phil818

Lately, I am getting a lot of system crashes on my Windows XP laptop. The error message is kernel_data_inpage_error
0x0000007a (0xc03865a0, 0xc000000e, 0xe1968008, 0x1611c880)

After investigation, I realized that chkdsk returned 4 KB bad sector. Yesterday, chkdsk showed 12 KB bad sector. Today it is 48 KB bad sector. It appears that the system crash continues and the bad sector is increasing.

I have some questions:
1. Is there a way of stopping the bad sector increase, to stop the system crashes?
2. Is replacing the HD the only solution?
3. I have an external 2.5" hard disk drive enclosure. Are there programs that can copy my existing HD to a new HD inside my external HDD, including the XP OS?

Thanks,
Phil

FirBirGir

First thing to do is an Emercency Data back-up operation. I'd be preparing for this HD to fail. Increasing number of errors are a common "early warning" symptom of a total drive failure, and you are lucky to be getting them. Sometimes HD's fail with no warning at all.

It may not fail. Sometimes there is a "spike" of errors, and the drive continues to operate normal afterwards, but these are best interpreted as warning signs and data back-up is the prudent first-course of action.

EndTime

You didn't mention how old the hard drive is , but when the computer says that you have bad sectors, 99% of the time there is no physical damage to the platters. Instead, for whatever reasons, the head gets out of alignment and has a hard time picking up sector information. I would copy over whatever data you have that needs to be saved, and do a low-level format. This lays a fresh magnetic pattern down that IS in alignment with the read/write head. Then you can do a regular format and reinstall your OS.

bocca

Utilities:
1. HD Tune Pro ( ‘Error Scan’ );
2. HDDRegenerator (repair ‘bad’ ) - found in Hiren's.Boot.CD.v9.5;
3. SystemRescueCd-x86-1.1.0 - http://www.sysresccd.org/Download ;

Operations:
1. Run HD Tune Pro - ‘Error Scan’; if ‘bad’ on hdd, they are reds and it shows position of bad; write on a sheet of paper the position of bad;
2. Restart computer;
3. If hdd is RAID or AHCI, enter BIOS ( F2 ) & choose for IDE master non-raid, save bios and exit;
4. Restart computer, F11 (or choose boot device), boot CD /DVD HirenBootCD 9.5;
5. Choose HDDRegenerator;
6. Scan from position - postition from point 1 or less;
7. After Restore, restart computer, F11, boot from CD SystemRescueCd;
8. Resetting bad sectors list ( partition is for ex. /dev/sda1 , for C: partition ):
9. ntfsinfo -i 8 partition => ntfs_size = “Dumping attribute $DATA (0×80)”/“Allocated size” line ;
10. ntfstruncate partition 8 0x80 '$Bad' 0 ;
11. ntfstruncate partition 8 0x80 '$Bad' ntfs_size ( ntfs_size from point 9) ;
12. Command exit ( or reboot ? ) - Restart computer;
13. If hdd was RAID or AHCI, enter BIOS ( F2 ) & choose IDE master how it was before of modification from point 3 ( for ex. AHCI ), after that save bios and restart ;
14. Enter Windows -> Start -> Run -> cmd -> chkdsk c: /r , ‘next start: Y’, restart computer;
15. After chkdsk finish , Windows restart automatically;
16. Enter Windows , view chkdsk results , My Computer - Manage - Event Viewer - Application - Search for Source - Winlogon (last record date) and there it shows what chkdsk was make;