Is there a way to block bad sectors on a HDD?

jimkromann · 09 Dec 2019

Windows 10 Version 1909.

My wifes harddisk have some bad sectors, we are aware of this and the harddisk will be replaced eventually. But right now she have to keep using it.

I have promised help her format and reinstall Windows 10 on her PC.
Is there any way i can mark those bad sectors to the system will stop storing data on them?
It is not an SSD.

Thank you in advance
Jim

Bree · 09 Dec 2019

jimkromann said:

Is there any way i can mark those bad sectors to the system will stop storing data on them?

Yes. From a command prompt (Admin) run CHKDSK /R

/r    Locates bad sectors and recovers readable information. The disk must be locked. /r includes the functionality of /f, with the additional analysis of physical disk errors.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/win...mands/chkdskaa

This will ask if you want to schedule Chkdsk to run at the next boot. Say yes, then restart. Bad sectors will be marked so that they are not used in the future.

...and get a new drive ASAP

dalchina · 09 Dec 2019

You can get a predicted life for the disk if you download and run Hard Disk Sentinel (trial).

For the future- protection: Here are some ways you can hopefully avoid or get early warning of this predicament:

a. Run and leave running a program such as Crystal Diskinfo (free) and set it to give you alerts of early failure:

Is there a way to block bad sectors on a HDD?-untitled.png

b. Routinely use disk imaging as tenforums members tirelessly recommend (e.g. Macrium Reflect - free/paid + external storage for image files)

The act of creating images checks the used parts of the partitions imaged for integrity, and image creation will fail if there is corruption.

Note that (b) does NOT cover the whole disk, whilst (a) does. (b) additionally requires the file system to be intact, whilst (a) looks at the hardware and the disk surface.

Having recent disk images - of Windows partitions and any others- means you can restore those quite quickly to a new disk should the source disk start failing. I.e. you have a full backup.

In the case of your wife's PC, you should ensure a full backup exists.

RolandJS · 09 Dec 2019

+1 Dalchina's admonition of having a full backup. I recommend having a few full images of both OS and data partitions on external media. At home, I follow my own advice: I use both Macrium Reflect and Image for Windows to make full images.

jimkromann · 09 Dec 2019

Thank you very much...

yeah the new disk is on her to-do list :)
I have been using Macrium Reflect a lot when i had Windows 7, and i also had an image of my system partition in Windows 10, but i never really used it as Windows 10 seems to be working really good and have a lot of good self repair tools :)

Bree · 09 Dec 2019

jimkromann said:

have been using Macrium Reflect a lot when i had Windows 7 ... but i never really used it as Windows 10 seems to be working really good and have a lot of good self repair tools :)

Use it, you can never have too many backups

zbook · 09 Dec 2019

There are times in which you can cause harm by running chkdsk.
If you know the drive already has bad blocks the first step should be a backup image or backing up important files.
Once important files are backed up you can run chkdsk /r /v C:

There are multiple partitions on the disk drive.
For example: system, MSR, Windows, recovery
Bad blocks can occur in any partition.
Chkdsk is typically run on the Windows partition.

When making a backup image it's one additional method that tests the non-Windows partitions.
The backup image can fail with an error message or code.
It's also possible, if necessary to run chkdsk switches on the system partition.

Running chkdsk switches can take substantial time.
The size of the drive, %free, and problems found can all impact the run time.

jimkromann · 14 Dec 2019

Thank you for the help everyone, its a timeconsuming process that i use to run at night when we sleep so thats why im late with a reply. :)