Hey guys. I was just wondering, it's because I have this old HDD. It has bad blocks but it also still has functional blocks in it. I was wondering if any of you know a program, that works!, that will maybe reduce the size of my HDD, but utilizing all the good blocks? Thanks!
CHKDSK is a utility always included with Windows. You can run it two ways. If the hard drive shows up in My Computer,, you can simply RIGHT-click on it and choose Properties from the menu. Click on the Tools tab and click in the Error Check button. Choose to find and fix all the options and let it run.
Alternatively you can run from a DOS prompt. Click on Start ... All Programs ... Accessories ... Command Prompt to open a DOS window. enter chkdsk /? to get a screen list of all the options you can specify, especially how to make it run on the particular disk you want. for example, if you mount the HDD in your machine and it is called F:. the in the Command Prompt window you might enter the command
chkdsk F: /R
To have it test the F: disk, finding and fixing any bad sectors. For any bad sector it finds it will try to recover information from it (may not succeed), then mark that bad secot in the HDD's allocation unit tables so it will never be used again. You can always run the utility a second time to be sure it is error-free.
Alternatively you can run from a DOS prompt. Click on Start ... All Programs ... Accessories ... Command Prompt to open a DOS window. enter chkdsk /? to get a screen list of all the options you can specify, especially how to make it run on the particular disk you want. for example, if you mount the HDD in your machine and it is called F:. the in the Command Prompt window you might enter the command
chkdsk F: /R
To have it test the F: disk, finding and fixing any bad sectors. For any bad sector it finds it will try to recover information from it (may not succeed), then mark that bad secot in the HDD's allocation unit tables so it will never be used again. You can always run the utility a second time to be sure it is error-free.
Ok. I used SeaTools for DOS to make my HDD use all it's sectors again. So I tried using the chkdsk /R, thank you btw, and it said that I have to format the partition first, so I did. When I did, it started formatting, right? (NTFS) So it is 1%, but no matter how long I wait it stays at 1%. When I tried quick format, it said that it cannot finish the process, then the HDD becomes undetected until I reboot (Shut Down, not Restart, then power on again). I'm able to use it if I set in SeaTools to use a capacity limit, but like I said before, I want to use all available "good" blocks/sectors. How do I accomplish this now?
So you do not need any information on the old hard drive, and you have Seatools for DOS to use. First thing to do (after resetting the drive to its full capacity) is run the Seatools diagnostic tests. They will tell you what is OK and what is not, and may help you isolate the bad areas. Once Seatools tells you the disk is OK to use, I recommend you start as if this were a brand new disk and you are preparing it for first use. The process has two stages, Partition and Format. Oh, and probably a preliminary operation to remove all old Partitions. If you are working in Windows, use its tools built into Disk Manager. I have XP Pro so I can outline how in that OS, but I'm sure other recent Windows is similar.
First you'll have to mount the old drive in your machine, which you must have done anyway to work on it with Seatools. Click on Start, and in the upper right of the main menu RIGHT-click on My Computer and choose Manage. In the left pane of that window expand Storage if necessary and click on Disk Management. You get two panes on the right, both scrollable if you have many devices. The upper pane shows you all the devices Windows is using. In the lower right pane are all connected devices, including the old drive that can't be used yet. For any and all Partitions on that drive only, RIGHT-click on the Partition and choose Delete Partition. When you have no Partitions left on it, RIGHT-click again and choose to create a Partition. In the options for that operation, tell it to make this a non-bootable Primary Partition (you only plan to use it for data, not as a boot drive, right?) and to use all of the drive's space in one volume. Let it run and it will write to the drive a new Partition Table and MBR, which define where and how big all its (one) Partitions are. When that is done, go back to that drive and RIGHT-click again, this time choosing to Format it. Tell it to use the NTFS File System. In your case I recommend having it do a Full Format. Any Format creates the root directory and hidden files for tracking allocation units; the Full version also goes right through the drive and tests every single sector, marking faulty ones to ensure they are not used. This operation can take many hours, so don't plan on watching impatiently.
If this all completes OK, escape back out out Disk Manager and reboot. The old drive should show up now in My Computer empty and ready to use.
First you'll have to mount the old drive in your machine, which you must have done anyway to work on it with Seatools. Click on Start, and in the upper right of the main menu RIGHT-click on My Computer and choose Manage. In the left pane of that window expand Storage if necessary and click on Disk Management. You get two panes on the right, both scrollable if you have many devices. The upper pane shows you all the devices Windows is using. In the lower right pane are all connected devices, including the old drive that can't be used yet. For any and all Partitions on that drive only, RIGHT-click on the Partition and choose Delete Partition. When you have no Partitions left on it, RIGHT-click again and choose to create a Partition. In the options for that operation, tell it to make this a non-bootable Primary Partition (you only plan to use it for data, not as a boot drive, right?) and to use all of the drive's space in one volume. Let it run and it will write to the drive a new Partition Table and MBR, which define where and how big all its (one) Partitions are. When that is done, go back to that drive and RIGHT-click again, this time choosing to Format it. Tell it to use the NTFS File System. In your case I recommend having it do a Full Format. Any Format creates the root directory and hidden files for tracking allocation units; the Full version also goes right through the drive and tests every single sector, marking faulty ones to ensure they are not used. This operation can take many hours, so don't plan on watching impatiently.
If this all completes OK, escape back out out Disk Manager and reboot. The old drive should show up now in My Computer empty and ready to use.
Well, I already told you. It only stays at one percent. When I check my CPU activity, it is idle, maybe except for jumps 3%, but most of the time 0%. I did all that you said, but it still doesn't work. If only chdsk /r could work on unformatted drives...
So let me be sure I'm understanding. My recommendation was this sequence:
1. Run Seatools for DOS and run its diagnostic tool suite on the hard drive. Use that tool to fix or mark any suspect sectors. Reboot. Maybe even re-run Seatools to verify it has no further problems.
2. Within Windows, use Disk Manager to find and delete all Partitions on that hard drive unit.
3. Partition the hard drive as a Primary Partition using all of the drive's space and making it non-bootable.
4. Format the Partition you just created, using the NTFS file System and asking for a Full Format.
Your reply suggests you did all of this and steps 1-3 were completed successfully, but it still stalled on Step 4 at 1% completed, even when left to work for many hours. Is that what happened?
1. Run Seatools for DOS and run its diagnostic tool suite on the hard drive. Use that tool to fix or mark any suspect sectors. Reboot. Maybe even re-run Seatools to verify it has no further problems.
2. Within Windows, use Disk Manager to find and delete all Partitions on that hard drive unit.
3. Partition the hard drive as a Primary Partition using all of the drive's space and making it non-bootable.
4. Format the Partition you just created, using the NTFS file System and asking for a Full Format.
Your reply suggests you did all of this and steps 1-3 were completed successfully, but it still stalled on Step 4 at 1% completed, even when left to work for many hours. Is that what happened?
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