The information about clone versus image was to report the problem related to disk signatures. If you are not experiencing that problem then you can move on to other steps. It was not a suggestion to clone or not clone. It was to report an unforeseen problem that can occur.
If you are able to run chkdsk /x /f /r on the drive it can place files on parts of the drive where there are no bad blocks.
I see, thanks.
Yes, I have run chkdsk /x /f /r.
Good news is - the Paragon full backup actually worked yesterday.
But scans with HDS and CDI still report the exact same "bad" information.
So it appears those bad areas will just be there permanently, marked as bad, with no way to recover them.
Or - if I do a complete format, clean windows install - will that recover them???
At this point, I'm really just wondering if I should contact ADATA for warranty claim of defective hardware?
This link may be useful:
Bad Sectors Explained: Why Hard Drives Get Bad Sectors and What You Can Do About It
Good article. Basically says repair is possible - run Disk Check from properties and run chkdsk. I've done both several times, the "bad" areas on the disk aren't going away. To me that means hardware failure, get warranty replacement.
Tried clean install of Windows on the bad drive. Didn't help. Hard Disk Sentinel found the exact same bad areas.
Purchased exact replacement new drive. Swapped new drive into PC, clean install Windows, Hard Disk Sentinel reports 100% good - no bad areas. Paragon completed perfect backup image.
Hard Disk Sentinel says it is possible to get back to 100% good by performing their Disk Initialize (secure overwrite) the entire "bad" drive. Since this is an M.2 drive and motherboard has only one M.2 slot, I have purchased this PCIe card: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N78XZCH
If the bad drive fails the HDS read test after Disk Initialize, I will be requesting warranty RMA with ADATA.
The PCIe M.2 adapter worked great. Was able to Initialize the disk using HDS. It now passes read test with perfect score, no more bad areas at all. But strangely under HDS "HEALTH" is still says 99%, even tried windows format, chkdsk, properties disk check, and reboot PC. Seems the SMART errors cannot be cleared, even though the disk surface is showing perfect now. So now I'm even more confused whether or not to send this drive into ADATA for repair/replace.
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