HDD Too Many Bad Sectors. What Should I Do?

[legend86]

Recently my hard drive on my desktop CPU has been screwing up lately. As of thirty minutes ago, it now tells me that I must run another disk check for the third time in a week because there are corrupt files. But when I run disk check, it says there's problems and I have to use system restore to get to a previous point so it can run it. But then I can't run system restore because my HDD has too many bad sectors and must be fixed before using any restore points.

I've had it with this thing and I want to just wipe, reformat, and reinstall windows. Tried to use Western Digital's software to wipe it clean but it tells me that I can't wipe my Windows drive.

What can I do??? Thanks.

 

[Golden]

If you decide to re-install Windows, during installation you will get the opportunity to format the drive and re-partion it again. That will start you off with a clean drive.

Regards,
Golden

 

[legend86]

Oh, so just do a clean install of windows 7 and that will clear the drive???

 

[Golden]

Thats correct, but you must choose to format the drive.

I highly recommend you refer to this tutorial which will guide you through the clean install. Sections 6,7 and 8 of the tutorial show the screens and actions needed to format your drive.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html

Of course, be sure to back up any data that you do not want to lose during the format and installation.

Regards,
Golden

 

[NoN]

Some reading maybe, before any further actions...:

Here:
| How to fix bad sectors Repair Software

More Discuss:
http://forums.pcworld.co.nz/showthread.php?t=63093

Diagnostics:
http://hddguru.com/

Kill disk:
Active@ Kill Disk Hard Drive Eraser. Low Level Format.

Suggestion:
Buy another Hard drive and reinstall your Windows 7 and go through Activation Process:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3408-activate-windows-7-online.html
and
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/18715-activate-windows-7-phone.html

 

[1Bowtie]

My advice is backup your important data and buy a new hdd as it sounds like yours is about to crash.

 

[Hopalong X]

I would do a bug check.

Download and run free Malwarebytes. Malwarebytes

Download, install, use the update tab and then run a full scan.
Anything it finds when prompted delete.

When it is done running a log file will pop up on Notepad. Save to desktop.
Then up load with next post to be checked. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-screenshots-files-upload-post-seven-forums.html

Good first check before new install or buying a new hard drive.
Mike

 

[belikexp]

I would buy a new hard drive. Install Win 7 on the new drive. Then copy all your data from the old drive to the new drive.

 

[legend86]

I think you guys may be right.

My computer now won't even boot to windows. It gives me an error every time saying a "required device is inaccessible". Start Up repair says it can't fix what's going on. When I try to run a clean install of Windows 7, once it gets to the "Expanding Files" part, it throws me an error saying it's missing required files and setup must cancel. (Which is strange because I just did a repair install from this disk about 4 days ago) And If I try to revert back to a system restore point, my cpu says there are none.

I'm so pissed right now. This HDD only lasted 9 months

 

[NoN]

I think you guys may be right.

My computer now won't even boot to windows. It gives me an error every time saying a "required device is inaccessible". Start Up repair says it can't fix what's going on. When I try to run a clean install of Windows 7, once it gets to the "Expanding Files" part, it throws me an error saying it's missing required files and setup must cancel. (Which is strange because I just did a repair install from this disk about 4 days ago) And If I try to revert back to a system restore point, my cpu says there are none.

I'm so pissed right now. This HDD only lasted 9 months

Bad to hear...

Be sure here in the SevenForums you'll find all the help you might need to reinstall your windows 7.