Windows 10: Bad Sectors on HDD and SSD: Introduction and Repairing

Before understanding Bad Sectors and how to repair bad sectors, you should know about sectors and what they do. This post explains sectors, bad sectors, […]

This article Bad Sectors on HDD and SSD: Introduction and Repairing first appeared on TheWindowsClub.com.

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HDD Bad Sector

Hi Nataniel!

I am not sure what your question is exactly, but one thing I'd recommend for sure will be to look for a replacement drive since there is already a bad sector on your current one.

Basically there are two kinds of bad sectors - hardware and software:

• Hardware ones are caused by physical damage or becoming magnetically fixed, and they are unrepairable. In short, once they appear it's only a matter of time (no way to say how long) until the HDD fails.
• Software bad sectors on the other hand occur when something called an Error Correction Code (ECC) doesn't match the contents of the hard drive. These can be repaired by overwriting the data on the drive with zeroes (a.k.a. low level formatting) and sometimes
  by running a **chkdsk [write the letter of the drive:] /r** in the CMD.

As for getting the information from the drive if one of the partitions fail, most likely you won't be able to, which is why I'd suggest to make a regular backup of your most important data.

Hope this helps and feel free to ask any questions you may have.

 

Upgrading to SSD, should I repair bad sectors first?

My current laptop HDD is very old, slow and on the verge failing so I'm planning to upgrade to an SSD soon.

According to CrystalDiskInfo my Current Pending Sector Count is 200 (caution) and WD's Data Lifeguard extended test says I have "repairable" bad sectors. I suspect these bad sectors may be in one of the hidden system partitions because chkdsk
C: /r /v cannot find any, even though Windows gave it a "check for errors" flag (or "dirty bit") before CDI showed a caution.

Should I run the WD DLG repair before I clone my drive to the new SSD or will I be OK to clone it without repairing the bad sectors?

I also have the same question about creating a system image backup prior cloning. Repair bad sectors first or leave them be?

Thanks,

Leah

 

BAD SECTORS ON HDD, REFORMAT AND REINSTALL W10 FREE UPGRADE

Hi,

Thank you for providing us with the response to our questions.

I suggest you to run Check disk and check if it helps. Remove your external Hard drive and perform the steps on your system:

Check disk is a utility that can check your hard drive for corrupted segments and fix them. You can refer to these steps to run the Check disk utility:

• 
  Press Windows key + X, select “Command promt (Admin)”.
  
• 
  In the command prompt window, type
  “chkdsk/r” and press Enter.
  
• 
  Press “Y” when it asks if you want to check disk to run when the computer boots the next time.
  
• 
  Restart the computer for Check disk to detect and repair any corrupted sectors in your hard drive.
  

Important: While performing Error-checking or ChkDsk on the hard drive, if any bad sectors are found and when attempting to repair that sector, the
data available on that sector might be lost.

Please let us know if you face any issues with Windows.

Thank you.