Formatting a partition: Eliminate bad sectors?

[cryzone77]

Hi!
I was wondering if formatting a hard disk partition "eliminate" or "mark" the bad sectors so that the drive can still be usable?

i think i got this bad sectors(4kb) when i deleted a 20gb virtual disk, the one that virtual box uses although i'm not sure if that was possible.

I used hdtune and saw that "reallocated bad sectors" is highlighted with the values:

Current: 6
Worst: 6
Data: 1883(if i remember correctly)

question #2:
can i "still" use my hard disk?

Thanks for the help!
Much appreciated.

 

[patio]

Go to Start/Run and type in chkdsk /r...
Let it run to completion.
Checkdisk marks bad sectors...format does not.

 

[cryzone77]

Thanks for the quick reply.
I actually did that before and even with the /r /f parameters just to make sure the bad sectors are marked but got no good results after that. I ran spinrite's level 1 test and it seems to have fixed some. S.M.A.R.T. Reports the drive as good, contrary to its report before using spinrite.

 

[OldMX]

question #2:
can i "still" use my hard disk?

The disk is on its way out, dont trust valuable information to be stored there.

 

[cryzone77]

Hmm.. Alright.. I will post my checkdisk results ASAP. Maybe there's just a "logical" bad sector perhaps?

 

[patio]

For future reference chkdsk the /r switch assumes /f...so no need to run the /f switch.
/r does both.

 

[Mark Phelps]

Personally, I wouldn't trust any corrections that Spinrite claimed to make. And yeah, before I get flamed for saying that, I was a supporter of it in the "old days". But later, I read several articles claiming that the Spinrite claims to be able to fix hardware problems (i.e., bad sectors) using only software, were really bogus -- so I quit using it.

Hard drives are so cheap these days, that once one starts to fail, it's better to just replace it than to risk losing data because some utility really didn't fix it.

But ... that's just my opinion.

 

[cryzone77]

Hi, S.M.A.R.T. affims SpinRite's performance in my case. Before using SpinRite, S.M.A.R.T. Gives me the error "disk status: BAD", but now, my disk passes the POST and S.M.A.R.T. tests. I've read some articles that some bad sectors are just logical errors so i'm just trying to see if mine's the same. I appreciate your info.

 

[Layback Bear]

I do it the simple way. If I have any question what so ever about the condition of a hard drive with my things on it I replace the hard drive. Their/there is just to much hassle trying to get the information off a broken drive, if you can. Then you still have to buy a new drive.