Question Faster than Chkdsk /r and zero writes?

[Mac029]

Been researching HD Tune and similar applications (free versions) in order to scan a few HDD's for bad sectors/blocks. Macrorit Disk Scanner is supposed to be faster than Chkdsk /r or /f. As I understand it, ANY application that finds bad sectors will "mark" them (add those to the bad list), such that if there are enough spares left the problem is solved. (As long as SMART stats are OK. Please don't start getting off track re: Are your numbers high? Replace the drive, etc.)

So CrystalDisk, HD Tune and MHDD32 will 'mark' bad sectors. WD's Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for DOS will as well, but I've read some versions do not report raw SMART data correctly. I believe EaseUS Partition Master Home's Disk Surface test will also scan, and 'mark' any bad sectors found.

A few related questions if I may: I've read that Chkdsk only will list up to 98 max bad sectors. So you must run it multiple times. It may also halt/quit when scanning a large drive. So these 3rd party tools may be better even if I choose not to try "repair". Thanks but I've read incessantly about 'repair really means this'.

I simply need to park some data for a day and test Macrium Reflect. No need to get excited, my data has multiple redundancies.

Lastly, I don't want to open a can of worms but if I've already run DBAN autonuke on a drive, as I understand it, the write attempts will 'mark' any bad sectors, add new ones to the 'list' and I need not run any scan to 'mark' possible new bad sectors. I've read posts pro & con as to whether writing zeros is harsh on the HDD.

Just want to be sure what I DO write does not land on bad sectors/blocks. I figure testing an Image or a clone is useless if bad sectors are going to corrupt data.

Appreciate any input.


Thank you,

Mac

 

[Mac029]

Sorry, only comparing to Chkdsk /f. Don't need /r.

 

[hang-the-9]

You need to specify the program to "fix" the sectors, just doing a disk scan for issues will not do anything outside of tell you there are issues. Software from the drive vendor is the best thing to use. I know Seatools does not even give you a repair option unless it's a Seagate disk.

 

[blackrm79]

What I'm asking about is marking bad sectors and thereby taking them out of circulation. I believe all the above applications will "mark" bad sectors by simply scanning.

Don't really care about 'repair' until I get SMART values. More importantly, if anyone knows if DBAN and other appl's that write zeros will in fact add any bad sectors to the "list", that is what I really need to know.


Thank you,

Mac

 

[hang-the-9]

What I'm asking about is marking bad sectors and thereby taking them out of circulation. I believe all the above applications will "mark" bad sectors by simply scanning.

Don't really care about 'repair' until I get SMART values. More importantly, if anyone knows if DBAN and other appl's that write zeros will in fact add any bad sectors to the "list", that is what I really need to know.


Thank you,

Mac

A repair is that marking of bad sectors so the drive does not use them. A scan will not do that, it will just tell you that there are bad sectors. It is not really a repair of the disk, it just hides the issues, like turning up the car radio if there is a clunking sound in the engine or taping a torn rope. It may be OK for a bit, but there is a good chance the disk will fail in the future even harder.

 

[ElectrO_90]

You could always download and run Low Level Format - I use it in certain circumstances. This maybe one of them.
Also if you have HDD problems, make sure you run Hard Disk Sentinel so it monitors the problems and updates regulary. Well worth it I assure you.

 

[TerryLaze]

What I'm asking about is marking bad sectors and thereby taking them out of circulation. I believe all the above applications will "mark" bad sectors by simply scanning.

Don't really care about 'repair' until I get SMART values. More importantly, if anyone knows if DBAN and other appl's that write zeros will in fact add any bad sectors to the "list", that is what I really need to know.


Thank you,

Mac

APPS do not mark the sectors,the disk's own firmware itself is the only one marking sectors and it will do so if a certain amount of attempts to read or write a sector fail,dban will only go over the disk once and not read it back at all,apps coded for this write and (try to) read back each sector multiple times trigerring the firmware into action.