'BAD' hard drive

[ScottR02919]

I have an internal hard drive that reads 'BAD' at boot up and disk check. Even though I get the errors the drive is running fine.

I replaced it and want to use this as a second hard drive.

How do I disable the 'BAD' disk drive error message I get at boot up so the computer boots normal and starts Windows 7?

 

[Pauly]

Depends where you are seeing the bad message, if you have smart enabled this can give misleading info
I have an SSD that states smart failed on every boot since new and there is nothing wrong with it

Have a look at this tutorial for some info on diskcheck (windows in built software)
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/433-disk-check.html
if your problems are bad sectors they can be recovered or written out

If you want to go more in depth then have a read of this
Hard Drive Diagnostic Procedure which will explain to use something like SeaTools | Seagate to scan your drive and give a very reliable output

I would not scrap a drive or spend any bucks until you are sure you have a problem

 

[ScottR02919]

I get the error during boot up, it pauses to tell me the hard drive is bad. Then I have to press continue and it finishes booting into Windows 7. I ran the disk check and it gave an error message as well. I would just like to use this drive and bypass or disable that bad disk error message.

You say I should disable 'Smart Card' from the Services menu?

 

[Pauly]

Not sure about smart card, this is the SMART i was talking about (acronym)
S.M.A.R.T. - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
I think most modern mobos have this turned on by default and it is notoriously unreliable

If as you say you have run diskcheck (which is a lot more relaible) and problems have been reported then it looks more likely you have a dodgy disc
If you have a look at the tutorial i linked it explains the option to scan and attempt repair /r this will need a reboot to complete if it is the primary OS drive

 

[ScottR02919]

OK, thanks for the help, appreciate all the info.

 

[alphanumeric]

If that drive actually has bad sectors its a risky venture to keep using it. It's been my experience that once that starts happening it only gets worse and you run a high risk of data loss on that drive. If you go to the drive manufacturers web site you should be able to find a diagnostic utility that you can run on the drive. That should give you good indication as to whether you should keep using that drive.

 

[Mark Phelps]

IF both SMART and ChkDsk say the disk is bad -- then it is. You run the risk of it suddenly failing on you -- without warning. I had a WD drive do this last year, and the timeframe from CHKDSKs on startup to complete failure of the drive was only a few days -- too little time for me to salvage anything.

So, if it were my drive, I'd back stuff off NOW -- while you still can.

 

[carwiz]

Yep, I had a HDD tank on the old PC years ago. After getting a few errors, I backed up all my data folders to DVD. The drive went belly up shortly after that. I thought, no problem, I'll use my DVD backups to recover photos and data. Nope. The data it was writing to DVD was scrap. Most of the folders were unreadable too.

I lost a huge amount of antique car data and photos and learned a few lessons. Never rely on a single media type for backups and always verify the data.

 

[alphanumeric]

Its no fun when the file allocation table goes south.

 

[pscowboy]

If it's just a few bad sectors, CHKDSK will isolate them from being used.

A lot of spinners develop some bad sectors and then that's it.

You can install Acronis Drive Monitor and run a check once a week to see if the drive's health has indeed deteriorated more. Many of them stand still, in my experience. When they get below 70%, then it's time to take action.