24 KB in bad sectors

24 KB in bad sectors following chkdsk: does it mean the HD is dying?

Although all mechanical hard drives are prone to develop bad sectors over time, there are internal firmware routines to remap the bad sectors with replacements from an internal sector reserve pool so the disk will remain healthy. The process is transparent and completely hidden from both user and OS. The SMART attribute "Reallocated Sector Count" will show the log of how many sectors had been silently remapped by the firmware. If CHKDSK detects bad sectors, it means the silent remap process is not happening and that's definitely not a good sign. Considering that your PC is around 8 years old, i would recommend replacing the drive as soon as possible. Bad sectors may not only endanger data stored on a hard drive but also seriously downgrade system performance in some cases.

If you want you can continue to use the drive but only after manually repairing the bad sectors using manufacturer's diagnostic tools.

If your disk is a Seagate one, run a "Long Test" using "Seatools for DOS" as per SeaTools for DOS and Windows - How to Use

If it's a "Western Digital" one, perform an extended test with "WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostics for DOS" edition : WD Support / Downloads / Legacy Internal / WD RE2

i dont happen to have any cd handy - can i run DOSDLG.exe from a usb key?

Yes, you can use a USB flash drive to run "Data Lifeguard Diagnostics". You need to use "Rufus" to create a bootable "FreeDOS" USB stick.

https://rufus.akeo.ie/

Please read Western Digital's official documentation for detailed steps :

http://support.wdc.com/download/note...ructionsv3.pdf


Btw, make sure SATA mode is set to to IDE/ATA in BIOS. AHCI won't work with DOSDLG.

no errors found (code 0000) - how come?
edit: and chkdsk still finds 24 kb in bad sectors...

Then it will be logical file corruption. That is data stored on the sector is corrupted but the physical sector is intact.


Btw, make sure to run the "Extended" test not "Quick". Running "Extended" test will first perform "Quick" test and prompt you to press "C" to begin the full surface test.

<<Then it will be logical file corruption. That is data stored on the sector is corrupted but the physical sector is intact>>
any way around that? or can i leave it as is and dont worry?
(btw, i did run the extended test)

any way around that? or can i leave it as is and dont worry?

Unless it's a critical system file which is corrupted, you don't have to worry. Try running SFC and make sure system files are intact.

SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker

sfc found problems it could not fix (log attached)
any major concern? the machine seems to run fine (so far...)