New
#51
I ran the WD tool, and for quick test it stopped prematurely, saying "quick test did not complete! status code =07 (failed read test element), Failure Checkpoint = 97 (Unknown test) SMART self-test did not complete on drive 1!"
For extended test, it scanned for a while but then stopped early also, saying "08-too many bad sectors detected".
Basically it failed both tests. So now I'm going to try to boot the tool from CD and reformat the whole drive and re-image. At least now I know that the re-image works and can wipe the drive and not worry about the backups.
If your drive is unable to be fully scanned using the WD utilities, I imagine a clean format will not help. It is better to contact WD and get it replaced while you are still under warranty. You could run the clean format and then run the diagnostic tools again; it's possible that may allow it to pass, but I have a feeling you have bigger issues with that drive.
My friend said that there shouldn't be anything wrong with the drive, and that the bad sector is probably because of the image I made, and that it copied over the bad sector. So I will try to reformat completely and run the WD tests off boot CD to see if it is fixed. If it is, then I'll have to do a clean install as the image will just corrupt my HDD again.