Mark hard disk bad sectors

i have a hard disk that has lately developed bad sectors in one of its drive.Is there a software or tweak that can help in marking the bad sectors such that they arent used for read or write operation .

<i dont want to remove bad sectors , i just want to mark them somehow so that they are no longer used.i dont mind the wastage of these sectors and windows checkdisk does not work.the system hangs when the box 'automatically remove bad sectors' is marked. Is there another same sorta utility freeware perhaps

thanku for anyhelp

It is possible that your drive is beginning to fail. Normally, a drive has a number of sectors available that aren't for normal use - these sectors are used by the drive firmware to automatically and seamlessly replace any faulty sectors on the main part of the drive. However, there is only a finite number of these spare sectors available, and there will come a point where there sn't a spare available for use.

Check the hard drive with the manufacturer's diagnostic tools.
Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities (Storage) - TACKtech Corp.
HD Diagnostic

You dont need to mark bad sectors manually. Hard disks have a pool of spare, good sectors. When bad sectors are found they are automatically flagged and replaced by spare, good ones. All this is invisible to the user.

FYI, you can use tools like Crystaldiskinfo and HD tune to monitor bad sectors, if the drive is SMART enabled (most drives are). However, please also run a hdd diagnostic (depending on your hdd brand).

Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities (Storage) - TACKtech Corp.

A few bad sectors are normal after a period of use. You should backup critical data from that disk on a priority basis. Unless the bad sector count is extremely high, keep a watch over it, particularly for sudden increases. When that happens, be prepared to order a new drive.