Bad sector on HDD...

[strata]

First the setup is a 4800+ X2 with a 74gb raptor as my primary boot disc and then a 250gb Caviar for storage. System runs fine until...

I did a disc error check at random one day and it turned out there were 'bad sectors' on the 250 and when windows fixed these bad sectors my boot time has slowed to a crawl. What exactly is a 'bad sector' and is there anything i can do to get my boot time back up to par?

 

[misry]

what did you use to determine you have bad sectors?


if it truely has bad sectors begin the process of replacing the drive, backup, get RMA, etc.. Bad sectors grow and are a sign the drive is going.

 

[Bazukaz]

Hi,
The disk is separated into blocks , called sectors.Size of these blocks is usually 512 kB in x86 machines.When operating system cannot read a sector , it is marked as "bad" , and not used anymore.In most cases the data is restored and copied to another place on a hard disk.This is done by chkdsk utility in windows xp.
If the sector is difficult to read, the operatng system retries read operation many times , until data is read(or not .This is why computer becomes very slow , when bad sectors are developing.
You should backup the data of your hard drive , and replace it.

 

[Giraffe]

wen u start to get bad sectors. u will most likely start getting more and more. if u fix them u will get more anyway. backup your files your HDD may crash soon.

 

[Codesmith]

Bad sectors = time to get a new hard drive.

If its under warranty they will send you a new one. If not copy your date to a new hard drive and throw it in the trash.