How can I resolve weak sector on C:\ according to Hard Disk Sentinel

Mr Morgan · 19 Oct 2018

According to Hard Disk Sentinel, there is a single weak sector on the C:\ of my Windows 10 PC, as shown below:

$How can I resolve weak sector on C:\ according to Hard Disk Sentinel-image.png$ ,

In contrast Windows CHKDSK reveals nothing wrong.

Hard Disk Sentinel will not run a corrective test whilst the C:\ is in use.

Can anyone advise a way around this at all? Or is there an alternative way of correcting this bad sector without dismounting the drive?

Berton · 19 Oct 2018

My thought is you'd need to boot to a CD/DVD disc or USB Thumb drive to run the computer without the installed Windows running from that drive. Windows and other programs can't make such changes while in use. Your program is probably fine but a more definitive diagnostic would be from the maker/vendor of the drive itself. A weak sector is not always a sign of a failing drive but do be prepared for that possibility by copying/backing up your documents, anything that exists nowhere else and would be difficult to replace.

Samuria · 19 Oct 2018

If its a bad block it cant be repaired its a hardware fault it does mean the drive is liable to fail at some point. The disk remaps bad blocks to engineering tracks only when that is full does it report it. Once marked as bad it wont show up in check disk as its marked not in use

Mr Morgan · 19 Oct 2018

And unless the sector can be remapped, I suppose that there is no way to know if this is an isolated incident or whether other sectors will fail as well?

And of course, no way to know if and when the drive will fail anyway!

Just as well all the data is backup up, several times on external drives.

Helmut · 19 Oct 2018

From what I recall, that is rather an old consumer HDD, maybe 6-7 years thus due for replacement.
It will last as long as it lasts.

The older a drive is the more chance of some random and/or wear failure.
I would replace it.

dalchina · 23 Oct 2018

If you look at the help for HD Sentinel it says:

- Disk Repair (Pro version only) - Reads the disk surface to verify if all sectors are readable and forces the disk drive to repair any problematic (pending, weak) sectors: restore the status to good or reallocate (replace from spare area) if required to prevent further use of the original sector.
The test is safe for stored data and the damaged file(s) will be readable, however file fragment(s) on damaged sectors may be corrupted. File(s) on the affected repaired sectors are listed when the test completed.
The test is best to be used to repair drives with weak sector(s) without the need of complete backup (and use of the Reinitialize disk surface test) and works on both system and secondary drives too. For more information, please check: Hard disk case: weak sectors

There is an outside chance you might gain some benefit from this, or a little further information. However it's for the Pro version only, not the standard version, so may not be available to you.

Perhaps there is an alternative.

What does the initial report on HD Sentinel's GUI say about the projected lifetime of the disk?

As said, the report indicates keeping the disk is a risk. Hopefully you have been using disk imaging routinely (e.g. Macrium Reflect (free) ).

LMiller7 · 23 Oct 2018

chkdsk by default checks only the file system structure and not the contents of files. Doing so would greatly lengthen the time required. You can do thjis but not while Windows is running.

If an error occurs while writing to the disk it will map out the bad sector with no data loss. It is more complicated when an error occurs during a read operation. The sector could be easily remapped but doing so would mean loss of the data it contained with no possibility of recovery, at least not without professional services. This the drive will not do. Instead it simply keeps track of the error and waits until 1 of 2 things occurs.

1. The sector is later successfully read. Then it can be remapped with no data loss.
2. The sector is later written with known good data.

You have no assurance of when or if either will occur.

I have little tolerance for drives with problems. Back in the 1980's when a 10 MB (yes 10 MB) drive might cost $1,000 US it made sense to work around drive problems. With current drive prices it is difficult to justify.

The problem is that drive errors are often caused by some internal problem, usually unknowable. One bad sector today might become a thousand tomorrow, or next week, next month, or next year. And you have no way of knowing which it will be.

Any drive, new or old, can fail at any time and often does so with no warning or known cause. With SSDs this is the usual case. I had one drive that worked fine one day, no warnings of any kind. Next day it wasn't even recognized by the BIOS. As all important data was backed up I did not investigate much further.

Porthos · 23 Oct 2018

With the cost of drives today I just replace them. Even SSD's have become affordable.

eLPuSHeR · 23 Oct 2018

I have had some success reviving some damaged drives with HDD Low level format tool.
I would do some more tests afterwards though (thorough tests if possible).
PS - Keep in mind that low level format DESTROYS ALL YOUR DATA. Backup first.
PS2-Forgot to say that I would keep S.M.A.R.T ON too.