Solved What to Do With This Bad Drive (that still works)

[michael diemer]

I have a triple-boot system, with vista on one drive, and seven on the other two. One of the seven drives is rated "bad" by CrystalDisk. {64 _64 140 00000000043C Reallocated Sectors Count/ WD drive, 7200rpm, 500GB}. However, it works fine, except it takes about 7 minutes to shut down. Also, it won't install all Windows updates.

I have copied important info to the other drive. Now I'm wondering what to do with this disk. It is 6 years old. It had failed WD's utility, but I worked on it and it now passes even their extended test. One idea is to use it for Linux, just to play around when bored. Using it as backup would obviously be risky.

Any other ideas?

 

[pbcopter]

I would just use it for something that you can afford to lose, like playing with Linux, etc. I wouldn't use it for anything that you would depend on.

 

[MeOnMine]

I would use it to hold the door open on a windy day.
Or pull the magnets out of it to hold memo's on the fridge door.

But that's just me

 

[OvenMaster]

I agree with MeOnMine. Any drive that starts failing is a drive that I no longer trust.

 

[michael diemer]

I did get Zorin installed successfully, and without affecting the W7 Os. So, I will explore Zorin as long as the drive lasts. And the W7 part is already pretty much transferred to my newer W7 drive, so all is well.

Thanks for the help.