Non-Hoster question for the computer experts

[admin]

Originally Posted by mindonstrike

A hard drive on my backup computer developed a "bad block" which made the drive non-usable. After several unsucessful attempts at fixing it with chkdsk, chkdsk did finally get it working again and recovered most of the data.

My question is, is a bad block a mechanical failure warrenting replacing the drive or a condition that can be remedied by reformatting or did chkdsk/f fix it good as new (except for the few files it couldn't recover) ?

Thanks for your input.
Sam

How old is the drive? This will determine whether it is under warranty or not. If not, your only recourse is to replace the drive.

If you run chkdsk and it reports multiple bad sectors, then run it again and it reports more, then your drive has experienced a mechanical shock (drop, hit, etc.) and probably is severely damaged. Get the data off while you can onto a new drive.

If chkdsk reports the same errors after multiple runs, you may be experiencing a single sector failure (in an area you had data in). In this case, you can probably use the drive and not experience further damage.

Drive platters have a magnetic coating that stores the data. All platters have bad areas on them when they are manufacturered, and a Bad Sector Table is created to "hide" them. Over time, a new "bad sector" can appear after the Table has been created to block use of the prior "known bad sectors".

If the data is critical, i.e. not backed up already, don't risk it and make a backup now.