Solved Fix/Hide Bad Sectors

My 3TB HDD has bad sectors on it, and unfortunately, I don't have the money to purchase a new one. It's not making any noises or anything. What is the easiest and fastest way to either fix the sectors, or hide the sectors so nothing is written to them?

JMedlock83 said:

My 3TB HDD has bad sectors on it, and unfortunately, I don't have the money to purchase a new one. It's not making any noises or anything. What is the easiest and fastest way to either fix the sectors, or hide the sectors so nothing is written to them?

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chkdsk x: /r

Where x is the drive letter.
/r includes /f
It'll take about 4-6 hours.

Ghot said:

chkdsk x: /r

Where x is the drive letter.
/r includes /f
It'll take about 4-6 hours.

chkdsk

Reference article for the chkdsk command, which checks the file system and file system metadata of a volume for logical and physical errors.

docs.microsoft.com

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So, that will check the disk for bad sectors, and then repair (aka hide to prevent writing)? I'll have to do that while i'm asleep.

JMedlock83 said:

So, that will check the disk for bad sectors, and then repair (aka hide to prevent writing)? I'll have to do that while i'm asleep.

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Yep... /r takes a while. Right before you sleep is a good idea.

You can also make doubly sure with: chkdsk x: /f/r/x

Ghot said:

Yep... /r takes a while. Right before you sleep is a good idea. :)

You can also make doubly sure with: chkdsk x: /f/r/x

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I don't think I need the r or x. . There's nothing on the drive. I backed up and quick formatted it. I wanna make sure before I transfer everything back on there. It's a 3TB HDD, so it's not my Main OS Drive :)

JMedlock83 said:

I don't think I need the r or x. . There's nothing on the drive. I backed up and quick formatted it. I wanna make sure before I transfer everything back on there. It's a 3TB HDD, so it's not my Main OS Drive :)

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It won't take any longer to run chkdsk x: /f/r/x
There is other information on the disk, like the partition table.

All I usually do is chkdsk x: /r <----then you know for sure.

Ghot said:

It won't take any longer to run chkdsk x: /f/r/x
There is other information on the disk, like the partition table.

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I wish I could get ahold of an 8TB Drive. . lol Can't afford it at the moment.

I don't get too worried with a few bad sectors BUT if running a few more checks shows the numbers increasing from the previous check it's time to replace it.

JMedlock83 said:

I wish I could get ahold of an 8TB Drive. . lol Can't afford it at the moment.

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I bought a 4TB and it started filling up, so I had to buy an 8TB.


The 8TB is just a copy of the 4TB...



I decided that a 4TB drive was just too big to use backup software on, so I just copied it to another drive.

I used to use 2x 2TB drives... but they filled up too...






Hard drives are like aquariums. No matter what size you start with you'll always end up buying bigger ones. :)

Ghot said:

Yep... /r takes a while. Right before you sleep is a good idea. :)

You can also make doubly sure with: chkdsk x: /f/r/x

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Starting this now. lol

I used Properties, Tools under that Drive, and Windows didn't show any, but 3rd Party software like Victoria, and AOMEI, shows like 50-53 (Current Pending Sector Count)

JMedlock83 said:

Starting this now. lol

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Last time I did a /r was on a 2TB WD Black. Took about 3 hours if I recall.

Ghot said:

Last time I did a /r was on a 2TB WD Black. Took about 3 hours if I recall.

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This one is 3TB (empty at the moment). ETA is 5:50. . lol

JMedlock83 said:

This one is 3TB (empty at the moment). ETA is 5:50. . lol

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WD Blacks are really fast HDDs.

Ghot said:

WD Blacks are really fast HDDs.

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This one is RED, which is an NAS Drive. The NAS part wouldn't stay connected, so I took the drive out of the enclosure and popped it in my computer. I've had it for about 8 years or so

JMedlock83 said:

This one is RED, which is an NAS Drive. The NAS part wouldn't stay connected, so I took the drive out of the enclosure and popped it in my computer. I've had it for about 8 years or so

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The WD Red, Gold and Blacks are pretty tough.

Ghot said:

The WD Red, Gold and Blacks are pretty tough.

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How much longer do you think this one will last me? I store a bunch of things on in. It will be virtually full when I get everything back on there.

JMedlock83 said:

How much longer do you think this one will last me? I store a bunch of things on in. It will be virtually full when I get everything back on there.

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Right up until it starts making grinding noises.
There's no way to tell really. If it were me, I'd already be saving up for a new drive.
Try to buy drives that are powers of two, like 2TB, 4TB, 8TB, 16TB etc. They seem to hold up better.

No scientific basis on that. It just seems that I've seen a lot of posts concerning drives like, 3TB, 5TB, 6TB, 10TB etc.

Ghot said:

Right up until it starts making grinding noises.
There's no way to tell really. If it were me, I'd already be saving up for a new drive.
Try to buy drives that are powers of two, like 2TB, 4TB, 8TB, 16TB etc. They seem to hold up better.

No scientific basis on that. It just seems that I've seen a lot of posts concerning drives like, 3TB, 5TB, 6TB, 10TB etc.

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IRS owes me money, so as soon as I get it, I'm going after an 8TB External

JMedlock83 said:

IRS owes me money, so as soon as I get it, I'm going after an 8TB External

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Get an 8TB internal, and an external enclosure.
They put low grade drives in externals.


Like maybe...