help! just got a bad sector!

[pauloandre]

I usually hibernate windows, but today, since my laptop was getting slow, I decided to reboot. Soon the worst happened: windows couldn't boot because an error in windowssystem32configsystem (registry file, I think). I connected an external cd drive, booted windows cd and made a complete chkdsk /r . The result: one bad sector. After that, windows booted correctly, it only warned the registry was corrupted and a previous copy was used (can't see any differences). I quickly checked S.M.A.R.T. info: (raw data, everything else is ok)
Current Pending Sector Count 1
Off-line Scan Uncorrectable Count 1
but:
Reallocated Sector Count 0

Now I don't know what to think...
I'm thinking if I formatted the hard drive and retest the bad sector it would turn out to be a "good sector". Also, it could be the result of a minor fall it had. Am I right or is this the first warning before the hard drive fails?

Also, if by any chance it develops more bad sectors (I'll test again tomorrow) I shoud assume the drive is really failing, right?

 

[makishi]

i sorry for the bad sector on your hard disk... you might be getting ready for the worst part of your computing career, similar to what happened to me about a year ago...

i was operating on an XP environment.Nice. Running smoothly. until one time my cousin played nba2005 and the system began to show signs of being possesed!OMG! It restarted itself, then the chkdsk came running to sort out things the rebooting was all about... blah blah blah... i saw "BAD SECTOR.. XXXX kb" then i thought it was just a small error or sumthing... after months of continuing using it, the badsectors became worse, dealing more damage to the data on it... until suddenly the system wont boot on its HD... S**t!... poor me... i have to face the facts of data loss...waaaaaahh....

so.... my advice, as early as now - BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP... save your important data on your hard disk, then write it to a DVD cd... i think the data is more important than your HD... i recommend to purchase new HD for your system.

Bad sectors are physical damage of the harddisk, soo the more you use it, the more it'll be in its worst case... not even software like badsector recoveries wont repair the damage - its PHYSICAL...

i hope my advice will help...

 

[dokk]

I usually hibernate windows, but today, since my laptop was getting slow, I decided to reboot. Soon the worst happened: windows couldn't boot because an error in windowssystem32configsystem (registry file, I think). I connected an external cd drive, booted windows cd and made a complete chkdsk /r . The result: one bad sector. After that, windows booted correctly, it only warned the registry was corrupted and a previous copy was used (can't see any differences). I quickly checked S.M.A.R.T. info: (raw data, everything else is ok)
Current Pending Sector Count 1
Off-line Scan Uncorrectable Count 1
but:
Reallocated Sector Count 0

Now I don't know what to think...
I'm thinking if I formatted the hard drive and retest the bad sector it would turn out to be a "good sector". Also, it could be the result of a minor fall it had. Am I right or is this the first warning before the hard drive fails?

Also, if by any chance it develops more bad sectors (I'll test again tomorrow) I shoud assume the drive is really failing, right?

YO Paulo; Not to discredit the previous poster but,have you run scandisk from dos ??[assuming fat 32 not "ugh" ntfs, higher overhead and slower than fat 32]..A [single] bad sector does not necessarily indicate a bad hdd
it could be cross linked files or some such foolishness,and too if you can get your hands on spinrite or some such hdd recovery tool it would help,also the "reallocated sector count 0" seems to indicate that S.M.A.R.T does not find a "bad"sector physically speaking,your idea to reformat is a good place to start........

 

[illuminatirex]

HI, im sorry to cut in with my own question but i had a similar problem

Once I got a bad sector info and the disc started making lots of noise (like fingernails on the blackboard) and it sai imput the disk (i forgot it was a long time ago) i needed the pc to work right a way then so i just bought a nwe hd and left teh old one in a box with other non used pc parts, about 2 weeks ago i decided to give it a try and c if i can fix it, in the past i didnt have any of nortons rapair software, now i do so i thought that the disc fix in but mode might help i did that (the hd still makes lots of noise, btw i opened it up gnetly and didnt c any damago or scratches, and did put it back together) that aproach failed, in norton i onlyget the 2 choices menu (black and white screan with a yellow high lite bar) whatever answer i pick the pc rebuts itselfe.so i guess all my data is lost on that one, but is there any way to make it working again? or the noise means its just dead?

 

[makishi]

hey thanks dokk for the crit. appreciate it. i overlooked what pauloandre said. pauloandre you should try dokk's suggestion first, coz mine needs a part of yer system to be replaced. try an initial troubleshooting before doing mine... should the HD sound creepy and reboots spontaneously, you should consider changing the HD...

 

[pauloandre]

Thanks for the info, I'll do a few more chkdsk (can't scandisk, it's formatted in ntfs) to make sure it's really only one bad sector. I have hdd regenerator, the trial version allows recovering one bad sector (exactly what I need ) but I won't try it until the end of the month, there's a possibility of data loss and now I just don't have the time to reinstall everything. I already backed up the most important stuff, just in case. Also, the hdd is still in the warranty, so I'll never really need to buy a new one, I just can't format and do a proper test because I really need the laptop until the end of the month.

 

[fainis]

not to worry you still have a shot ...but this implies the loss of your data ........

step 1: save as much as possible from your hard;
step 2: use a third party tool (i like pqmagic) and delete the extended and primary partitions;
step 3: realocate the hdd;
step 4; use scandisk surface to retest your hdd;

in my experience, unless your hdd is very old, many hdd problems, even bad sectors, are software generated, a certain data is simply lost and the hdd sector (s) are marked as bad.....
i hope that was a software bad ...good luck to you