[Hard Drive] Bad Sectors

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Raccoon Goon

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Jan 13, 2011
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Now i just built this PC like about a month ago, and i went with a Western Digital 640 HDD for like 35 bucks. Now it came without a box (this i know, i had left over satas) and it had a 90 day warranty. Now it booted without a hitch, everything has been working god, until about a week ago. I got theses Windows 7 messages saying it was "Bad" and that i would need to replace and back up. So i just back up as i go, i get all the windows 7 updates and it seems to stop telling me this. So i scan the drive and it says NOTHING about bad sectors, so i just think (ok this won't be the first time MS has, pardon my French phucked up)and just continue using it and backing up like so. So now the other day i got a black screen and a weird message saying "Reboot and select a proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press any key" or something along those lines. I restart the computer and it works and nothing happens. I of course back up all my game saves and movies and not today it does it again, but this time it never boots up. I go to the motherboard screen, then Bios and the windows start screen and it never goes past that. I check all cords, plugs etc and then i boot it up and it still doesn't work. I just randomly turn it off and then turn it back on and it works. (now i praise the lord and start backing up last nights Oblivion sesson and start lookng for fixes for this HDD)

My question, is ths the "Bad Sectors" windows was telling me about? Can it be fixed? Why can't the computer seem to scan for this and find it. I know its there, but Windows 7 (the very OS that told me it was jacked up to begin with) is now telling me every things fine. WTH! So do i just go through RMA with Western Digtal or just try to some how fix it or neither? I need some professional help, building i can do, this..no way.
 
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Download datalifeguard diagnostics from WD's web site and have it check for errors. Also, you may want to download a free copy of HDTune and view the SMART values on the drive

It could be that the drive is going bad, but I would try the diagnostics first. You can also try making sure the SATA cable isn't loose on either end or try a different SATA cable.
 
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It says that it might take a few hours, now when i hit repair it says that if the sectors are repaired they'll take data with it like data will be deleted. I've backed everything up besides the OS (don't have windows 7 on disk) now is this something i should be concerned about? Will it delete dll files or exe files that stop me from starting up windows 7 and then resulting me to have to reinstall windows 7?
 
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Yes, it's possible that fixing the drive can mess with the OS, but do you really want to use a drive with bad sectors? Better to fix it, right? This is why it warns you to back up first.

Most of these programs try to retrieve the data on a bad/faulty sector and move them to a known good sector if it can, otherwise the data is lost.
 
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it seemed to have frozen, so i just hit repair and now its says error was detected while repairing bad sectors, this sounds like it might be unrepairable.

640hdd.png


stillbad.png


So...is it best to keep doing more test? Can this be fixed or am i just doing it wrong?
 
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i'm going to try another program, this is what is says for the sectors....

re-allocatedsectorcount.png


Dragon Age 2, Shogun Total War 2 and Crysis 2 beta all coming in about a week and this happens...great timing WD.
 
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The "current pending sector count" doesn't look to good either. If this is still within your vendor's warranty period, i'd get it RMA'd. If your vendor can't help, go to WD's site. They have a warranty checker. You just plug in the serial#. If it's still under WD's original warranty, you have more than enough evidence for an RMA.
 
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Yeah thats what i was thinking. Thanks for the help, i have it working....for now. I'll just have then send me another one and use this one for the time being. Is there a way to transfer over all the info of my OS to another HDD without having to reinstall windows 7?
 
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How do i exactly do this? Do i just put in my other HDD or USB external or how does it really work? Sorry but what i want, i'm not sure that does. i have a labtop drive in which i want my OS on. I want to take the data on this drive (the bad sector one) and transfer the data to that drive. Don't want to re-install windows 7. Do you know what i mean?
 
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Hdclone can run as a boot cd. So attach the new drive and boot Hdclone. You should read the documentation first.

With hdclone you are copying the bad drive sector by sector onto a blank new drive. So everything is copied both data and Windows except the bad sectors.
 
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thanks a bunch, i'm gong to be messaging you later to tell you how it went. I'll try this later in the morning, this might mean i can make another drive, then send the broken one in and use the new one as storage. I would be forever grateful if this works. I was thinking about getting one of those duplicators for my hdd so i wouldn't have to keep re-installing windows.
 
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I couldn't find any of the documentation, it just kinda started up..and that was about it. I connected the second drive to my computer. Both drives are now in. My CD-DVD drive is not attached to it at the moment. Only the 640 (bad drive) and my 40gb laptop drive are connected. Now i used the 640 as the source and the 40gb as the target.

Note- i haven't formated my 40gb drive (will this be an issue) my PC can't see this drive, until i was in the HDClone program, the program found it. (Will that be an issue)?

these are the highlighted areas on the HD clone program. Is this okay?

HDclonehelp.png



Should check everything? Should i even use a HD first to copy or a blank DVD? Does it matter? I'm in need of help.
 
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Hi,
Always try to fix ..On Windows XP, I'd start with a "chkdsk/R". (/R: "Locates bad sectors and recovers readable information"). Fire up a Command Prompt to run that command. You can access Command Prompt by going to Start, Programs, Accessories, and then click on Command Prompt.
 
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You cant clone a 640GB drive to a 40GB drive You need a drive the same size or larger.

When you downloaded Hdclone it came with a users manual in pdf form.

If you want to maximize your chances of data recovery do not use any program that performs write operations on the drive like chkdsk spinrite etc until after you have made an image copy. Writing to a failing drive can cause further data loss.
 
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Thanks for the help, i'm in the middle of sending the drive back, i put windows 7 on my 40gig drive for now. I sent in a RMA request for WD for my 640.

They send me back a e-mail telling me i have to have the right packing material (a special anti static bag), i tell them that newegg shipped my drive in bubble wrap. They tell me to make another RMA, but an advanced one and then use the packaging from the new drive to ship the old one. So i'm like ok.... I make another RMA and put my debt card (which he said i could us) and then its denied, for being a debt card and not a credit card....my god, i'm mad at this point. So i ask my sister to use her Credit card for the RMA and now we wait.
 
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I just got my 640 back and wanted to put WIndows 7 on it. So i used this, HDClone. I put my 40gb drive in and my 640 gb drive in. Windows being on the smaller drive (what was told for me to do by some of you guys). So i cloned the 40gb with the 640gb. Now when its done and complete it says on My Computer that my second drive has 40gbs NOT 640 like it should...what the hells up with that? Did this HDClone thing just delete like 600gb from my hdd, if so what the hell can i do now?
 
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just got my 640 back and wanted to put WIndows 7 on it. So i used this, HDClone. I put my 40gb drive in and my 640 gb drive in. Windows being on the smaller drive (what was told for me to do by some of you guys). So i cloned the 40gb with the 640gb. Now when its done and complete it says on My Computer that my second drive has 40gbs NOT 640 like it should...what the hells up with that? Did this HDClone thing just delete like 600gb from my hdd, if so what the hell can i do now?
 
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