how to format hard drive with bad sectors

[FatPeopleUnited]

hey, last year I bought a laptop and just recently the hard drive failed on me so I put it in my pc and attempted to get my data, but I couldn't so I formatted it and now Its all unallocated so I was wondering if there was any way I could use some of the space and just leave the bad sectors as unallocated?

 

[Diosoth]

It's probably not worth it if too many sectors have gone bad. The number of bad sectors will likely keep increasing as time goes on.

 

[FatPeopleUnited]

ye I know but in my laptop right now I had a 30gb ssd which is too little memory so I was hoping I could use the hdd with bad sectors temporarily until I could afford a new hard drive for my laptop

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Sure don't expect the drive to get better but can be used for as long as it works

 

[CKWD]

Hello!

I would agree that using a HDD with bad sectors is not a good idea and is not secure for the data you'd put on it. Once bad sectors occur they continue to, no matter how much you “isolate” them.

Usually there are ways to “isolate” such bad sectors with certain softwares, or by performing a Check Disk on the drive through My Computer-Properties-Tools and checking “Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors”. Still, this won't fix the issue, rather isolate these bad sectors and relocate the data off of them. But it is just a temporary solution.

My advice would be to replace the drive.

Cheers!

CK_WD

 

[FatPeopleUnited]

I know its a bad idea and it would still go corrupt but I just need a way to temporarily fix it until I can get a new hard drive, at the moment I can't afford one and the ssd I've got was filled up in about a week so that doesn't help very much. What apps is there I can use to attempt to isolate the bad sectors? And I can't run a check disk as I have formatted the hard drive and its just saying 'unallocated' and when I try and create a simple drive it comes up with an error

 

[Milvus]

I have a drive with one bad sector somewhere in the first 100MB of the 160GB disk. I just isolated it by making two partitions: 1st one 100MB (where the bad sector is) and then second one for the remaining 159,9GB. I installed everything on that second partition and after that deleted the 100MB partition with the bad sector, which then became unallocated space.

It runs fine and the drive has not developed new bad sectors so far.

Having said that, I have backed it up very regularly so that a crash wouldn't cause me harm. So while it is true what other write in this topic (the disc could soon develop more bad sectors - although this didn't happen to mine so far), I think there is no problem fixing it this way as long as you are aware of the risks and protect yourself accordingly.

 

[AddRAM]

Either way, new data will never be written to a bad sector.

In my opinion, even 1 bad sector is too much, replace the drive asap

 

[CKWD]

What is the error you are receiving? Here things come to a different case, not just whether it's okay to use a HDD with bad sectors on it.

Try diskpart first to allocate the drive and make it accessible:

1. Open the Start Menu, type diskpart, press Enter
2. Type list disk, press Enter
3. Type select disk X (where X is the number the certain drive), press Enter
4. Type clean, press Enter
5. Type create partition primary, press Enter
6. Type format quick fs=ntfs, press Enter
7. Type assign letter=X, press Enter
8. Type exit, press Enter

This should format your drive and let you then use check disk. If it doesn't work, the drive is just too damaged. Too many bad sectors could physically hurt a HDD and make it unusable. If that is the case I would suggest you looking into RMA-ing to the manufacturer. What's the make and model of the drive?

CK_WD

 

[Milvus]

Either way, new data will never be written to a bad sector.

Yes, I think the OS simply remaps it to a good location on disk. However, I experienced a problem when trying to clone the disk with a bad sector. I'm sure this can also be worked around but I thought simply making a new partition without any bad sectors was a more elegant solution.

 

[FatPeopleUnited]

Thanks for the reply, I'm not at my house all weekend so I will try it on Sunday when I'm home ansbget back to you then saying if it worked or not

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Yep it probably will work it's just a matter of how long

 

[FatPeopleUnited]

i couldnt create a partition on diskpart

 

[CKWD]

This would most probably be because of the bad sectors. They damage the drive, make it unusable and the system doesn't allow any more action with it as it detects its severe damage.

I would advise replacing the drive.

Good luck!

CK_WD

 

[FatPeopleUnited]

Ye I know, I didn't think I'd be able to use it but I just wanted to be sure and get someone else thoughts on it, thanks for the replies though

 

[CKWD]

You're welcome!

Bad sectors are a very difficult situation. Once they occur they continue to develop, no matter how you try and “fix” them. If you encounter this again, make sure you start making regular back ups, as the storage device could fail in a couple of years, but it could also fail in only a week.

Good luck!

CK_WD

 

[FatPeopleUnited]

Ye I know, they are a pain, I've had a few hard drives before that have had them but I was too young to actually know anything about it, now in my px I have a few hard drives so I could back them up now

 

[CKWD]

Good! ^^

 

[FatPeopleUnited]

Yepp!