Giveaway of the Day Forums

1. 

   bigharry
   Member

   Here is one for the advanced computer guys. How does Chkdsk repair a hard drive and what is a "bad sector" actually?

   Posted 16 years ago #
2. 

   Anonymous
   Unregistered

   Not advanced Put may help all good info,
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_sector

   http://users.iafrica.com/c/cq/cquirke/baddata.htm

   http://www.tech-faq.com/bad-sector.shtml

   http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/29

   http://download.cnet.com/Flobo-Hard-Disk-Repair/3000-2248_4-10516791.html

   http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Hard-Disk-Utils/Flobo-Hard-Disk-Repair.shtml

   hddguru.com/.../2006.04.12-HDD-Low-Level-Format-Tool/ -
   hddguru.com/ - Cached - Similar
   HDD Low Level Format Tool
   Software
   HDDScan
   HDD Capacity Restore Tool
   HDD Wipe Tool
   http://hddguru.com » all Tool are free and work well

   Posted 16 years ago #
3. 

   GMMan, Hexadecimal Blacksmith
   Blocked

   Chkdsk tries to repair the file table, and corrects various problems, such as invalid entries, too long filenames, bad sectors, etc. Bad sectors are when a section on the hard drive is damaged, usually physically, and cannot be used anymore. The operating system just skips over those bad sectors when writing files to prevent data loss from writing good files on to bad sectors. Bad sectors can usually be fixed if the damage is not too bad, and you use a low-level formatting tool to do it (it'll write over each sector one by one). Hard drive diagnostic tools (preferred from your HD manufacturer) usually include a low-level formatting tool or a bad sector repair tool to fix the bad sector. However, if your head crashed, you'd be better off getting a new drive.

   Posted 16 years ago #
4. 

   bigharry
   Member

   Thanks for the response guys i'm a lot wiser and will check out all those hotdoge3. I'm still a bit unsure of the value of using "r" to repair with Chkdsk though. Would it really do anything worthwhile?

   Posted 16 years ago #
5. 

   watcher13
   Member

   Actually, Harry, in the strictest sense, "bad sectors" are unrepairable. The actual definition of a bad sector, related to what GMMan correctly said, is a sector that can no longer reliably store data. What chkdsk or any other similar repair program, like it's predecessor scandisk, does is try to read the data. If the data comes out garbled in any way, the program recovers what it can and marks the sector in the file system as unuseable and the OS never tries to write to it again. The best repair utilities actually remove the data into RAM, write new data to the sector, read it back to make sure it's good, and then replace the old data from the RAM. Scandisk has the write option, I haven't been able to verify whether checkdisk just does read testing with R or write testing. Seems too fast, though, to be doing write testing, which can take a looonnngg time when you're dealing with gigabytes.

   More importantly, as GMMan says, bad sectors are a bad sign. The reason he mentions low level formatting is that some of the bad sector hits are false, and a reformat can put them back into action. But a true bad sector is gone forever. Having a few isn't necessarily bad. Most programs, when they find bad sectors will advise you to run the scan daily to see if more appear. Some sectors are just the result of one time only damage or false hits, but if the number of sectors continues to grow, it's a sign of major damage or impending failure.

   So, I think running chkdsk/r occassionally is a good thing, and I do it myself, though there are better repair programs out there. However, I'm not up enough on them to make a definitive recommendation. Hope that helps.

   Posted 16 years ago #
6. 

   Anonymous
   Unregistered

   HDD Regenerator is the best app I have used to repair hard drives.

   http://www.gold-software.com/download7605.html

   Posted 16 years ago #
7. 

   Anonymous
   Unregistered

   at the cmd like this > C:\Documents and Settings\cat>chkdsk /?
   this is how it will look if you name is cat tip in chkdsk /? for help you get the info.
   need info at >name /? 'or' >name /help & enter
   volume Specifies the drive letter (followed by a colon),mount point, or volume name.
   filename FAT/FAT32 only: Specifies the files to check for fragmentation.
   .
   /F Fixes errors on the disk.
   On NTFS: Displays cleanup messages if any.
   /R Locates bad sectors and recovers readable information
   (implies /F).
   /X Forces the volume to dismount first if necessary.
   All opened handles to the volume would then be invalid
   (implies /F).

   Posted 16 years ago #

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