Solved Fix/Hide Bad Sectors

JAM83 · Mar 21, 2022

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

How about this one? If this one is fine, I could get one of those enclosures you posted above. (I like the one with the fan)
8TB Seagate IronWolf

Ghot · Mar 21, 2022

JMedlock83 said:
How about this one? If this one is fine, I could get one of those enclosures you posted above. (I like the one with the fan)
8TB Seagate IronWolf

That has a 1 year warranty... the WD Black has a 5 year warranty. ^^

Always google the model number and look at the Newegg results. Newegg always shows the warranty.

JAM83 · Mar 21, 2022

Ghot said:
That has a 1 year warranty... the WD Black has a 5 year warranty. ^^

WD Black 8TB this one?

Ghot · Mar 21, 2022

JMedlock83 said:
WD Black 8TB this one?

Yep.
That's the same one I have. FZBX

Just for the specs, etc...

WD Black 1TB Performance Desktop Hard Drive 7200 RPM - Newegg.com

Buy WD Black 1TB Performance Desktop Hard Disk Drive - 7200 RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD1003FZEX with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

JAM83 · Mar 21, 2022

Ghot said:
Yep.
That's the same one I have.

$199 is pricey, but I may end up grabbing it. Also, in the requirements and stuff, it says "1 A batteries required". . . I never knew a HDD taking batteries. . lol

Stigg · Mar 21, 2022

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 :)

What does Hard Disk Sentinel say about the state of the drive?
Also, what drive is this one? Your computers don't state you having a 3TB drive. Is it external?

I'm also a big WD fan for mechanical drives. Especially Black.

Ghot · Mar 21, 2022

JMedlock83 said:
$199 is pricey, but I may end up grabbing it. Also, in the requirements and stuff, it says "1 A batteries required". . . I never knew a HDD taking batteries. . lol

It's $20 more for a 5 yr. vs a 1yr. warranty.
It doesn't need batteries... where you reading that? :)

JAM83 · Mar 21, 2022

Stigg said:
What does Hard Disk Sentinel say about the state of the drive?
Also, what drive is this one? Your computers don't state you having a 3TB drive. Is it external?

I'm also a big WD fan for mechanical drives. Especially Black.

I'll get back with you on HD Sentinel....

3TB WD Red HDD (extra storage) (it was accidently listed as a 4TB)

JAM83 · Mar 21, 2022

Stigg said:
What does Hard Disk Sentinel say about the state of the drive?
Also, what drive is this one? Your computers don't state you having a 3TB drive. Is it external?

I'm also a big WD fan for mechanical drives. Especially Black.

@Stigg Performance 100%, Health 69%

There are 52 weak sectors found on the disk surface. They may be remapped any time in the later use of the disk.
More information: Hard disk case: weak sectors
At this point, warranty replacement of the disk is not yet possible, only if the health drops further.
It is recommended to examine the log of the disk regularly. All new problems found will be logged there.

It is recommended to continuously monitor the hard disk status.

JAM83 · Mar 21, 2022

Ghot said:
It's $20 more for a 5 yr. vs a 1yr. warranty.
It doesn't need batteries... where you reading that? :)

Click Here Scroll down a ways, and under "Other Technical Details" lol

Batteries	‎1 A batteries required.

Bree · Mar 21, 2022

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?

As Ghot has said, Chkdsk /R will test all sectors in a partition, making any that are bad so that they will not to be used. The disk should then be safe to use, or at least, until more bad sectors develop. You will however see the total number of bad sectors reported whenever you run chkdsk again. The sectors have not been repaired or replaced - they are just marked as 'never to be used'.

There is however a built in method in the internal control electronics of all SATA HDD drives to remap any bad sectors and replace them with good sectors from a hidden pool of spare sectors. This is called 'Reallocation' and is handled by the drive's own firmware, It is not something you can control through any software, it's all done internally by the drive. But you can see how many sectors have already been reallocated, and if there are any more suspect sectors awaiting testing and potential reallocation.

You can see this by reading the drive's S.M.A.R.T. data (eg. with CrystalDiskInfo). The raw value of the 'Reallocated Sector Count' is how many sectors have already been reallocated, and the raw 'Pending Sector Count' are those sectors that may (or may not) need reallocating. For a healthy drive both of these counts should be zero. A few reallocated sectors is not necessarily an indication that a drive is about to die, not if the values remain constant. What would be worrying, and a signal to start saving up for a replacement, would be if either or both of these count was steadily rising.

If you have any pending sectors, then there is one way to force an HDD to test every sector and remap good ones to replace the bad. Sectors can only be reallocated while not in use, so if you perform a full format (not a quick format) then the drives electroincs knows that a) none of them are in use yet, and b) every sector should be written to to see if it's good or bad.

It would be best to create a single partition using the whole drive then do a full format on that. Note the Reallocated Sector Count and Pending Sector Count before you start. Perform a full format (this can take a very long time on a large drive). Check the S.M.A.R.T. data again. The Pending Sector Count should now be zero as every sector will have been tested. The Reallocated Sector count will have gone up by one for every pending sector that tested as bad, those that tested as good won't have been remapped and will be returned to use.

Keen an eye on the S.M.A.R.T. data, and until either of those two counts start going up again you should have a reliable drive. This is however only postponing the inevitable, the pool of spare sectors is limited and will run out eventually, then no more sectors can be reallocated.

Ghot · Mar 21, 2022

JMedlock83 said:
Click Here Scroll down a ways, and under "Other Technical Details" lol

Batteries ‎1 A batteries required.

LOL... that's a typo. They're probably talking about the WD Black EXTERNAL hard drives... not the same thing.
Like I said... always check the specs on Newegg...

Newegg takes the specs right from the manufacturer, and they are much easier to find.

WD Black 1TB Performance Desktop Hard Drive 7200 RPM - Newegg.com

Buy WD Black 1TB Performance Desktop Hard Disk Drive - 7200 RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache 3.5 Inch - WD1003FZEX with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

Stigg · Mar 21, 2022

JMedlock83 said:
@Stigg Performance 100%, Health 69%

There are 52 weak sectors found on the disk surface. They may be remapped any time in the later use of the disk.
More information: Hard disk case: weak sectors
At this point, warranty replacement of the disk is not yet possible, only if the health drops further.
It is recommended to examine the log of the disk regularly. All new problems found will be logged there.

It is recommended to continuously monitor the hard disk status.

Have you tried using Hard Disk Sentinel to repair weak sectors?

Ghot · Mar 21, 2022

@JMedlock83

Here's the invoice for mine... $50 more than you would be paying. ^^

Trust me... no batteries. :)

Hard drives are hermetically sealed.

Western Digital also makes this, but it only has a 3 yr. warranty... I don't think this takes batteries either.

It probably doesn't have a WD Black drive inside.

WD Black 8TB D10 Game Drive Portable External Hard Drive - Newegg.com

Buy WD Black 8TB D10 Game Drive Desktop External Hard Drive for PS4/Xbox One/PC/Mac USB 3.2 (WDBA3P0080HBK-NESN) with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

JAM83 · Mar 21, 2022

Bree said:
As Ghot has said, Chkdsk /R will test all sectors in a partition, making any that are bad so that they will not to be used. The disk should then be safe to use, or at least, until more bad sectors develop. You will however see the total number of bad sectors reported whenever you run chkdsk again. The sectors have not been repaired or replaced - they are just marked as 'never to be used'.

There is however a built in method in the internal control electronics of all SATA HDD drives to remap any bad sectors and replace them with good sectors from a hidden pool of spare sectors. This is called 'Reallocation' and is handled by the drive's own firmware, It is not something you can control through any software, it's all done internally by the drive. But you can see how many sectors have already been reallocated, and if there are any more suspect sectors awaiting testing and potential reallocation.

You can see this by reading the drive's S.M.A.R.T. data (eg. with CrystalDiskInfo). The raw value of the 'Reallocated Sector Count' is how many sectors have already been reallocated, and the raw 'Pending Sector Count' are those sectors that may (or may not) need reallocating. For a healthy drive both of these counts should be zero. A few reallocated sectors is not necessarily an indication that a drive is about to die, not if the values remain constant. What would be worrying, and a signal to start saving up for a replacement, would be if either or both of these count was steadily rising.

If you have any pending sectors, then there is one way to force an HDD to test every sector and remap good ones to replace the bad. Sectors can only be reallocated while not in use, so if you perform a full format (not a quick format) then the drives electronics knows that a) none of them are in use yet, and b) every sector should be written to see if it's good or bad.

It would be best to create a single partition using the whole drive then do a full format on that. Note the Reallocated Sector Count and Pending Sector Count before you start. Perform a full format (this can take a very long time on a large drive). Check the S.M.A.R.T. data again. The Pending Sector Count should now be zero as every sector will have been tested. The Reallocated Sector count will have gone up by one for every pending sector that tested as bad, those that tested as good won't have been remapped and will be returned to use.

Keen an eye on the S.M.A.R.T. data, and until either of those two counts start going up again you should have a reliable drive. This is however only postponing the inevitable, the pool of spare sectors is limited and will run out eventually, then no more sectors can be reallocated.

I always use an HDD/SDD as a single partition. I never split them. Right now, the Reallocated Sector Count is 0, and the Pending Sector Count is 52. Do you want me to use Windows Built in Format to do a "format (not quick format)". . Would that work as well?

JAM83 · Mar 21, 2022

Ghot said:
@JMedlock83

Here's the invoice for mine... $50 more than you would be paying. ^^

View attachment 25007

Trust me... no batteries. :)

Hard drives are hermetically sealed.

Western Digital also makes this, but it only has a 3 yr. warranty... I don't think this takes batteries either.

WD Black 8TB D10 Game Drive Portable External Hard Drive - Newegg.com

Buy WD Black 8TB D10 Game Drive Desktop External Hard Drive for PS4/Xbox One/PC/Mac USB 3.2 (WDBA3P0080HBK-NESN) with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

It might be that high again before the IRS sends me what they owe me. ($700)