2 bad sectors on external hd

2492 Views 3 Replies 2 Participants Last post by raptor_pa, Mar 19, 2011

Rinsa

Discussion Starter · Mar 18, 2011

I have a 1t gig external hard drive and i started to notice that the sound changed coming from it when it moves files over also i had a few times i couldn't get in to the files and then i would plug it back in and i can get in to them again. I posted on here and someone said it could be me unplugging while its engaging. I have stopped unplugging while its engaging i used to do this when i would clean and i was watching videos. So i scanned the hard disk because i had a utility HD tune pro and i found 2 bad sectors. one is hd tune pro any good does it pick up all bad sectors and 2 can i remove these 2 bad sectors from my external hard disk or at least quarantine them so no data gets written on these sectors because i havnt really got any clicking noises just a louder noise when its working hard. I understand you can go through properties and chkdsk but when i went to do something like that a while back i couldn't get back in to my data and it shocked me so i never ran it again. When i say something like that i mean i didnt choose the second tick option to scan for and attempt to recover bad sectors but i ticked the first one fix file system errors and i couldnt go back in to the folders on my external hd. So basically can i do that second option and not loose anything? Also would it work on a external hard disk because it starts from windows boot

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raptor_pa

· #2 · Mar 18, 2011

If there is existing data in the sectors, then nothing more will get written to them. If there is no data, or they again become available for being written to, the drive itself will remap those bad sectors to spare sectors on the fly, kind of self correcting. This remap only happens when the sectors get written to. Sounds like there is existing data there, so best would be just to let it go till they get written. chkdsk merely marks the OS table for those sectors, does not do the remap like the drives firmware will. They are likely not the cause of the noise increase, that happens as drives get used..

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Rinsa

Discussion Starter · #3 · Mar 19, 2011

ok thanks man i went to the shop about my laptop anyways and they didnt even test it they gave me a new one straight away but i think its like you said there was no problem just had a bad sector. A bit odd tho as it was new but this computer seems to make the same noises but a little less and whats the chance of getting two laptops brand new with dodgy hard drives that would be flukey.

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raptor_pa

· #4 · Mar 19, 2011

Some drives are just noisier than others. Almost every drive starts life with bad sectors. There are two lists of bad sectors, the p-list or permanent list, those that are bad when the drive is built and marked at the factory, and the g-list or grown list, those that develop as bad through the life of the drive. These are internal in the drive and can only be accesses with special hardware - but every drive has them...

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