How do I run scan for bad sectors first?

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

You don't need to use the /F switch with the /R switch. /R implies /F. However, it must check the file system, before it can try to recover bad sectors. Start it, and let it run.

--
Doug Knox, MS-MVP Windows Media Center\Windows Powered Smart Display\Security
Win 95/98/Me/XP Tweaks and Fixes
http://www.dougknox.com
--------------------------------
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"Ned H." <NedH@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:A6A42A68-668E-4BF4-BC19-3153C2086E54@microsoft.com...
>I have a drive D: with perhaps millions of bad "file segments." When I run
> chkdsk /f /r d: from the command prompt, it always starts by verifying the
> file system, and reports, forever to the end of time, that there are
> unreadable file segments. I need to bypass this portion of chkdsk and go
> straight to the search for and repair of bad sectors, as I think this will
> help solve the problem. The file system check could run afterwords - or is
> this a bad idea?
>
> I have tried using the check boxes on drive D to no avail. I get an error
> message that chkdsk cannot complete, but no option to request one on startup.
>
> Any help here would be appreciated.

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

If your hard drive is trashed, or the file system is seriously damaged it may take quite a while.

A sector is one block on the disk, usually 512 bytes. A cluster is one or more sectors in a contiguous group. The default cluster size for XP on an NTFS system is 4,096 bytes, or 8 sectors. FAT32 varies the cluster size in relation to the drive size.

--
Doug Knox, MS-MVP Windows Media Center\Windows Powered Smart Display\Security
Win 95/98/Me/XP Tweaks and Fixes
http://www.dougknox.com
--------------------------------
Per user Group Policy Restrictions for XP Home and XP Pro
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/x [...] onsole.htm
--------------------------------
Please reply only to the newsgroup so all may benefit.
Unsolicited e-mail is not answered.

"Ned H." <NedH@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:8E4B2242-2A20-45C3-8FA9-BA8A430ADF91@microsoft.com...
> Thanks. Do you have any idea just how long this will take? It does about
> 700-1000 unreadable segments per hour. There are thousands that are bad, if
> not hundreds of thousands. I have no idea how a file segment relates to a
> file or a sector.
>
> Ned
>
> "Doug Knox MS-MVP" wrote:
>
>> You don't need to use the /F switch with the /R switch. /R implies /F. However, it must check the file system, before it can try to recover bad sectors. Start it, and let it run.
>>
>> --
>> Doug Knox, MS-MVP Windows Media Center\Windows Powered Smart Display\Security
>> Win 95/98/Me/XP Tweaks and Fixes
>> http://www.dougknox.com
>> --------------------------------
>> Per user Group Policy Restrictions for XP Home and XP Pro
>> http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/x [...] onsole.htm
>> --------------------------------
>> Please reply only to the newsgroup so all may benefit.
>> Unsolicited e-mail is not answered.
>>
>> "Ned H." <NedH@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:A6A42A68-668E-4BF4-BC19-3153C2086E54@microsoft.com...
>> >I have a drive D: with perhaps millions of bad "file segments." When I run
>> > chkdsk /f /r d: from the command prompt, it always starts by verifying the
>> > file system, and reports, forever to the end of time, that there are
>> > unreadable file segments. I need to bypass this portion of chkdsk and go
>> > straight to the search for and repair of bad sectors, as I think this will
>> > help solve the problem. The file system check could run afterwords - or is
>> > this a bad idea?
>> >
>> > I have tried using the check boxes on drive D to no avail. I get an error
>> > message that chkdsk cannot complete, but no option to request one on startup.
>> >
>> > Any help here would be appreciated.
>>