May I get an interpretation, please?
I am running HD Tune on my external drive. The health report show that I have 26 damaged sectors. That seems low, yet still unwelcome.
It's a remarkable old Seagate Free Agent - a refurbished replacement as part of my original warranty almost seven years ago.
When I ran Sea Tools, it didn't detect this drive. I had a few opposing results w/chkdsk, but a deeper diagnostic was necessary.
All I really know is other than Event Viewer showing vague HD (1,2, or 3) errors, whatever is happening isn't all good.
I've had a helluva time with backups, attempted drive and data recoveries, restoring system images, certain files, etc.
It may turn out that I am installing corrupted Win 10 OS, but meanwhile, I need to salvage the data I continue to create.
I don't want to misinterpret my experiences.
Could MS downloads cause as much damage as I know I've had?
With this scan, I have been warned.
How much care do I have to take until I must stop using this drive? What problems can it cause? Can/could I avoid them? I guess there's no way to direct backed up data to work around the bad sectors or do I just hope that something vital doesn't end up landing there? This isn't a a "smart" drive, I assume. (This is why people try to isolate the sectors, if possible.)
I am still running tests, but this is the only negative report, I think. I don't understand most of the results, but nothing else has jumped out.
My opinion as far as other people's questions about drives: It doesn't seem as if there are real drive repairs. I think it might cause more harm than good. I read about - but don't know anything about "hiding" bad sectors. For $60 you can buy a 1TB drive. If your data is valuable enough to save, it's valuable enough to protect and restore. (I'm ordering a new one tomorrow.)
Thank you.
Hi there
"When in Doubt -- Chuck it Out " !!
Data is usually far more valuable than the hardware -- for 60 USD as you say you can get a nice brand new 1TB drive -- no brainer IMO.
Backup what you want first and also take a system image. Use Free Macrium or whatever -- use IMAGE rather than clone HDD as you don't want to copy the damaged sectors via a sector by sector copy !!.
HDD's even large ones are CHEAP --imagine re-ripping 7,000 CD's or having to re-create a music library --to say nothing of movies, photos, documents etc.
I don't believe also for a minute that nobody Owns music any more --streams like spotify etc might be convenient at times but I think a lot always prefer their own music - especially for portable devices or even your own media servers.
Cheers
jimbo
As Jimbo says, I would back up your data asap and get another drive. You don't want those bad sectors spreading.
Have you run chkdsk?
Elsewhere, it was suggested to not run chkdsk until after the data folders and files are backed up. Back up that stuff twice. Hope your data is still aok. Somebody let me know if I misunderstand that suggestion.
I'm heeding your advice along with my own.
A no-brainer, indeed, except is was a WARNING and 26 sectors compared to thousands didn't seem urgent.
swarfega - I said I did. A couple of times.
Thank you for quick answers.
26 sectors means nothing,the drive is going. It only takes one bad read/write of a vital system operation/fileto stop you system from working .... could happen in the next minute, could happen in the next 10 years, but do you wish to roll the dice?I'm heeding your advice along with my own.
A no-brainer, indeed, except is was a WARNING and 26 sectors compared to thousands didn't seem urgent.
swarfega - I said I did. A couple of times.
Thank you for quick answers.
That attitude about the warning is the same one I receive too many times after the fact, when the server no longer boots, the file server is down, or the VIP's lappy won't boot, or they lost their files.
Almost goes for making regular backups or images as well.
All drive warnings should be taken seriously. I would replace the drive, as I did several years ago for a similar problem. Except that there were fewer errors.
These are hard errors within the drive itself. They cannot be caused by writing corrupt data to the drive.
When the drive writes a sector and an error is detected it will replace it with one reserved for such purposes. That sector won't cause any problems. But that does not mean all is well. There are only a limited number of sectors available for replacement purposes and when reached no more can be replaced. The warning states that 26 sectors have been replaced but there could be many more that are yet to be detected. Statistically this would seem likely. Bad sectors can only be detected when reading or reading the sector.
Bad sectors are often due to a failure within the drive and could multiply in a short period of time.
At 7 years that drive is already past the average life of a drive. It is due for replacement.
LMiller7 and RWOne.
I am taking it seriously and replacing drive. For certain things I'm trying to do, I better wait until I get a replacement.
That's what I was trying to determine.
You taught me more about HD than I knew yesterday. Didn't know sectors were already replaced.
Thank you for stressing the urgency.
