will reformatting recover bad clusters?

[dg27]

Running Win 7 Pro 64bit.

I had an HGST 4 TB storage drive in an external case that started generating errors.

I ran chkdsk from cmd.exe and it showed it was recovering lots of orphaned files. When chkdsk completed it showed that there were 176706574 bad clusters.

Many of the files were corrupted, e.g., when I tried to play an mp4 it either did not play or played a piece the wrong video. Most of the other files (.jpgs and .pdfs) do not open.

All of the data was backed up and I replaced the drive with a WD 4 TB drive; restoring that data now. So recovering data from the HGST is not an issue.

As for the HGST drive, is it even worth reformatting? I lost over 600 GB: Will I get those back if I reformat? Or should just scrap this drive?

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[InvalidError]

Bad clusters are bad and never go good - formatting cannot repair defects and damage to the physical disk surface.

 

[Rabmac]

First things first, bad clusters on a hard drive can be a sign that your hard drive is failing. For that reason, I strongly suggest that you get all your important files backed up immediately if you have not done so already. (ignore this part as it looks like you already done that)

Once you have all your data backed up then you need to decide if running chkdsk /f /r is worth the risk because it can make matters worse.

If your hard drive is not failing running this command will map out all the bad sectors and try and move the data on them to a good sector if possible. If you decide to run the command, then I would advise running it once a week for a month and see if more bad clusters are found. If no more bad clusters are found then your hard drive might still be OK but just keep monitoring.

 

[InvalidError]

BTW, 600GB of bad cluster is a ridiculously large amount which implies considerable damage. If you install a SMART monitoring utility, those read/write error counters must be flying.

If you run the manufacturer's diagnostic tool, it'll probably tell you exactly what you already know/suspect: the drive is as good as dead.

 

[dg27]

BTW, 600GB of bad cluster is a ridiculously large amount which implies considerable damage. If you install a SMART monitoring utility, those read/write error counters must be flying.

If you run the manufacturer's diagnostic tool, it'll probably tell you exactly what you already know/suspect: the drive is as good as dead.

Thanks for all of the replies.

As I said in the OP, all data was backed up (redundantly, in fact), so data loss was never an issue.

I ran chkdsk from command prompt, which recovered orphaned files and noted the HUGE number of bad clusters. I had about 700 GB available on this drive before. After chkdsk I had 5 GB.

But what's really weird is that at point CrystalDisk info showed it as "good," as did Speccy, and HGST's own diagnostic tool. HDTune did as well, but interestingly, showed it as a 2199 GB drive (not whatever measurement they use for a 4 TB drive).

I guess this one is now a paper weight.

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  Point worth mentioning: I have had 3 HGST 4 TB drives: the first two were DOA; this was the 2nd warranty replacement. I am a dedicated WD user; I know that all drives eventually fail, but the error rate with these HGST's is ridiculous.

Thanks again.

 

[InvalidError]

Good drives that are taken good care of may last 10+ years. I have some 10+ years old WD, Maxtor and Seagate HDDs still in perfect working order with not even a single reallocated sector yet. But I have had my fair share of failures too, including a 1.2GB Conner HDD, the 3GB Quantum HDD that 1.2GB HDD got replaced with under extended warranty, a 17GB and 200GB Maxtor HDDs.

My 10+ years old HDD club includes a 22 years old 200MB Maxtor HDD, a 2.1GB Seagate HDD that came with my new PC, the ~18 years old 5.7GB I got as an extended warranty replacement for the dead Quantum HDD, the warranty replacement 17GB and 200GB HDDs from Maxtor and a pair of 80GB WD Caviar HDDs.

All of my drives that failed did so within the first two years of ownership and were still under manufacturer warranty. (Or Future Shop's extended warranty in the case of my Conner and Quantum HDDs - that was the only time I ever purchased extended warranty on computer stuff and I ended up being very glad on this one.)

 

[dg27]

Good drives that are taken good care of may last 10+ years.

I administer 4 machines with about 30 drives in active use and I agree that some may last 10 years. But I believe that the reality is that with mechanical drives there are really only two categories: Those that have failed and those that will fail at some time in the future.

While it's true that I have about a dozen drives (Samsung, Seagate, Toshiba, and WD) that are 10+ years old they are all out of service because I think anything less than 1 TB isn't worth the drive letter for me. Because I'm a musician and a photographer, I have a huge number of very large files, so I need big drives and redundant backups for everything. The exception is a Maxtor "One Plus" 150 GB drive that I have connected to my network for static common utility files. That one is built like a tank (the old metal case).

This HGST was an exception to my usual practice of the past several years of sticking with WD, and then mostly WD Black: the 5-year warranty makes it a no-brainer.

What was especially annoying about HGST was that the warranty expiration date for the last replacement actually preceded the date for the original drive, which I find unacceptable.