vliktor
join:2005-07-27
Philippines
 ·SmartBro
1 edit | Hard drive bad sectors
I have 2 HD's on my PC setup: a Samsung 20 GB PATA 5400 RPM, which has been working great for almost 3 years, with no bad sectors or noise issues whatsoever. 20 GB of course wasn't enough; because of my good experience with Samsung, I got a SATA Samsung Spinpoint 160 GB 7200 RPM last December, and everything was fine... until just recently.
One night, when I booted up the PC, Windows reported that the SATA HD had 8 KB of bad sectors.  The drive did continue to work fine after XP loaded, but I've been quite worried. Is there a possibility of this drive failing in the near future (if so, how near), or with the number of bad sectors growing in time? I know I should RMA, but since I'm in the Philippines, RMA procedures for most PC shops here can take almost a month. 
Is this situation really that bad? I've already backed up most of the data though not all of it; should I start backing up now before its too late? |
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mikehd
What day is it?
Premium
join:2000-07-11
Lebanon, OR
clubs:
 ·CenturyLink
| Backup often, even when you think your drive is healthy.
Download samsung's diagnostics to see what it recommends.
When bad sectors are detected, you've lost what ever data may have been there.
You might consider getting another drive to image your current boot drive to, and then follow up with RMA on your Samsung. |
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vliktor
join:2005-07-27
Philippines | Thanks for the suggestion. I'll go ahead and download the samsung disk utilities.. |
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Anonymous_
Anonymous
Premium
join:2004-06-21
127.0.0.1
clubs: | reply to vliktor
8Kbytes Is nothing Now days |
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n_w95482
Premium
join:2005-08-03
Ukiah, CA
| said by Anonymous_  :8Kbytes Is nothing Now days Doesn't matter, you should have zero bad sectors. There's always a chance that it may grow to more than 8k too. |
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marti
Color outside the lines
Premium,MVM
join:2001-12-14
Houston, TX
clubs:
1 edit | reply to Anonymous_
said by Anonymous_ :8Kbytes Is nothing Now days Maybe to you, and if more disk diagnostic tests indicate that the hard drive is "sick" I think it's time to "back up your stuff and then get a new HD."
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Color outside the lines. |
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javaMan
Premium,MVM
join:2002-07-15
San Luis Obispo, CA
| reply to vliktor
I had an IBM drive that would do the same thing and it was always 8KB. I would repair the drive, sometimes needing to do it from the Recovery Console, and it would always return. Sometime right away, others times it might be days or weeks. I watched it closely, of course, and it never got any worse. I switched to SATA drives when I upgraded my machine so I don't know what happened to it but as far as I know it is still in use and working fine. I always suspected that it was related to software rather than a fault with the drive.
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Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness. . . Isa. 5:20 |
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