from almost any manufacturer, and not just hard drives that are native to WD, as one might think. It offers a number of tests: Fast, Advanced, as well as the ability to fill with zero sectors of the hard drive.
Data Lifeguard Diagnostic utility interface.
We are most interested in the extended test. This test allows you to detect bad sectors on the surface of the disks. When the program finds a bad sector, it informs the user about it, prompting him to choose whether he wants to fix the detected error. If he agrees, then the application writes to sector 0, so the sector data will be lost.
A selection of utility tests. We need an Extended Test.
The duration of this test is longer than the quick test. The test time depends on the size of the drive, since the test is carried out by sweating the entire surface, starting from sector 0 and ending with the maximum LBA value.
Extended Test utilities in operation.
HDDScan
The HDDScan application is also an excellent tester of the hard drive surface. It can often be seen in whole software packages such as LiveCD. This application has a graphical interface and offers a number of tests, among which in our case the most interesting is "Surface Tests".
Select the Surface Test from the dropdown list.
Important: when conducting surface tests from under Windows, you must close all running programs to avoid random results during the test, initiated by the action of these programs.
After selecting a test, an additional window will open, which presents the test parameters. Leave the "Read" option enabled, which will only allow reading data from the sectors. So, we will define sectors from which it is impossible to read information for a set time (bad sectors), hover sectors and normal cells. Leave the fields of the starting and ending sectors unchanged if we want to check the entire surface.
Leave the Read test option enabled.
When testing this program, a number of sectors are identified:
- bad sectors,
- hover sectors, from which it takes more than 500 ms to read data,
- sectors with read time from 150 to 500 ms,
- sectors with reading time from 50 to 150 ms,
- sectors with reading time from 10 to 20 ms,
- HDDScan considers normal sectors, the data of which is read in 5 ms.
The test result of the program is available in the form of a line graph, a map of the distribution of sectors, and also in the form of a regular text report.
Checking the surface of the hard drive.
Ashampoo HDD Control
Unlike the programs discussed above, HDD Control is not a free program. This application is a whole set of tools designed to restore the health of your hard drive. This program also offers the ability to test the surface of the hard drive.
Let's select the "Surface Testing" option.
The test is very simple and accessible to an ordinary user of HDD Control. To start it, you just need to press the "Surface Testing" button. It lacks additional options that would allow you to customize the type of test. During testing, only two types of sectors are detected: with an excellent read result and bad sectors.
Victoria HDD
Victoria considers the health of the tested hard drive "GOOD".
This application is able to collect information about the SMART health of the hard drive. Also, it allows you to test the disk surface, reassign bad sectors with the Remap operation, and reset bad sectors. It also subdivides sectors into groups:
- bad sectors (Error),
- hover sectors with read time more than 600 ms,
- hover sectors with read time from 200 to 600 ms,
- sectors with reading time from 50 to 200 ms,
- sectors with read time from 20 to 50 ms,
- Victoria diagnoses normal sectors within the framework of data reading up to 5 ms.
To test the hard drive, you can run this program in Windows graphics mode. Next, you need to select the "Tests" tab. This is where the surface tests are located. There are four options for working with a hard surface:
- Ignore,
- Remap,
- Erase,
- Restore.
First of all, you can carry out the Ignore test to determine if there are bad sectors on the surface of the hard drive. If they are, then you need to proceed with the Remap test. This test will allow you to reassign the addresses of the bad sectors to the reserved area where the normal sectors are located.
Types of tests available and categories of sectors. Victoria checks the surface.
If, after the Remap test, Victoria continues to diagnose bad sectors, then you can still try to restore their performance by applying the Restore test. The Erase option should be used wisely from under Windows, as it writes zeros to sectors - it erases sector data. It can be used only within a selection of sectors, the data of which is not related to the operating system.
Short summary
It should be noted that there is a difference between errors fixed by the chkdsk utility of the Windows operating system and bad sectors fixed by programs such as Victoria HDD. The former are caused by problems with the file system, while the latter are often the result of the loss of magnetic properties by the sectors of the hard disk surface and its gradual degradation. However, chkdsk can also fix some bad sector problems.
To eliminate bad sectors, you can use such applications as: Data Lifeguard Diagnostic, Ashampoo HDD Control, HDDScan, Victoria. Let's single out the Victoria HDD application as the best for checking and eliminating bad sectors, since it offers a number of tests: Ignore, Remap, Erase and Restore. It allows not only to detect faulty structures of the hard surface, but also to cure the HDD.
Bad sectors are the smallest unreadable components of data clusters on a hard disk. Due to the fact that they are damaged, such sectors can no longer be used by the hard disk for writing and reading data. Moreover, a large presence of bad sectors on a hard disk can lead to data loss or even failure of the hard disk.
Reasons for the appearance of bad sectors on the hard disk
A sector is a unit of information that is stored on a hard drive. All information on the computer disk is saved sector by sector. The standard sector size is 512 bytes.
The reasons for the appearance of bad sectors on a hard disk can be very diverse:
- Wrong exit from Windows or shutdown of the computer
- Hard disk defects, including surface wear, debris and dust getting inside the disk, or unauthorized contact of the disk head with the surface of the platters
- Overheating hard drive
- Malicious software, etc.
Types of bad sectors
Depending on the cause of the occurrence, broken sectors are divided into two types: Physical or Logical origin.
Broken sectors of physical origin, these are sectors that arose as a result of the physical impact of hard disk parts or foreign objects, dust, debris. The cause of such bad sectors can also be a shock or shake of the computer while writing or reading data, overheating, or malfunction of component parts. Such bad sectors of the hard disk cannot be recovered, their occurrence can only be prevented.
Logical bad sectors occur when the error correction code (ECC) found in the sector does not match the sector data. Before recording, a preliminary check of the sector to be recorded is performed, and since problems were found in it, the recording is rejected. Physically, such a sector is completely functional, but it becomes impossible to use it. This is the result of logical errors. Unlike broken sectors of physical origin, logical ones are recoverable.
Ways to fix bad sectors
Windows has a built-in tool for checking the hard drive - "Chkdsk". It is recommended to run this tool from time to time. With its help, you can scan the disk for errors, correct logical errors, detect and designate bad sectors (so that the operating system does not attempt to write to them). You can also prevent unstable operation of your computer with this tool.
This command can also be run using the Command Prompt. To do this, open Command Prompt and enter the chkdsk / r command in it.
Recovering data that is damaged as a result of the appearance of bad sectors
If bad sectors began to appear on the computer and it is not possible to prevent the cause of their appearance, or the user does not take any action for this, then sooner or later this will lead to the loss or damage of the hard disk data, as well as its failure.
If the reason for the appearance of bad sectors is a physical impact on the hard disk (dust, debris, malfunction of disk parts), then the presence of bad sectors will increase exponentially with each computer access to the hard disk data. That is, in order to save the data, the user needs to reduce disk usage to a minimum, or even stop altogether.
In such a situation, even the process of data recovery using special programs can provoke their damage or loss. Therefore, in order to recover data that is damaged or lost as a result of the presence of bad sectors, you need a recovery program with the function of creating a disk image from which it will be possible to recover data in the future.
To do this, you can use the Hetman Partition Recovery hard drive data recovery program. Download and install the program. After starting, in the main window, select the disk from which you want to create an image and click the "Create disk" button on the quick access panel.
Save the disk image in .dsk format to another built-in (not damaged) or external hard drive.
In the future, to recover or save data from a DSK disk image, open Hetman Partition Recovery and mount the disk in the program by clicking the Mount Disk button.
The mounted disk will be displayed in the program's disk manager on the left. By double-clicking on it, the user will be able to scan and open the disk image, restoring and gaining access to their data, which can be saved to another workable disk.
I would like to note that a disk image can be created with any other user-friendly program. Hetman Partition Recovery is compatible with all popular disk image extensions that can be used to mount, scan and recover files.
How to prevent bad sectors from appearing
Preventing bad sectors from appearing on your hard drive is always easier than trying to repair them.
To prevent bad sectors of physical origin from appearing on the computer:
- make sure that the computer is not heavily contaminated with dust and monitor the performance of the cooling coolers in order to avoid overheating of the hard drive;
- use hard drives from reliable manufacturers;
- Handle your computer or hard drive carefully;
- shut down the computer correctly, and in case of unstable power supply or possible power outages, use an uninterruptible power supply;
To prevent logical bad sectors from appearing:
- periodically check the hard disk for file system errors ("Chkdsk");
- use tools to defragment hard disk data with automatic optimization. Timely and regular hard disk defragmentation reduces wear and tear, extending its life and preventing bad sectors;
- use reliable antivirus software with up-to-date virus signature databases.
Conclusion
If you noticed that errors began to appear on your computer that cannot be eliminated by reinstalling or restoring the original state of the operating system, as well as damaged files began to appear or disappear altogether without a trace, be sure to check the hard disk for bad sectors. Perhaps it's time to think about purchasing a new hard drive.
