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make bad sectors unusable
Name: artashes Date: October 21, 2007 at 02:20:25 Pacific OS: win xp pro CPU/Ram: centrino Product: sony TX
Comment:
Hi Experts,
I have a notebook Sony TX. It's hard disk has some problems (I suppose Bad sectors). New hard's cost is about 300 dollars, so I am not delighted in changing it..
Is there any program that will allow to disable that bad sectors from the usage?
===================================== If at first you don't succeed, you're about average.
M2
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Response Number 2
Name: cliffpage Date: October 21, 2007 at 05:31:15 Pacific
Reply:
why is the new hard disc so expensive? do you mean US Dollars? Does it have to be a special one for that laptop?, normally there are two generic types, IDE Interface and SATA Interface, both of which are a lot cheaper than 300 US Dollars depending on size you need. Also if it is going bad I would not trust my data to it
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Response Number 3
Name: jam Date: October 21, 2007 at 06:43:23 Pacific
Reply:
What do you mean you "suppose Bad sectors"? Are you guessing or did you run a diagnostic?
Name: OtheHill Date: October 21, 2007 at 10:00:14 Pacific
Reply:
Does the cost you mention include the labor to install the harddrive. I think the issue may be one of the security measures incorporated into newer Laptops. You may not be able to just install a new hdrive into the laptop.
I agree with jam that you need to verify the harddrive has bad sectors. If it does you need to consider replacing it. More than a few bad sectors is a good indication the drive is dying. When it goes you will wish you has backedup your files. Do it today.
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Response Number 5
Name: artashes Date: October 21, 2007 at 22:18:27 Pacific
Reply:
Thank you for your answers.
Yes, the hard drive cost in Moscow with the cost of labour is about 300 dollars.
I am using that computer as a secondary, just for browsing the internet, so there is no any information in it.
Regards, Artashes
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Response Number 6
Name: OtheHill Date: October 22, 2007 at 06:27:04 Pacific
Reply:
Then I suggest you do what you can to repair or ignore any bad sectors and continue to use the Laptop as is.
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Response Number 7
Name: Outlander Date: October 22, 2007 at 08:21:39 Pacific
Reply:
I would try Zero filling the drive a few times with a program like Disk Wizard from Seagate. This usually will sort out the supposed bad sectors from the real bad sectors.
Then I would boot off of a 98 CD, partition the drive, format it in FAT32, and then run scandisk overnight to mark all the real bad sectors.
I dont know of a real good way to do this for NTFS before an OS install, NTFS is not my thing.
Summary: Virtually all hard drives have a tiny percentage of bad sectors. All hard drives since very early IDE drives have a small percentage of sectors on the drive in a logically reserved area not visible to...
Summary: Bad sectors don't necessarily make the card unuseable. Windows usually marks the bad sectors and does not try to write to them. So you lose a little space, but if you are using the drive for storage...
Summary: There are some handy utilities here; http://www.hardwaresite.net/download.html Depending on the make of your drive, you may not only be able to detect bad sectors, but work around them too. good luck ...
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