WD Caviar Blue EIDE HD WD3200AAJB-00J3A0 with "Bad Sectors"

WD Internal Drives Desktop & Mobile Drives
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Problem: DLGDIAG found in extended test of my hd that there are “bad” sectors, which could be repaired. But, if I continued, any data on those sectors would be lost.

Referrring to another thread on this HD, I wish to state it is recognized as 320 GB.)
Question: In case I first run Windows XP (SP3)'s “Check Disk” (CHKDSK) application, which would repair and transfer data from “bad sectors”, can I be safe that no data have remained there? And, how can I verify this? This is my main HD, Windows and all programs run from there, any backup will not help me to keep my pc running in case any exsistencial data are lost.
Please urgently inform me.

Thankx in advance

wire9

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On chkdsk, data on bad sectors will not be erased. This is precisely the reason as to why chkdsk does such a poor job at fixing bad sectors.

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you’ll have to back up your data, then do the extended test with dlg diag, and hope for the best.  I wouldn’t trust chk disk either, but you may be stuck.  or google software that might work better at moving data off bad sectors.  still and all, you may not be able to recover that data.  so, you might as well run the extended test on dlg diag and hope for the best.  it will block bad sectors.

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Thanks all for your warnings: Is there any tool that shows me IF there are data on those bad sectors?

I’d like to know then.

Bye

Wire9

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I wouldn’t know of any.  sorry.

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Just for others having the same trouble: Heard of “SpinRite”, Shall try it out, as they say the software finds data on bad sectors and recovers it to some “safe” places on the HD b4 repairing the bad sectors.

If it does, that wold be nice. Maybe there are no data on those sectors anyway? Hope that applicatin will show and ask me before doing the job.

As alternative, there might be the solution under http://www.powerdatarecovery.com/.

This is actually, what I used. The software ifentified some 45,000 files on “bad sectors”, and recovered them to my external harddrive: about 50 GB of files. I do not know if my PC, or better, Windows (XPhome 32bit SP3) “finds” later, where those recovered data belong to, when I try and do the detailed scan of my damaged HD with WD’s “Data Lifeguard Diagnostic”, and have the bad sectors “repaired”, as the data on the bad sector will be deleted. You see: I have backed them all up, but how do I assign them to the place in the various softwares where they belong?

Bye

wire9

Well, I meanwhile dared to click on that button “repair” after a new diag. However, I only got an error message saying:

Test Option: EXTENDED TEST
Model Number: WDC WD3200AAJB-00J3A0
Unit Serial Number: WD-WC[…]

Firmware Number: 01.03E01
Capacity: 320.07 GB
SMART Status: PASS
Test Result: FAIL
Test Error Code: 08-Error was detected while repairing bad sectors.
Test Time: 21:58:45, January 07, 2012

So please can anyone tell me what does this signify: “Test Error Code: 08-Error was detected while repairing bad sectors.” ? Does this mean there is a physical damage which cannot be repaired?

And, is there any update of the  DLGDIAG, and of the firmware for the HD which could be helpful?

The answer to this might play a decisive role in my consiferations of buying a new PC: Just to install the complete system on a new HD without any more improvement appears to me as “not efficient”.

But as you see, the machine is still running. ;-(

Bye

wire9

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No one will answer my questions anymore?

Again:

I meanwhile dared to click on that button “repair” after a new diag. However, I only got an error message saying:

Test Option: EXTENDED TEST
Model Number: WDC WD3200AAJB-00J3A0
Unit Serial Number: WD-[Deleted]
Firmware Number: 01.03E01
Capacity: 320.07 GB
SMART Status: PASS
Test Result: FAIL
Test Error Code: 08-Error was detected while repairing bad sectors.
Test Time: 21:58:45, January 07, 2012

So please can anyone tell me what does this signify: “Test Error Code: 08-Error was detected while repairing bad sectors.” ? Does this mean there is a physical damage which cannot be repaired?

And, is there any update of the  DLGDIAG, and of the firmware for the HD which could be helpful?

The answer to this might play a decisive role in my consiferations of buying a new PC: Just to install the complete system on a new HD without any more improvement appears to me as “not efficient”.

Bye

Wire1

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Ok, I think this is a clear warning, mate backup a replace you are almost without a hard drive…

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OK, how to do this correctly? Last time I tried such a thing I used “Clone HD”, but when I tried to restart my machine, it stopped at “Welcome”, and none of the programs could be started, no log in or so. I had to reset the whole thing again, took me weeks, and I am still facing troubles which came from that time: Windows Updates coming up again and again uselessly, .net framework and Visual C++ runtime, no solution in sight… :frowning: