[SOLVED] Questions about Hard Drive health & repair

[messagetyper]

1.) What does "Current Pending Sector Count" mean?
I did a test using CrystalDiskInfo, HDTune, and WD's Lifeguard Diagnostics and this is what I got:

Spoiler: results

I'd like to be careful, so how can I fix this? Also, please do mention down below if my other results are concerning (despite all 3 programs telling me otherwise).

2.) Does fixing bad sectors make me lose data?
I scanned for bad sectors using WD's program and it was able to detect some. I would scan with chkdsk but I'm afraid if my data is going to be affected or not. Is it possible to fix these bad sectors without losing data? Also, does scanning for errors in chkdsk affect my data at all?

I'd like to be able to solve both of my problems without losing my data, but I would like it if someone recommends a backup program that's free and 100% trustworthy.

 

[PC Tailor]

Current Pending Sector Count is the count of sectors of your storage drive that are awaiting remapping, because they are shown to be unstable or corrupt. However if they are read normally later, they will be removed from pending.

You can't technically "fix" bad sectors. A bad sector is either re-read normally later and therefore untagged as a bad sector (because it was never actually bad), or it is reallocated to another working sector and then essentially "blocked" off from the OS as it is unstable.

Running CHKDSK for example will attempt to remap those sectors, which also means getting the data from it, and moving it to a stable sector, however in worst cases, the data may be too corrupt and cannot be recovered.

The only way to save data is to proactively back it up. However considering a sector size is incredibly small (512 bytes), and it would appear you ahve 1 pending sector, you won't be losing lots of data even if it wasn't recoverable.

 

[messagetyper]

You can't technically "fix" bad sectors. A bad sector is either re-read normally later and therefore untagged as a bad sector (because it was never actually bad), or it is reallocated to another working sector and then essentially "blocked" off from the OS as it is unstable.

Running CHKDSK for example will attempt to remap those sectors, which also means getting the data from it, and moving it to a stable sector, however in worst cases, the data may be too corrupt and cannot be recovered.

Does CHKDSK automatically repair these bad sectors after scanning? Also, is my hard drive at risk of dying anytime due to these bad sectors? Or would I not notice anything and be able to use my pc normally?

 

[PC Tailor]

Does CHKDSK automatically repair these bad sectors after scanning? Also, is my hard drive at risk of dying anytime due to these bad sectors? Or would I not notice anything and be able to use my pc normally?

The bad sectors don't cause the hard drive to fail, the hard drive failing causes the bad sectors. So it's the reverse, the bad sectors are a symptom of a drive going bad. But with just 1, I would say just keep an eye on it, if it starts deteriorating replace it, but REGARDLESS, you need to back up the data on it.

Effectively running CHKDSK will attempt to read or write to those sectors again, if it can, no problem, it will mark the sector as stable and carry on it's business, if it can't however, it will try and grab the data and reallocate it to another sector, if it cannot do that, it will tell you that it was unable to repair items.

 

[messagetyper]

The bad sectors don't cause the hard drive to fail, the hard drive failing causes the bad sectors. So it's the reverse, the bad sectors are a symptom of a drive going bad. But with just 1, I would say just keep an eye on it, if it starts deteriorating replace it, but REGARDLESS, you need to back up the data on it.

Effectively running CHKDSK will attempt to read or write to those sectors again, if it can, no problem, it will mark the sector as stable and carry on it's business, if it can't however, it will try and grab the data and reallocate it to another sector, if it cannot do that, it will tell you that it was unable to repair items.

Would running CHKDSK put some of my data at risk of being lost?

 

[PC Tailor]

Would running CHKDSK put some of my data at risk of being lost?

No, the data will already be lost if there is a problem.
The CHKDSK will just try to reallocate it.

As I said, you have 1 currently pending sector, which is the equivalent to 512 bytes, which is, basically nothing.