What program to fix bad sectors on a hard drive. Programs for checking your hard drive for bad blocks (bad sectors)

So you have a damaged HDD. The first thought that comes to mind: give HHD for restoration in service center or try to repair the disk yourself? The question is quite complex, since HDD regeneration is possible, but not always appropriate. However, it's worth a try! Today I will tell you about a utility that allows you to recover data on a damaged hard drive, making it work better. Program HDD Regenerator rus will help us. As an example, let's try to restore my 120 GB hard drive.

What is “regeneration”, introduction to the program

Regenerator hdd is distributed in Russian, downloading the program is free and easy, although there is also a paid version of the product that regenerates damaged areas of the hard drive with even better quality. In addition, I tried to describe the process as clearly as possible, so that the reader would not have any questions about hard recovery disk in the presence of other artifacts that interfere proper operation HDD and, even worse, can lead to the loss of important information.

Therefore, first we will consider the main theses: what is regeneration, what is the role of the HDD regenerator program in this process. The program took its name from the process of regeneration - restoration, renewal. The essence of the process, however, is not in the real “revival” of dead areas of the disk (that is, bad sectors), but in shifting them to an unused area. Thus, there will be no problems when writing files and then reading them, since all sectors will be suitable for work.

The HDD regenerator works at a low level of scanning, working with bad sectors - in addition to Windows, you can boot from a live CD or DOS OS. In this regard, the recovery program hard drive universal. That's why this tool successfully used in data recovery firms.

Where to download HDD regenerator?

The program in Russian is a small problem to download on a torrent; the program is also available on various sites with programs for HDD disk recovery. However, I advise you to download the free (trial) version of Regenerator in my catalog or on the official website and, if you like the Regenerator (read: show real result), feel free to purchase the professional version.

First, download the program and install it where the connected HDD is located. Then we read a short guide to using the program, Russify the program hdd regenerator and move on to further steps to restore the disk. Be sure to follow the instructions in the manual, disable all unused applications, since the process of further working with the regenerator requires low activity on the hard drive.

Once you install the program, launch it. The main window of HDD regenerator rus 2011 will appear in front of you with a selection of key options:

• creating a bootable flash drive
• recording a disc (CD or DVD) for subsequent HDD analysis

In addition, you can run a scan of your hard drive to check for bad blocks on it. However, you can safely skip these steps, since at the moment we do not need a bootable USB flash drive or disk.

Let's start restoring HDD sectors

Next, you need to execute the command “Regeneration – Start process...”. Then you will see a list hard drives, among them you need to choose the one that will be used for subsequent recovery.

After that, click “Launch”. The size is shown in parallel free space HDD, as well as the total number of sectors that are available for processing and scanning, respectively. Depending on how many sectors are on the hard drive, the processing time varies, but in general this process is not too long.

Be careful! It is very important that the hard drive is not used by other applications and processes at this stage, since otherwise the HDD regenerator 2011 program will not be able to obtain full access to the disk, as a result it will still display a message, you will have to close interfering programs running in the background.

The next stage of working with Regenerator is very important. A menu will appear in front of you where you need to select one of four actions:

1. and restoration of bad sectors
2. Diagnostics and skipping the recovery stage
3. Recovering bad sectors in a specific area of ​​a hard drive
4. Displaying statistical information after regeneration

We select the second item in regenerator program, that is, we will use diagnostics and bypass the stage of actually restoring sectors on the hard drive. Therefore, select this option and press the Enter key.

Let's move on. The HDD Regenerator 2011 application requires you to specify an area, a segment, which will serve as the starting point when scanning and analyzing the occupied space of the hard drive. At this stage, the disk is scanned looking for bad sectors.

After the analysis of the hard drive is completed, the results will be displayed. From these statistics, the program extracts a lot of valuable information: this is the number of sectors restored, bad blocks of the HDD device, as well as those segments that are not restored due to objective circumstances.

Conclusion

Thus, the tool did its job, helping to revive the HDD, as far as possible, on its own. As already noted, the free Russian version hdd regenerator You can download it on our website, in, or on the developer’s official resource.

Process hard checks disk for the presence of bad sectors, is a search for erroneous records and bad sectors located on the drive.

Some of these problems can cause information loss - in most cases, beyond recovery.

Therefore, every user should be aware of their occurrence - both in order to try to correct errors on the disk, and to back up important information to another location.

The principle of formation of bad sectors

Over time, the owner of almost every HDD has to deal with problem sectors.

The principle of their appearance is as follows:

• During the production of disks, sectors are created, with the help of magnetization of which information can be written to the drive.

• Reading and writing information on (especially if the disk is hit or dropped), and sometimes also the influence of computer viruses, lead to a gradual deterioration in the condition of its structure.
• Bad sectors begin to appear on the surface of magnetic disks - areas in which information is stored incorrectly or not recorded at all.

It is possible to eliminate bad sectors, but the system does not automatically perform such actions - the user will have to manually run the scan and repair.

If there are few bad sectors, they are replaced by reserve areas.

When damaged HDD blocks appear, their addresses are reassigned to sectors from the reserve, and no data loss occurs.

Signs of a problem

Among the main signs that problem sectors have appeared on the disk and need to be restored are: The following are worth noting:

• The computer freezes while loading the operating system;
• failure to start the OS - in most cases, the download only reaches a certain point (for example, the Windows logo or the “Welcome” sign) and stops;
• unreasonable and frequent computer reboots;
• errors in the operation of the system, expressed in the inability to launch applications, closing windows and slow response to user actions.

The list of utilities that can be used to solve the problem is quite large.

They are divided into two main groups– those that are already built into the operating system (for example, Windows), and applications from other manufacturers.

The latter can also be divided into paid programs and more popular among domestic users free versions.

Using Windows Tools

To correct errors and bad sectors, Windows OS already contains .

The advantages of using it include the ability to restore areas damaged during operation or as a result of infection of the system with viruses.

Another plus– the ability to start in two ways, in normal mode or.

The utility is capable of checking any physical and logical disks, however, there are slight differences in working with inactive and system areas.

Thus, the stages of checking and restoring a regular partition (which does not contain system control files and the OS itself) will be as follows:

1 Going to the window "My computer".

2 Right-click to open properties of the selected disk.

3 Select a tab "Service".

4 Pressed check disk button.

5 Put checkbox next to check bad sectors.

Examination system volumes, on which Windows is installed, is performed differently.

Starting the utility launch coincides with the steps for a regular partition, but when you try to check the disk, a message appears on the screen stating that it is impossible and asking you to do this after a reboot.

After a reboot, the system does not boot - instead, a system check is performed HDD partition, the progress of which can be determined by the information displayed on the screen.

And you can run Hitachi Drive Fitness Test not only from Windows, but also in mode if problems with the disk have already made it impossible to boot the system.

Seagate Seatools

The Seatools utility is free application, whose capabilities include:

• detection of HDD structure violations, including bad sectors and write or read errors;
• fixing bad sectors or overwriting them with zeros, so that in the future the system ignores damaged areas;
• Windows OS problems;
• damage to the system bootloader;

The application works most effectively with Seagate drives.

The average time to fix detected errors (together with the verification process), depending on the size of the partition, can reach 4 hours.

The advantages of the program include its free distribution and the provision of a detailed report.

HDD Health

Free program HDD Health differs in the possibility of obtaining while checking bad sectors the following information:

• HDD manufacturer and firmware;
• current storage temperature;
• the general condition of the device structure, including whole and damaged sectors;
• a number of other useful attributes.

The utility is distributed free of charge by Panterasoft.

At the same time, the disk health assessment is carried out only using S.M.A.R.T indicators and is less effective than checking the disk with other applications.

Victoria

In a good way is free program"Victoria".

During the scanning process, the user can obtain information not only about disk sectors, but also about all partitions (volumes) of the computer and the connectors to which they are connected.

The utility does not require installation, but should only be run as Administrator.

Rice. 9. HDDScan disk troubleshooting program.

Among additional information – temperature control of all disks that are connected to the PC. In addition, the test results are generated in the form of a report and can be saved in a separate file.

The user probably already knows what it is bad sector and on hdd (“bad blocks”) the surface of the hard drive. If you are reading this review, then at least you have an idea: what a “hard drive” is, and what you want to achieve as a result (remove bad sectors on the hdd). But are they really “bad”, and how much of this defect is “hardware” - let’s try to figure it out.

Symptoms of physical surface damage or file system errors

Symptoms of “bad” sectors (“hardware” or “software” reasons) may be the following:

1. Slow start installed applications and/or the OS itself;
2. Unreasonable disruption of the operation of some applications (disappearance of previously made settings, lack of functions);
3. Lost folders and files, damaged files;
4. Significant slowdown in the copying process when accessing files.

As you can see, nothing good. Working with hard drive ( hard drive) will consist of 2 stages, answering 2 different questions: are there physical defects on the surface of the hdd, and (if so) - how to remove bad sectors so that they do not come back.

I already wrote in another article about, so it’s better not to install Windows on a disk with bad sectors; first you need to get rid of them.

A little theory

On a hard drive, the surface is divided into sectors. Each sector on the physical surface of one pancake is called a “block”. The number of blocks, if you add them up and count them in total, will always be greater than the number of available blocks “shown” by the hard drive. That is, any manufacturing company makes several (in fact, dozens) of unused “parts” of the hdd surface - spare blocks.

How to remove bad data from a hard drive becomes clear with an understanding of exactly how hdd electronics work. When receiving the address of the block that needs to be accessed (for reading/writing), this address will first be “translated” into the physical address of the block, which is done using a special table (hardwired into the hdd ROM).

In the table, instead of the physical address of the bad block, you can easily and easily flash the address of one of the free (spare) blocks (see one paragraph above). As a result, we will get a “working” hard drive. By the way, without reducing the logical volume.

Note:

This operation of “reassigning” a block address is called “remapping”, or remap.

Purely “logical” defects

Errors may not occur due to physical damage surface, but only due to violations in the logic of one sector. These errors, in turn, are also divided into correctable and uncorrectable. “Logical” defects can only be distinguished from physical defects in an indirect way (using different tests).

Correctable logical defect (soft-bad): when the checksum of a logical sector does not match the calculated checksum of its data. This may appear, for example, due to interference and a power outage (and that’s all). The next time you turn it on, the hard drive will first read the data, calculate the checksum, and compare what was received with what was written. In general, in such cases, the equipment generates an error message. From the side of the operating system, this looks like “real” bad.

Unfortunately, neither the operating system nor the BIOS can correct a logical defect on your own. The hard drive controller will not correct the error either: it tries in vain to read this sector on the third, fourth attempt, and when it doesn’t work, it tries to help by adjusting the servo system and the reading channel... At the same time, that same “grinding” is heard, heartbreaking and well known to the owners of the “killed” » screws.

Note: there is no need to worry about the “heads” scraping the surface. The grinding noise comes from the coil on the spindle (rocker arm), constantly trying to adjust the “correct” angle.

Well, in this case, how to remove bad when it is logical? What can help? Forced overwriting of all sectors ( special program, bypassing even the BIOS) – good remedy from this. After filling the surface only with “zeros” (then with “ones”, then again with “zeros”), logical bad disappears without a trace.

But there are “incorrigible” logical errors. These errors relate to low-level formatting of the hard drive. The defect itself looks the same. Such defects are considered irreparable because their correction will require doing the “correct” formatting at a low level, which is most often inaccessible to the average user (in the absence of proprietary low-level format utilities, and the “fastening” of the screw must be stationary). In everyday life, such hard drive blocks are disabled in the same ways as “physical” bad - that is, by remap. Not scary.

Programs

For logical “wiping” of the surface (filling occurs with “0s” and “1s”):

fjerase, wdclear, zerofill.

Image bootable CD with Victoria - download.

In the rar archive, if you unpack it, there will be one file - the .iso file (the image of the boot CD).

Working with Victoria DOS

Firstly, why DOS mode and not Windows? The fact is that if there is only one hdd, and Windows is installed on it, from which you can run Victoria win-32, then you won’t be able to “remap” anything, for obvious reasons (you can’t erase Windows).

Therefore, we take a blank CD, write a boot image on it, and boot from this CD:

Having selected the first item, press “Enter”.

Note: like this boot disk(or a flash drive), you can create it yourself. By simply making a boot disk/flash drive with DOS, then transferring (adding) Victoria files to it (archive - download here: http://www.hdd-911.com/index.php?option=com_docman&Itemid=31&task=view_category&catid=69&order =dmdate_published&ascdesc=DESC).

What should we click first (for the hard drive to be detected)? Press "F2".

If after this the program does not find the hard drive, you can do it yourself. Press “P” on the keyboard, the “Select HDD port” menu will appear - we will select “Ext. PCI ATA/SATA" (“arrows” and “Enter”):

Note: other points are needed if you have a motherboard with IDE controllers (one of which is connected to a PATA standard hard drive).

And, in the list that appears, the hdd we need should be visible (by company/model name). To select hdd, dial the channel number (on which it is located). Press "Enter". All.

After this, you can work with the hard drive: conduct a test and “remap”.

Note: if there are several hard drives in the system, we proceed in a similar way (press the “P” key, and so on).

First, let's see how many “bad” blocks have already been reassigned (for a new hdd, this indicator can only be “zero”):

To display this screen, we pressed “F9”. Pay attention to the fifth line - this is the number of sectors that were “reassigned” (re-allocated sector count - counter of reassigned sectors).

Here, the value is 100 (the real value is the first column). Well, this is not good. In total, for different companies (manufacturing hard drives), the maximum number of re-allocated blocks cannot exceed the “critical” one – several hundred (let’s say 200-300).

Victoria DOS: surface test

To run the surface test, press “F4”:

We leave all the indicators as they are (the beginning and end of the disk, the “linear” reading mode, and, at this stage, “ignore” for bad blocks). The test starts by pressing “Enter”:

As you can see, when running the test, it displays how many blocks are read with excessive big time access. The number of blocks that are bad is also counted (but now we do not know whether they are “software” or surface defects).

Victoria DOS: remapping

So, the surface test showed that the number of bad blocks Above zero. Do not rush to immediately proceed to the remapping operation (which will be discussed below).

“Bad” sectors can arise due to a “software” reason. How to fix this is discussed above. Don't be lazy, run the ZeroFill program (or something similar). Sometimes, you can remove all “bad” blocks after two or three runs of this program.

Also (no matter how funny), the low reading speed of periodically repeated blocks is possible due to bad contact SATA connector. By the way, you can try switching the hard drive to a slower mode (jumper on the HDD case, turn on “150 megabits”).

And only if none of these two methods helped (the number and location of bad blocks did not change after the repeated test) - proceed to remapping:

As for the “test”, press “F4”. In the menu, use the down arrow and go to the “Ignore bad blocks” line.

Now - attention! – use the left and right arrows to select “Classic REMAP”. Press "Enter". That's it (we'll wait).

Typically, surface testing takes an hour or more (for 500-750 Gigabytes). Well, for 2 terabytes, and even 5000 rpm. – and 3 hours will not be enough (with the “remapping” mode – longer, but not much).

Upon completion of the work, we will get a “good” hard drive. You can do it again, the final “test”. The number of “reassigned” blocks is summed with the existing one (see, as they said - “F9”, in the fifth line).

If you have conducted a surface test, and as a result, you see that the number of blocks in need of “remapping” goes beyond several hundred (let’s say: there were 100, another 200 appeared) – it is better to abandon “independent” repairs altogether.

Instead of output

Remap- This is good. If such an opportunity still exists (if the total number of reassigned blocks has not passed a certain “critical” value), you can use it. Although, the “durability” of this method (that is, how many days the hard drive will last) is always in doubt. This parameter is not predicted (maybe the hard drive will last for another 2 days, maybe for a month, etc.). Transfer all the necessary data, as soon as access to it appears again.

The “remapping” procedure does not overwrite the data, that is, the program tries to “read” the bad block and copy the data. However, if possible, before remapping it is still recommended to do backup copy hard drive (with Ghost software, for example).

(Optional): Instead of the “Classic REMAP” mode, Victoria 3.5 allows you to select “Advanced REMAP”. What can be done if the “standard” remap could not help 100% (2-3 “bad” blocks remained).

As you can see, working with a hard drive takes a lot of time. It also requires the user to have knowledge and maximum accuracy (provided that you understand the meaning of the operations performed using these programs).

In more complex cases (the screw is not detected by the program; after detection, the system freezes) - one way or another, qualified intervention is needed. In addition to “bad” sectors, there may also be problems in the hard drive controller (in its “electronics”). You can't solve this on your own.

Have “bad” sectors appeared? Don't enable their "fix" from Windows itself! Of course, at the same time, it (that is, Windows) will “remap” every sector that is “failure” for it (well, is this necessary?).

Other "programs"

How can I see the number of “reassigned” sectors directly from Windows?

There are many programs that show hard drive ROM data (SMART data). For example, this is Everest (download, launch, watch):

The program is absolutely free. It’s easier to download it here: http://www.aida64.com/downloads/aida64extreme270exe. The first 30 days – all functions are available (but, except for how to “look”, Everest, aka Aida, can’t do anything).

Or, you can download Victoria - already for Windows (starting from version 4.0): http://www.hdd-911.com/index.php. Go to the “Files” section:

As you can see, of. the site contains both versions (for DOS and for Windows).

Compatibility

Victoria-DOS (3.5x) – compatible with SATA controllers (SATA-2). The same goes for IDEs integrated into the motherboard.

This was a review about bad sectors on hdd.

How to check your hard drive?

Read about ways to fix HDD errors, is it possible to restore bad sectors and how to do it. Let's consider how to recover data from problem disks. The occurrence of bad sectors and other hard drive malfunctions can lead to the loss of all information. We will talk about possible methods for correcting such errors and ways to recover data from problem disks in our article.

The most popular representatives of the team of computer devices are stationary personal computers and laptops, including their various modifications (netbooks, ultrabooks, convertible laptops, etc.). A comprehensive combination of the most powerful computer processors, modern high-level memory elements, ultra-fast graphics accelerators, large data storage facilities and others mandatory elements, allows them to rightfully occupy a leading place among other types of computer devices.

The presence of modern versions of personal computers and laptops implies the mandatory use of software to maintain a high level of productivity, management and control over all processes. The most common program that fully satisfies the stated requirements can be safely called the operating system Windows from the corporation Microsoft.

Mandatory use of modern developments in the field of computer programming, the highest speed characteristics of processing a huge amount of data, high level system functionality, multitasking and unification of the internal shell of the operating system, suitable for sharing programs and applications from third-party manufacturers, user-friendly user interface and a number of other advantages helped the system obtain Windows extraordinary popularity, distribution and recognition of users around the world.

The combination of an advanced operating system and modern elements of the internal content of personal computers and laptops helps users cope with any high-cost tasks, carry out the simultaneous execution of many tasks without an overall loss of productivity and data processing speed.

One of the main elements of computer devices, which is responsible for managing and safe storage all user and operating system information Windows, acts as a data warehouse. As such, users can use various storage devices: internal and external hard drives HDD,solid state drives SSD, combined hybrid hard drives, combining elements of the two previous types of drives, and other types of devices.

Despite the rapidly developing industry solid state drives, they have a number of significant disadvantages that significantly reduce their distribution. Therefore, hard drives have received, and continue to retain, the greatest popularity and widespread use. HDD, which have proven themselves to be low-cost, high-capacity storage devices that meet the needs of consumer and enterprise segments, and have high degree reliability.

Taking into account the wide popularity and significant number of used information storage devices, the question often arises about the problem of bad sectors and the search for possible ways to correct detected hard drive errors HDD. To preserve user information and prevent its premature loss, an important requirement is the mandatory maintenance of the hard drive used in good working condition. And if problems arise with its structure, software or hardware content, you need to take care of transferring user data to a working storage device, or recover lost data if bad sectors on the hard drive lead to its failure. Further in our article we will try to consider possible ways solutions to the problems presented.

A quick overview of the hard drive design HDD

Before we begin to describe the solution to the above problems, it is worth dwelling on hard device disk for a full understanding of the principles of operation of the device, correct diagnosis of the problem and selection of methods to eliminate it.

The hard drive is a mechanical storage device, which makes it the most vulnerable element personal computer, due to the presence of moving parts. The main components of a hard drive include an electronics control board, a block of read heads, and hard aluminum or glass plates coated with a ferromagnetic layer, onto which all information is directly recorded.

IN hard drives, depending on the declared memory capacity, one or several plates located on the same axis are used. Due to the high speed of rotation of the drum, the read heads, in the process of writing or reading information from the hard drive, do not touch the surface of the platters, thereby achieving a high level of durability of the disk as a whole. And upon completion, they move to the parking area for a safe location.

The hard drive case is a hermetically sealed container, which prevents the entry of foreign elements and particles and ensures the overall security of the device.

The principle of storing information on a hard drive HDD

Based on the knowledge gained about the hard drive structure described in the previous section, it is known that all information is stored on hard plates in a sealed drive case.

The process of writing and reading information implies the presence of a strictly structured disk space that has certain elements of disk division. Therefore, the internal organization of the surface of the disk plates has a special marking, in interaction with which information is recorded and stored on the device. In accordance with the markings, the surface of the storage plates is divided into tracks, which in turn are divided into sectors (the minimum disk memory area used for storing information). The sector size, as the minimum basic unit of information recording, is 512 bytes. But depending on the selected file system used when formatting the hard drive, sectors can be combined into clusters, which in turn will be used as a single amount of memory when recording and storing data. A cluster can consist of several physical sectors, the final size of which depends on the total number of sectors combined, and can be up to sixty-four kilobytes.

When recording information, the system determines the size of the recorded file and places its contents in the required number of clusters. The location of the recorded clusters on the disk surface may vary. Depending on the size of the source file, the load on the hard drive and a number of other factors, clusters containing data from one file can be located either next to each other or can be distributed over the entire surface of the storage platter of the drive. In other words, when recording, the source file will be split into separate parts and recorded fragmentarily on the hard drive. Which ultimately can increase the time it takes for the disk head to read the file, because it will need to find all the fragments of the file when accessing it. And if a sector is damaged, some or all of the information may be lost, since the sector is the main element responsible for storing data.

What does the concept of bad sectors mean?

As previously described in the previous section, design feature hard drive magnetic disks is the presence of sectors (or clusters) that serve to record and store various information. If, for various reasons, a sector is damaged, then, with a high degree of probability, all the information recorded on it will be damaged, and it is not always possible to restore it, depending on the degree and type of damage. Therefore, damaged sectors are usually called bad sectors (also called BAD sectors, bad or faulty), and it is no longer possible to store any data in them.

In the window command line with administrator rights enter the command to run the application CHKDSK:

IN in this example logical partition errors will be checked and corrected C:.

The application allows you to use many different flags aimed at performing relevant tasks. However, to fix hard drive problems, only two of them are used:

/f– using this flag instructs the application to check the hard disk for errors and correct them;

/r– this flag is used in conjunction with the flag /f and forces the application to search for damaged sectors of the hard drive and restore their contents.

Learn more about ways to check your hard drive for errors and possible methods fixing them in the operating system Windows on our video channel in the manual: How to check your hard drive for errors and fix errors in Windows 10, 8, 7.

In the second case, you can perform actions to search for bad sectors and correct errors from the file explorer Windows. Open the file explorer in any way convenient for you, for example, by double-clicking the shortcut This computer on the desktop. In chapter Devices and drives Right-click on the required drive. Select a section from the pop-up context menu Properties.

Or, having selected the drive, click on the main menu bar in the tab Computer button Properties.

In the local disk properties window that opens, go to the tab Service and then in the section Checking for errors click on the button Check.

A check will be launched to detect and eliminate hard drive errors, which will result in a complete elimination of the diagnosed problems.

Using disk formatting

Sometimes, if we are not talking about the system disk, you can use the method full formatting logical drive. Such a process in the execution of operating system tools Windows performs a comprehensive check of the hard disk surface and excludes detected bad sectors from the trusted data storage area. By entering a mark about specific bad sectors into the disk service information, Windows does not allow them to be used to record new data in the future. Formatting the system disk is possible together with reinstalling the operating system Windows, which can also be performed if the computer’s performance has slowed down significantly, frequent system problems occur, and you have a sufficient level of knowledge to perform the system reinstallation process.

Open File Explorer Windows and find the drive you want to format. Right-click on it and select section from the pop-up context menu Format.

In the local disk formatting options window, set the appropriate settings and click the button Begin to start the process. Once formatting is complete, errors in the logical drive will be eliminated. However, all information located in this section will be erased. Therefore, this method can be used in cases where the disk does not store important data or they have been transferred (copied) to another medium.

Methods for recovering information

If the number of bad sectors has reached a critical value, resulting in loss of access to the disk, it is unreadable or inoperative, then users can try to restore the information located on such disks by contacting a specialized laboratory for help, using free software or using a professional data recovery program.

Contacting a specialized laboratory

Specialized laboratories for recovering deleted data from damaged media have expensive equipment, sterile rooms and specialists of sufficient professional level to repair drives and restore user information.

The use of modern hardware tools for data recovery allows laboratory specialists to extract information from damaged hard drives, overcoming the presence of bad sectors, and restore it.

However, despite all the advantages, seeking help from a specialized laboratory has a number of significant disadvantages that significantly reduce the effect of its use.

Laboratory specialists do not give any guarantees that as a result of their actions, user information will be restored, as well as total cost laboratory services will require significant financial costs from users. And even with a negative result, users will in any case be forced to pay for laboratory services.

Therefore, you should contact a data recovery laboratory only if it is not possible to recover information by other means, and its recovery is worth any expense.

Application of free software

Using free data recovery software is not a sound decision because this type of software has serious limitations. And with the type of problems described (the presence of bad and damaged sectors of the hard drive), such programs have practically no chance of restoring user information.

Free programs have stripped-down, significantly limited internal functionality, and they also implement the principle of limiting the final recovered files by the final number or total occupied space. These types of programs are suitable only as a one-time tool for recovering one or several files. To solve more global problems, users need to pay attention to professional programs to recover files. One of these programs, which has received well-deserved recognition from users and many positive reviews, is from the company Hetman Software.

Using professional data recovery software

Professional recovery programs have the widest range of internal tools aimed at troubleshooting, detecting and safely recovering all possible information.

In the international computer information network Internet available for users to download and install different kinds software for recovering deleted data. However, the best solution would be to turn your attention to a truly successful product that has an unusually high final percentage of recovery of finished and working files - .

The program occupies a leading position in the company's program line Hetman Software, and in addition to standard capabilities (file recovery after: regular and permanent deletion, disk formatting, harmful effects of viruses, system or hardware failure, etc.), it has the ability to recover almost any data from damaged, inaccessible or completely non-functional hard drives . Regardless of the type of damage, the number of bad sectors and the overall performance of the hard drive, the program successfully analyzes and restores any information almost completely.

Download the installation file from the company’s official website and run it. The step-by-step installation wizard will help you decide initial settings and safely install the program on your computer or laptop. When finished, click the button Ready to exit the installer.

The program is now installed and ready for future use. Launch, for example, by double-clicking the program shortcut on the desktop, or another in a convenient way. When launched for the first time, the program will perform a basic scan of the system, search for all connected devices and display them in the central panel of the window.

For safe recovery information, double-click on the selected local disk or an entire physical disk and launch the File Recovery Wizard. In the window that opens, users will need to select the type of analysis that the wizard will need to use to search and restore files. There are two types of analysis available to choose from: Quick Scan And Full analysis. The first type of analysis will be able to recover files after the usual and irreversible deletion methods. Therefore it is necessary to choose Full analysis, which will fully utilize the capabilities of the program and will restore all possible information, regardless of the method of its loss.

Users will be able to monitor the analysis process in real time and control its execution in the File Recovery Wizard window using a status indicator. The final completion time directly depends on the size of the hard drive, the degree of damage to the data and the drive as a whole, the selected type of analysis and a number of other additional criteria, and can take from several minutes to several hours. Wait for the analysis to finish and click the button Ready.

All found files will be displayed in the program window. Using the function preview, users will be able to familiarize themselves with the contents of each specific file in the corresponding section. By selecting necessary files and placing them in the section Recovery list(by simply dragging and dropping the file) press the button Restore on the main panel of the program window.

The File Recovery Wizard will immediately prompt users to decide on the method of saving the selected files: saving to a hard drive or other storage device at the user’s request, writing data to optical disk, create virtual image ISO or download data via FTP protocol. Having selected one of the proposed options, users will need to specify several additional parameters, for example, select the name of the folder to save and set the path to it, and save the searched data.

Now user files are saved on the specified type of media and are available for viewing and subsequent use.

You can find a more detailed description of the features of recovering files from a hard drive with damaged sectors and ways to minimize the risk of losing information during the recovery process on our video channel in the guide: How to recover files from broken disk?.

Conclusion

Any information that users use on a daily basis requires secure and extensive data storage. And hard drives HDD fully comply with the stated criteria. They have the largest amount of disk space for recording and storing data, have high speed information processing and are quite reliable and durable. However, for various reasons, bad sectors may appear on hard drives, which can subsequently lead to the loss of all data stored on the drive.

But knowing the possible causes of damage, you can avoid their occurrence and extend the life of hard drives, as well as protect yourself from subsequent waste of effort and money aimed at restoring information or purchasing a new drive for storing data.

Use of additional data protection elements (for example, backup), and the use of professional file recovery software (for example, ), will significantly increase the level of data security and help you get it back in case of unexpected loss.

You are reading this article because your HDD is experiencing problems or you accidentally came across a title that interested you. In any of the two cases, it will be useful to know what checking a hard drive for bad sectors is and how to do it. As usual, let's start with terminology. A disk sector is a unit of information storage, the smallest possible. A damaged sector is one that is unreadable due to the fact that it contains a faulty cluster (cell). By the way, on the Internet you can also come across the terminology – bad sector or block. Speaking about bad sectors, we immediately note that there are two types: physical and logical, they arise for the following reasons.

Physical bad block – cannot be restored:

• moisture/dust ingress - led to clogging;
  contact of the HDD head with a moving pancake and, as a result, damage;
• With regards to SSDs, wear and/or overheating of the microcircuit, as well as moisture ingress may be the cause;
• Factory defects are also possible, especially among inexpensive and little-known manufacturers.

Logical bad sectors - can be fixed, since part of the hard drive does not work correctly:

• incorrect shutdown power supply/power cable while data is being written to the hard drive, so the operation cannot be completed and is interrupted;
• virus attack;
• malicious software.

So, when accessing them, the OS cannot read the information and displays an error code; as a result, Windows will report that the sector is damaged and cannot be further used for storage. The problem of logical bad sectors is solved by low-level formatting, using built-in Windows utilities and third-party software. Below are more details about each possibility.

Built-in tools

Examination HDD hard disk repair to bad sectors, as already mentioned, is carried out in a number of ways, let's start with the built-in tools of Windows 7.

CHKDSK

Before using check disk, let's use disk check - many have probably already used this service.

If the check indicates errors, it will immediately offer to correct them.

Now let's use a deeper check using the check disk command, which literally translates to disk check:

The chkdsk command has a number of parameters, such as:

• “/F” - check for errors and fix them automatically;
• “/V” - during disk scanning, display the full paths and names of files stored on the disk, also for disks with NTFS partitions;
• “/R” - searches for bad sectors and restores the contents, used with “/F”;
• "/X" - dismounts the volume before checking if necessary, used with "/F". As well as a number of other parameters.

Checking the flash drive for bad sectors is also carried out, let’s use the “/F” and “/R” keys:

Third party software

Today there is a lot of software that allows you to check your hard drive for the presence of bad sectors, but we will look at proven software. Check program external hard HDD disk to bad sectors, performed using the same means as regular disk. All instructions indicated are suitable for all types of memory, both stationary and connected via USB port.

Victoria HDD

The Victoria HDD program is one of, dare we say, legendary.

Designed to check the disk; shows complete information: model, functions, size and much more. It also performs a surface test to determine the presence/absence of bad sectors. Let's check the hard drive or SSD drive for bad sectors in Windows 7 with Victoria. First, you need to download the installation package from our resource, the fact is that it is not possible to download from the official website, since support is more limited this product is not implemented.

Use only proven resources; I would like to note that no installation is required and no additional components should also not be part of the archive. After successfully downloading the software, let's proceed to use.

Wait for the result and look at the performance indicators of the screw, so if “GOOD” is highlighted green, then there is no point in worrying about the operation of the device, but if “BAD” is indicated, then it is worth taking action, but more on that later.

In addition, pay attention to the “Health” column, translated from English as health, and in general, the number of dots and their color will say a lot. It is also worth paying attention to the “VAL” parameter - the higher the number, the better, then “Wrst” or “Worst” - displays the lowest attribute value for the entire time of operation. The “Tresh” parameter is a threshold value for “Val”, and one of the most important “Raw” - displays a quantitative indicator, as in the example indicated by field ID 5 “RAW” - Reallocated sector count indicates the number of rejected and reassigned from the reserve area disk sectors - in in this case 1. If the number were much higher, you would start to worry.

Let's go to the “Tests” tab → click “Start” → wait for the result.

HDDScan

Another program for checking bad sectors of an SD card and any media is HDDScan. You can download it from the official website.

No installation is required, and we open the executable file on behalf of the machine Administrator.

By the way, by clicking on the same button with the image of a screw → “Identity Info”, you can get the full identification information about the device.

Next about the tests, select “Butterfly Read”.

Here the data will be read into the internal buffer and transmitted through the interface, saving it in a temporary software buffer. Thus, the total indicators of data transfer time and block recording are measured, and readiness is determined after each write, according to the results. Testing is also sequential, from the minimum to the maximum block.

As for the two remaining tests, they work as follows:

• “Read” - measures the total indicators of disk readiness time and information transfer for each block with results. Testing is also sequential, from the minimum to the maximum block.
• “Erase” - here the total block record and information transfer time are measured, and displays the readiness for each record with the results. Testing is also sequential, from the minimum to the maximum block.

HDD REGENERATOR

Checking a disk for bad sectors in Windows 7 is also done using HDD REGENERATOR software. I would like to immediately note that it is paid and on English language. Free demo version available on the official website

Next, follow the screenshots step by step to install.

Let's start checking:

At the top of the window, click on the long active text “Click here to repair...”, in the program status bar we see information that this copy is not registered and that only 1 sector can be restored.

Next, if a window appears with important message, translated into Russian literally sounds like this: “The system has detected SATA controller, working in AHCI mode. For better performance it is recommended to change it to compatible mode IDE (in BIOS). Reboot your computer to manually change the controller settings in system BIOS?. It's up to you here.

In order to show the possibility of work, I will connect an external screw and click in the main window again on the active link with the text “Click here to repair...”, having already selected the connected screw:

In the results table we see the following indicators:

• “D” delays sectors – shows the sectors where the reading delay occurs or is completely erroneous.
• “B” bad - bad sectors.
• “R” is turquoise, recovered – restored.
• “N” new bad sectors appear – new bad sectors appear.
• “R” is burgundy color, bad sectors reappear - bad sectors that reappear during re-scanning.

By pressing the spacebar, we will exit to the main menu, and by pressing any key, we will exit this report.


Now let’s select scanning with the possibility of recovery, step by step in the screenshots.

Recovering bad sectors

So, the hard drive has been checked for bad sectors in Windows 7, and now it is necessary to restore the data. I’ll say right away that in general, complete recovery of bad sectors is possible from MS DOS with a bootable flash drive. But let us show how full version Victoria HDD can correct the situation.

As soon as the list of bad sectors is displayed, go to the “Tests” tab:

So we assigned the program an algorithm for forcing data to be written to the broken hard sector disk and several attempts will be made. As a result, either the bad sector will become healthy, or it will be replaced by a healthy reserve one, by the way modern models There are enough of them, but if the screw begins to crumble, it’s time to take action.

Long life to your HDD!

Have a great day!