Check your computer for bad sectors. Brief overview of the HDD hard drive device

Good morning everyone!

I think many users have encountered suspicious behavior hard drive: long copying/reading of files, brakes, loading up to 100%, clicking, inability to read any files, etc.

This behavior of the disk may indicate serious problems with it. In order to determine what is wrong with it, you have to resort to specialized service utilities.

In this article I want to highlight a few best utilities ah, who can view the S.M.A.R.T readings. (special hard drive self-monitoring technology), check the disk surface for the presence of bad blocks and try to restore its functionality (that is, try to reassign bad sectors for backup, more details about this at the link below).

What is a bad block, how to check a disk using the Victoria utility (in detail for beginners, with examples and screenshots), see this article -

6 best utilities for checking a disk for bad blocks

Victoria/Victoria

Developer's website: http://hdd-911.com/

One of the best utilities for checking and treating bad blocks on your hard drive. The program performs testing, diagnostics, and treatment of the disk at a low level. In addition to HDD, Victoria supports other types of media: FDD, CD/DVD, USB/Flash/SCSI, and also “sees” drives under Windows via API and ports.

Note: I described how to work with Victoria in one of my previous articles, the link to it is provided just above.

Main features:

1. support for IDE/SATA controllers;
2. ability to view S.M.A.R.T. disk;
3. the ability to control acoustic noise;
4. tests to check the mechanics and surface of the disc;
5. obtaining full technical disk information;
6. ability to work under Windows and DOS;
7. Supports work on laptops;
8. support for low-level HDD formatting;
9. Benchmark functions.

HDDScan

One of the best programs for checking hard drives for Windows. Allows you to quickly assess the condition of the hard drive, check the drive for bad sectors, view S.M.A.R.T. attributes.

In addition, the program allows you to manage power, adjust the acoustic mode, and monitor the temperature of the drive (data can be displayed on the taskbar).

Main features:

1. Support for SSD drives;
2. Support HDD with interfaces: ATA/SATA, SCSI, USB, FireWire or IEEE 1394;
3. Drive test in linear verification, linear reading and linear writing modes;
4. Reading and analysis identification information from hard drives with ATA/SATA/USB/FireWire/SCSI interface;
5. Changing the AAM, APM, PM parameters on drives with ATA/SATA/USB/FireWire interfaces (useful for those whose hard drive is very noisy during operation);
6. Works in all popular Windows OS: XP, 7, 8, 10.

HDTA2

HDAT2- system utility, necessary for diagnosing and “treating” hard drives. One of the main differences between this utility and “Victoria” (presented above) is its support for a much larger type of disk (note: supported interfaces: ATA/ATAPI/SATA, SSD, SCSI and USB).

HDAT2 can operate in 2 modes:

1. disk level: diagnostics and “treatment” of bad sectors on identified drives. By the way, in addition to diagnostics, you can get any information about the disk (which can only be obtained programmatically);
2. file level: search, read and check records in file FAT systems 12, 16, 32. Ability to check, delete and restore records of bad sectors and flags in the FAT table.

Important!

I recommend using HDAT2 from a boot disk or flash drive. The program will most likely not work correctly under Windows. On the developer's website, use the version "CD/DVD Boot ISO image"- it must be correctly written to a flash drive/disk, like any other bootable media. You can read about this in one of my articles: .

MHDD

Developer's website: http://mhddsoftware.com/

MHDD is a service utility for accurate diagnostics and repair of drives (HDD). The utility allows you to work with disks at a low level, through the ports of the IDE controller. The program has enough high speed scanning and “curing” the disk from “soft”-bad sectors.

Main functions:

1. accurate and very quick diagnostics hard state disk, optimal algorithm for fixing bad sectors;
2. the ability to adjust the noise from the drive (AAM);
3. viewing S.M.A.R.T. readings;
4. error logs;
5. the ability to delete all information on the disk without the possibility of restoring it;
6. an attempt to warm up the drive and test it under extreme conditions;
7. the ability to test several hard drives at once.

Macrorit Disk Scanner

Macrorit Disk Scanner is a good and working tool for checking your hard drive for bad sectors. By the way, I want to especially note that the utility scans the disk very quickly- 1.5-2 times faster than, say, the famous Victoria! True, it will not help “cure” the disk - it simply does not have the functionality that Victoria has.

You can scan either the entire disk or a specific range of sectors (useful for large disks when scanning may take too long).

The utility allows you to work with all popular types of drives: IDE, HDD, SSD, SCSI, FireWire, RAID, SD cards, etc.

Macrorit Disk Scanner main window

Generally, good alternative previous programs, especially when you need to quickly and easily find out the status of the disk.

Ashampoo HDD Control

Developer website: https://www.ashampoo.com/ru/rub/pin/0365/system-software/hdd-control-3

A multifunctional program for monitoring the status of all your drives in the system. Thanks to minute-by-minute monitoring of the status of your disks, the program will prevent the loss of information by warning you in time about any problems.

By the way, anyone who has used products from Ashampoo knows that their programs are designed so that any novice user can work with the program simply and easily. HDD Control is no exception to this rule; anyone who wants it can figure it out...

Main functions:

1. monitoring the status of drives online;
2. the ability to test the drive (several tests are available to get a “complete picture” of the drive’s condition);
3. notification of dangerous disk conditions leading to failure or possible loss of information;
4. possibility of disk defragmentation;
5. support for drives with interface: IDE, ATA, hard drives connected via USB and Firewire;
6. supports disks connected via RAID controllers;
7. View disk information: registration number, cache size, number of partitions, etc.;
8. It is possible to quickly clean the disk from junk files;
9. the ability to export data on the disk status and tests performed.

PS

No matter how good the readings are after testing and diagnosing the disk, do not forget to back up important documents and files. As they say, once a year the stick shoots...

It’s better to spend 5 extra minutes on backup than to waste days and weeks of work.

One of the biggest troubles for PC owners can be damaged sectors on the hard drive. Such sectors are called “broken,” and the hard disk itself with such damage is said to have begun to “crumble.”

The location of such damage directly determines the ability to turn on/off the computer. If the sectors where the operating system files are located fail, the PC will not turn on. If we're talking about about sectors where other files are located, then the user will have the opportunity to boot the machine. Depending on this feature, the method for eliminating bad sectors of the hard drive is selected.

What to do

With this type of damage, you need to open “My Computer” and select right click mouse the desired disk. Next, from the proposed options, select “Properties”, then “Service” and “Run check”. You need to check the box “Automatically correct system errors” and “Scan and repair bad sectors" By clicking "Start", the user launches hard check disk for damage. After this, you are instructed to restart the PC.

In the second case, you should have a disk with a virtual one at hand. operating system or Windows installation disc. To start the computer, you need to insert the disk into the drive and turn on the machine in normal mode. All further actions similar to the steps described in previous paragraph. When working with installation disk A menu will appear with the option to select the “Restore System” command. As a result, the hard drive will be checked for bad sectors, and any damage found will be repaired.

Special programs

You can also check and restore your hard drive using a program launched through the recovery console. The Recovery Console itself can be launched without a boot disk. To do this, press the F8 key and select Safe Mode, which supports the command line. After the console is loaded, the partition with Windows installed on it is selected. It is necessary to ensure that the partition matches the disk, after which the administrator password is entered. After the appropriate prompt appears in the line, enter the disk name, route and file name. Using the “Enter” key, the user starts the recovery process.

Thus, when checking the “C” partition of the hard drive, you need to launch the System Recovery Console and issue the command chkdsk c: /f /r. It’s easy to prevent such a nuisance in the future - to do this you need to acquire special programs eg MHDD. Such

In this article we will talk about bad sectors on the hard drive what they are and how to treat them. But first, let's find out where they come from?

Everyone knows that the hard drive consists clusters- these are miniature cells. Each of the clusters is a logical storage of information where files are constantly written. The totality of all clusters provides us with correct operation the entire computer.

Bad block or damaged sector- this is an unreadable sector of the disk that contains bad memory cells.

Such a hard drive is no longer suitable for working with the operating system, but you can try to use it as an external drive, like a “large-capacity flash drive.” If you use such a hard drive for data storage, it is advisable to cut off the place where the bad blocks are located using a program for working with hard drives. For example, Acronis DiskDirector.

Bad sector on the hard drive

Most common cause of bad sectors- this is the natural wear and tear of the drive, i.e. if the hard drive has been working for many years, then simply due to large quantity cycles of writing and reading to one sector or another, the hard drive begins to slowly but surely fail. As a rule, this is more than 10,000 hours of work. This increases the access time to the sector, i.e. for a new working cell it is about 10-15 ms, while indicators of more than 150 ms indicate severe wear of the drive. If one sector fails, then others will soon begin to fail, which means you should think about replacing the hard drive, or at least, copy the information you need.

We’ve figured out why bad sectors appear, now we’ll discuss how to identify them.

Victoria

Maybe you already know about the program Victoria is a program specially created for in-depth diagnostics of the hard drive. Victoria is available in 2 versions: with graphical shell and without it (DOS version).

Received Smart in the Victoria program

This is an already tested hard drive, and its main parameters are shown here, i.e. data SMART. During the surface test, you can get the response time to a request for each sector. The time is indicated from 5 milliseconds to 1.5 seconds and higher, the lower the better, the faster our hard drive reacts.

As for Smarta, you can navigate by the number of “”, the more of them, the better. Judging by the number" Hardware ECC recovered"It's time to change the hard drive.

• 1 Raw read error rate 100 253 6 0
• 3 Spin-up time 97 97 0 0
• 4 Number of spin-up times 94 94 20 6522
• 5 Reallocated sector count 100 100 36 0
• 7 Seek error rate 87 60 30 564751929
• 9 Power-on time 83 83 0 14937
• 10 Spin-up retries 100 100 97 0
• 12 Start/stop count 94 94 20 6273
• 187 Reported UNC error 1 1 0 103
• 189 High Fly writes 100 100 0 0
• 190 Airflow temperature 55 48 45 45°C/113°F
• 194 HDA Temperature 45 52 0 45°C/113°F
• 195 Hardware ECC recovered 80 64 0 100816244
• 197 Current pending sectors 100 100 0 0
• 198 Offline scan UNC sectors 100 100 0 0
• 199 Ultra DMA CRC errors 200 200 0 1
• 200 Write error rate 100 253 0 0
• 202 DAM errors count 100 253 0 0

Victoria can also do many other operations with HDD, up to closing sectors.

With this function, bad sectors can be closed, however, this will only slightly delay the failure.

Download Victoria program, You can on the website, it is free and does not require installation on your computer.

If, for some reason, you didn’t like Victoria, then there is always an alternative, and many others, such as: Active boot disk, HDD Regenerator, R-Studio etc.

Bad sectors are not healed, but closed, and their space on the disk will be assigned to workers.

Recovering HDD using Victoria

No matter how high-quality your hard drive is, sooner or later problems may arise with it. Incorrect deletion programs, viruses and malicious applications, wear and tear - all this can lead to breakdown of the hard drive and the appearance of so-called. The latter do not make themselves felt instantly; it will most likely take months before you notice the problem.

What are bad sectors?

For a clearer definition of a bad sector, it’s a good idea to understand the design of your hard drive. In general, it consists of rotating magnetic disks, which are divided into tracks, and these same tracks are in turn divided into sectors. They contain any information that you copy to your hard drive. Disk sectors have one unpleasant property - they deteriorate over time and you lose access to them. And this process is accelerated by incorrect work with the computer.

Computer freezes when trying to access any files, long copying from one partition to another, errors and PC reboots - all this can be a consequence of a large number of bad blocks on your “screw”. Some of them can be corrected, and some cannot be treated. Based on this feature and the nature of the damage, all bad sectors can be divided into two types: physical and logical.

• Physical bads are the result of damage (for example), dust getting inside the hard drive and normal wear and tear of the equipment. The main thing to understand is that in such cases, it can no longer be restored. It will even be a miracle normal recovery data from such sectors;
• Logical bads appear under the influence of viruses, file system errors, and incorrect entry information on disk (for example, sudden shutdown computer while copying files or other active work). In such cases, it is not the magnetic coating of the sector that is damaged, but its data. Such broken sectors can be treated and can be corrected using a variety of programs at home.

Programs for recovering bad sectors of a hard drive

Microsoft provides a built-in utility chkdsk for working with hard drives. By default, the utility only checks for errors file system, but if you add the key /f, That chkdsk will check the disk for bad blocks and try to fix them automatically. Of course, there are many alternative solutions from third-party manufacturers for checking the hard drive and fixing bad sectors, which can be easily found on the Internet. Let's talk a little more about the most popular of them:

• Victoria- probably the most popular program for testing hard drives and restoring damaged sectors on the hard drive. Can be used not only for treatment, but also for testing equipment. As the developers themselves note, when interacting with a hard drive, it ignores the file system and works at the level of I/O ports. This property ensures the most efficient and high-quality work. In addition, there are two versions of the program, one of which runs directly under Windows, and the other under DOS. The latter is more universal, but is also recommended for use by experienced users.
• MHDD- another popular program that works with equipment through controller ports. It also has two versions (Windows and DOS), both of which are completely free. It is distinguished by a very fast speed of work, which does not affect its quality in any way. In addition, it displays complete statistics on your device: the number of on and off cycles, the number of spindle revolutions, etc. One downside is the unfriendly interface of the program, which will become a problem for inexperienced users.
• HDD Regenerator – unique program, which, according to the developers, can even restore physical damage. The point is that often physically damaged sectors have incorrect magnetization, which this program eliminates. The rest of the set of characteristics and capabilities is similar to the above utilities.

In conclusion, I would like to note that the main danger of hard drive failure is not in the drives themselves, but in the information that is stored on them. For example, if your video card fails, you can simply replace it. If your hard drive fails, then all the materials that are often so important to us will disappear along with it. Therefore, even if you do not notice signs of poor hard drive performance, test it from time to time. After all, trouble is much easier to prevent than to fix.

A hard drive is a fairly fragile device. Bad sectors are damaged cells for storing information on a hard drive. After using the hard drive for some time, a problem with bad sectors may occur. This is why it is so important to repair bad sectors from time to time.

This is easily done using various programs, but first you need to determine whether there are bad sectors. Our article is about this, as well as how to restore the boot sector of a hard drive.

How to recover damaged disk sectors

There are many ways to restore broken boot sectors disk. Let's look at several of these methods in detail.

How to restore sectors via Windows

If it is possible to enter the OS, then restoring the hard drive will not require much effort. To do this, you need to call the context menu of the hard drive and select “Properties”.

In the new window that opens, select the “Service” tab, where we click on the “Run check” item. Check the boxes next to “Automatically correct system errors” and “check and repair bad sectors.” After this we run the check.

If the disk is a system disk, a reboot will occur and the verification process will begin. If the disk is not a system one, then the check will pass without reboot.

The system itself will find all errors and perform recovery. After which it will display statistics of the work done.

But sometimes it happens that the OS does not boot due to bad sectors.

How to recover bad sectors if the OS does not start

If Windows does not start, you can take a disk with virtual system and download the virtual OS. In it, all steps to restore a hard drive are performed in the same way as in the previous section.

If you don't have virtual disk with the OS, then the Windows installation disk will help. After downloading it, you need to select “System Restore”. The recovery console will appear, where you need to select the local disk with your OS. Usually this is the “C:” drive.

After the reboot, a console will appear where you need to enter the command “CHKDSK [drive:]”, where:

• /F - this is disk check and error correction,
• /R is a search for and recovery of bad sectors.

After this, press “Enter” and wait for the recovery to begin. Then we exit the console and restart the computer. All is ready.

How to restore sectors using programs

To restore bad sectors on a hard drive, there are many programs that can be easily downloaded from the Internet. Let's look at their operating principle using the HDD Regenerator program as an example.

The program restores bad sectors by remagnetizing them again. This is achieved by creating a virtual flash drive.

After installation, launch the program. In the window that opens, several options will appear in Russian. You can restore bad sectors both in the Operating System itself and using a flash drive or regular disk from the console.

The program will check bad sectors (broken) and restore them. For maximum effective use For programs, it is better to use a bootable USB flash drive or disk, which is created after installing the program.

In this article we will talk about recovering bad sectors of a hard drive and the reasons for their occurrence. Step-by-step instructions will help you prepare for this procedure and cope with it yourself.

What are bad sectors?

Let's take a quick look at the structure of the hard drive. It consists of several separate disks, above which there are magnetic heads designed for reading and writing information. When storing data, the heads magnetize certain areas of the disk, which is divided into tracks and smaller components - sectors. It is in them that units of information are stored. If a sector becomes unreadable, it is called “broken”.

Several signs indicate the occurrence of such a problem:

• creaks, rattles, tapping when the disk is operating;
• heating the HDD surface (in in good condition this should not happen);
• Frequent errors when working and starting the operating system.

Typical reasons

The main reasons for the appearance of broken hard drive segments are:

Also, malfunctions in the hard drive may occur due to mechanical damage. They are often caused by dropping a hard drive or computer, resulting in damage to the magnetic surface (for example, during transportation). Non-working parts also appear due to manufacturing defects. IN in this case they may not appear immediately, but “crumble” over time, quickly increasing their number to a critical level.

Important! If you suspect mechanical damage or defects, you should immediately contact specialists or exchange the hard drive under warranty.

Recovering bad HDD sectors using Victoria

If the appearance of broken segments is due to software glitches, then they can be restored using specialized software. One such program for recovering bad hdd sectors is Victoria. The utility is available in two versions - for Windows and DOS. Recovery via DOS will be the most effective, since when the OS is running, some sectors may be occupied and therefore unavailable for scanning.

Scanning

To get started, we will need to do a little preparation. First, you will need a disk with a program image recorded on it, or bootable flash drive. If everyone can cope with recording an image, then creating a flash drive may be difficult.

Let's take a closer look at this step:

Note! The program takes up very little space, so after installing it, the drive can be used to store other information. To avoid accidentally deleting files necessary for the utility to work, it is recommended to select a separate folder for them.

Let's start the scanning process:

Here we need a point "Reallocated sector count", which displays the number of fragments located in the reserve zone, as well as "Current pending sectors", where parts that cannot be read are displayed. If their number is not very high, then the disk can be restored.

Hard drive recovery

Let's figure out exactly how this process happens. Problem segments can be roughly divided into two types. The first ones are not readable due to a mismatch between the information stored in them and its checksums.

This error occurs during a power outage, when new data has already been written, and checksums remained old. They simply cease to be recognized and are restored quite easily - by formatting them and recording the correct amounts.

The second type occurs as a result of mechanical damage. In this case, recovery is more difficult, but still possible. Restoring the functionality of such parts is carried out through the use of reserve areas that are on each hard drive.

We begin to recover each of these types of errors.

Video: HDD - “healing” bad sectors

First, let's try to fix bad sectors by erasing the information stored in them:

• press F4 and get to the verification menu;
• in the menu for selecting operations with unreadable sectors, indicate “BB: Erase 256 sect” and press “Enter”.

A long process of scanning and repairing bad sectors of the HDD will begin. If the program finds a bad sector, it will try to erase it, thereby correcting the error. If there is a mechanical defect, an error will be reported. In any case, you must wait until the check is completed and then separately correct the sectors with physical defects.

For this:

Now the recovery operation will work on a different principle, trying not to erase bad sectors, but to replace them with space from the reserve area.

Important! If there are a lot of such sectors, then the reserve space may run out. This will be reported special message, and further recovery will become impossible.

After successfully recovering bad sectors on your hard drive, it is recommended to full check file system for errors.

This can be done using the CHKDSK utility or in the following way:

Attention! To ensure that the system not only finds, but also corrects problems, before starting the scan, select “Automatically fix system errors.”

One of the biggest troubles for PC owners can be damaged sectors on the hard drive. Such sectors are called “broken”, and the hard disk itself with such damage is said to be...

The computer hard drive is a very sensitive component. Errors that appear in its file system, bad sectors on the surface, and mechanical problems sometimes cause a complete failure of the computer system.

The same problems are typical for flash drives, which in essence are practically no different from a hard drive. How to determine the presence of errors and bad sectors and how to correct them if possible?

Just a little bit of theory

Many people simply confuse file system errors and bad sectors. Therefore, we will try to explain the difference between these phenomena and the reason for their occurrence. We will also determine what the symptoms of errors that appear on the surface of the hard drive may be.

File system errors

When they talk about hard drive errors and trying to fix them using the built-in Windows utilities chkdsk, then most often they mean file system errors. Such errors are associated with problems in the metadata that describe the file system itself: errors in the $Bitmap, $BadClus files, the main file table, and various indexes.

For example, errors in the $Bitmap file NTFS systems may cause the system to incorrectly recognize the volume free space volumes And problems with the $BadClus file can lead to incorrect identification of bad sectors and an attempt to write data to such sectors, which will cause the computer to completely freeze.

Bad sectors

The nature of bad sectors is somewhat different. The hard drive is “cut” into sectors at the factory during production. It is then that its logical structure is created, then it receives magnetic properties for recording data. These structures become faulty as a result of the gradual degradation of areas of the surface of the hard drive, which become so due to careless handling of the hard drive, which was accidentally dropped on the floor or was hit on the case even with an ordinary screwdriver.

Testing programs that fall on parts of a degrading surface detect so-called faulty or damaged sectors - bad sectors. Sectors that have lost their magnetic properties do not allow data to be read or written to them. It is possible to eliminate faulty hard drive structures. For this purpose, manufacturers create special reserve areas of sectors. When a bad sector appears, diagnosed at a specific address, its address is reassigned to a sector from this reserve area.

Symptoms of errors and bad sectors

We have already talked a little about the symptoms of file system errors above. However, the symptoms are sometimes very varied. Here are some manifestations of errors and bad sectors that have arisen in the hard drive.

• Noticeable freezing of the operating system when performing read and write operations.
• Failure to load the operating system. For example, downloading continues only until the download notification and Windows logo appear.
• Frequent occurrence of errors in the operating environment.
• Extremely slow and unproductive operating system.

Here is a far from complete list of error manifestations associated with file system problems and the presence of degrading areas of the hard drive. What to do in such cases?

Checking errors using Windows

Checking and correcting file system errors in Windows is carried out by a standard utility of this operating environment called chkdsk. It can also be useful in eliminating programmatically generated bad sectors as a result of viruses. It can be launched both in a graphical environment and from the command line. Let's consider the most affordable option its execution in a graphical environment.

Checking an inactive volume

Checking an inactive volume is the simplest. It can be done entirely in graphical mode. Under inactive volume we mean a partition on which the current one is not installed this moment operating system. This could be another connected hard drive or, for example, drive D.

Click the "Run check" button.

The utility is launched from the “Service” tab of the volume properties. This tab contains the “Run check” button. If you click it, the chkdsk utility window will open. To check bad sectors that appeared as a result software errors you need to check the box next to the corresponding option. Next, just click the “Run” button - the utility will check and correct errors.

The chkdsk utility checks volume D, also diagnosing bad sectors.

Checking the system volume

Checking and correcting errors on the system volume, where the operating environment valid at the time of checking is located, is carried out a little differently. The utility identifies such a volume as mounted, and therefore warns that it cannot perform the check, but offers to perform it during the next reboot.

The chkdsk utility reports that it cannot scan the disk.

After restarting the computer, the user will find that during boot, after the Windows logo appears, a black screen appears. This black screen is gradually filled with lines of text. This is the chkdsk utility running, checking system volume hard drive. After checking and making the necessary corrections, it will show the result, and then the operating system will continue loading.

The chkdsk utility checks volume C after a reboot.

Programs for checking hard drives for bad sectors

There are a number of applications on the software market that can test the surface of a hard drive. In this case, not just one volume is tested, but the entire surface of the hard drive. Of course, the user can independently set the boundary sectors and test individual areas. To identify bad sectors, a sector read test is usually performed.

Important: the results of the test for the presence of bad sectors must be considered in conjunction with SMART indicators, such as Reallocation Sector Count, Reallocation Event Count.

Data Lifeguard Diagnostic

This utility was created by the company's developers Western Digital. It is available for download on the company's official website. Lifeguard Diagnostic works great with hard drives from almost any manufacturer, and not just native WD hard drives, as one might think. It offers a number of tests: Quick, Advanced, as well as the ability to fill hard drive sectors with zeros.

Interface of the Data Lifeguard Diagnostic utility.

We are most interested in the extended test. This test allows you to detect bad sectors on the surface of disks. When the program finds a bad sector, it informs the user about it, asking him to choose whether he wants to fix the detected error. If it agrees, then the application writes to sector 0, so the sector data will be lost.

A selection of utility tests. We need Extended Test.

This test takes longer than the quick test. Testing time depends on the size of the drive, since the test is carried out across the entire surface, starting from sector 0 and ending maximum value L.B.A.

Extended Test utilities in operation.

HDDScan

The HDDScan application also seems to be an excellent hard drive surface tester. It can often be seen as part of whole software systems such as LiveCD. This application has GUI and offers a number of tests, among which, in our case, the most interesting is “Surface Tests”.

Select the Surface Test from the drop-down list.

Important: when conducting surface tests under Windows, you must close all running programs to avoid random results during the test caused by the action of these programs.

After selecting a test, an additional window will open, which presents the test parameters. Let's leave the “Read” option enabled, which will only allow us to read data from sectors. Thus, we will define sectors from which information cannot be considered as set time(bad sectors), stuck sectors and normal cells. We will leave the fields of the initial and final sectors unchanged if we want to check the entire surface.

Let's leave the Read test option enabled.

When testing with this program, a number of sectors are identified:

• bad sectors,
• stuck sectors, reading data from which takes more than 500 ms,
• sectors with reading time from 150 to 500 ms,
• sectors with reading time from 50 to 150 ms,
• sectors with reading time from 10 to 20 ms,
• HDDScan considers sectors whose data is read within 5 ms to be normal.

The program test result is available in the form line graph, maps of sector distribution, as well as in the form of a regular text report.

Checking the hard drive surface.

Ashampoo HDD Control

Unlike the programs discussed above, HDD Control is not free program. This application is a whole set of tools designed to restore the health of your hard drive. This program also offers the ability to test the surface of the hard drive.

Select the "Surface Test" option.

The test is very simple and accessible to the average HDD Control user. To start it, you just need to click the “Surface Testing” button. He is deprived additional options, which would allow you to customize the type of test. During testing, only two types of sectors are identified: with excellent result reading and bad sectors.

Victoria HDD

Victoria considers the health of the hard drive being tested to be "GOOD".

This application can collect information about the SMART health of your hard drive. It also allows you to test the disk surface, reassign damaged sectors using the Remap operation, and reset bad sectors. It also divides sectors into groups:

• bad sectors (Error),
• stuck sectors with a read time of more than 600 ms,
• freezing sectors with read times from 200 to 600 ms,
• sectors with reading time from 50 to 200 ms,
• sectors with reading time from 20 to 50 ms,
• Victoria diagnoses normal sectors within the framework of data reading up to 5 ms.

To produce hard testing disk, you can run this program graphically Windows mode. Next, you will need to select the “Tests” tab. This is where the surface tests are located. There are four options available for working with the hard surface:

• Ignore,
• Remap
• erase,
• Restore.

First of all, you can perform the Ignore test to determine whether there are bad sectors on the surface of the hard drive. If they are, then you need to start the Remap test. This test will allow you to reassign the addresses of damaged sectors to the reserved area, where normal sectors are located.

Types of available tests and sector categories. Victoria checks the surface.

If, after the Remap test, Victoria continues to diagnose bad sectors, then you can still try to restore their functionality by using the Restore test. The Erase option should be used wisely under Windows, as it writes zeros to sectors - erases sector data. It can only be used within a certain selection of sectors, the data of which is not related to the operating system.

Brief summary

It should be noted that there is a difference between the errors eliminated by the operating chkdsk utility Windows systems And bad sectors, eliminated by programs such as Victoria HDD. The former are caused by file system problems, and the latter are often the result of the loss of magnetic properties of sectors of the hard drive surface and its gradual degradation. However, chkdsk can also fix some problems with bad sectors.

To eliminate bad sectors, you can use such applications as: Data Lifeguard Diagnostic, Ashampoo HDD Control, HDDScan, Victoria. We highlight the Victoria HDD application as the best for checking and eliminating bad sectors, as it offers a number of tests: Ignore, Remap, Erase and Restore. It allows you not only to detect faulty hard surface structures, but also to treat the HDD.

Important things depend on the condition of the hard drive - the operation of the operating system and the safety of user files. Issues such as file system errors and bad blocks can lead to loss of personal information, failures to load the OS and complete failure of the drive.

Opportunity HDD recovery depends on the type of bad blocks. Physical damage cannot be repaired, while logical errors must be corrected. To do this, you will need a special program that works with bad sectors.

Before running the healing utility, it is necessary to carry out diagnostics. It will allow you to find out if there are problem areas and whether you need to work on them. We have already written in more detail about what bad sectors are, where they come from, and what program scans the hard drive for their presence in another article:

You can use scanners for built-in and external HDD, as well as a flash drive.

If, after checking, the presence of errors and bad sectors is discovered, and you want to eliminate them, then special software will again come to the rescue.

Method 1: Using third-party programs

Often users decide to resort to using programs that would handle errors and bad blocks at the logical level. We have already compiled a selection of such utilities, and you can familiarize yourself with them using the link below. There you will also find a link to a lesson on disk recovery.

Choosing a program for HDD treatment, approach this wisely: if used inappropriately, you can not only damage the device, but also lose important data stored on it.

Method 2: Using the built-in utility

An alternative way to troubleshoot errors is to use the built-in Windows programs chkdsk. It can scan all drives connected to the computer and fix any problems found. If you are going to fix the partition where the OS is installed, then chkdsk will start working only the next time you start the computer, or after a manual reboot.

To work with the program it is best to use command line.

Please note that none of the programs can fix bad sectors on physical level, even if this is stated by the manufacturer. None software unable to restore the disk surface. Therefore, in the case of physical damage needs to be replaced as soon as possible old HDD to a new one before it stops functioning.

One of the biggest troubles for PC owners can be damaged sectors on the hard drive. Such sectors are called “broken,” and the hard disk itself with such damage is said to have begun to “crumble.”

The location of such damage directly determines the ability to turn on/off the computer. If the sectors where the operating system files are located fail, the PC will not turn on. If we are talking about sectors where other files are located, then the user will have the opportunity to boot the machine. Depending on this feature, the method of removing the hard drive is selected.

What to do

With this type of damage, you need to open “My Computer” and right-click required disk. Next, from the proposed options, select “Properties”, then “Service” and “Run check”. You need to check the box “Automatically correct system errors” and “Scan and repair bad sectors”. By clicking “Start”, the user starts checking the hard drive for damage. After this, you are instructed to restart the PC.

In the second case, you should have a disk with a virtual operating system or a Windows installation disk at hand. To start the computer, you need to insert the disk into the drive and turn on the machine in normal mode. All further actions are similar to those described in the previous paragraph. When working with the installation disk, a menu will appear with the option to select the “Restore System” command. As a result, the hard drive will be checked for bad sectors, and any damage found will be repaired.

Special programs

You can also check and restore your hard drive using a program launched through the recovery console. The Recovery Console itself can be launched without a boot disk. To do this, press the F8 key and select safe mode, which supports command line. After the console is loaded, the partition with Windows installed on it is selected. It is necessary to ensure that the partition matches the disk after this administrator. After the appropriate prompt appears in the line, enter the disk name, route and file name. Using the “Enter” key, the user starts the recovery process.

Thus, when checking the “C” partition of the hard drive, you need to launch the System Recovery Console and issue the command chkdsk c: /f /r. It’s easy to prevent such a nuisance in the future - for this you need to acquire special programs, for example, MHDD. Such