Best software to scan for bad sectors

[chisss]

Hello,

What is the best software to scan and repair hard drive errors?

Thanks.

[philcruicks]

command prompt does it just fine...most other just put a GUI over the top to make it more user friendly.

just open cmd (might need to run as administrator if on vista or 7)

type: chkdsk c: /r then hit enter

c being the drive letter to scan

/r makes it run a full 5 part check and repairs errors if it can.

Note. to check your OS drive the computer will need to restart, just answer y to the questions cmd gives and then restart your pc.

Phil.

[deadite66]

spinrite

[Fraud OS 11]

Hello,

What is the best software to scan and repair hard drive errors?

Thanks.

As long as there are no physical bad sectors, HDD Regenerator takes the cake. It "repairs" bad sectors using magnetic reversal. Had worked brilliantly on one of my old HDDs. It claims a 60% bad sector repair rate for HDDs.

[chisss]

Yah I used chkdsk but the drive is in bad shape... i just want to try to recover some data or at least have some sort of access to it. i can see the drive letter but when I click on it, it asks to format the drive. I think if I can get it to do a scan and fix sectors I should be able to see something.

chkdsk is finding errors and trying to correct them, it's just taking a long time. it's not an issue with the drive itself as it has another partition and that's working fine. I don't hear any clicking noises or anything. it's just an f'ed up partition.

Thanks all for the suggestions. i'll give them a try

[philcruicks]

ah ok sorry, to recover data i've used Active@ before seemed to work ok, but it always depends on exactly whats wrong with the partition.

[agreenbhm]

Use the drive manufacturers provided diagnostic disk (usually downloadable on their website). Usually you can scan for and repair damaged sectors.

[chisss]

So far I am running HDD Regen and seems to be working good... it's slow (probably because of how messed up the partition is) but it's finding and recovering all sectors so far... fingers crossed!

if anything I'll give Active@ a try. Thanks!

[+Warwagon MVC]

spinrite

Agree'd, should be your first and only choice.

I've tried Hardware Regenerateor, but it never seems like it does a very graceful job.

[SyntaxError]

Yeah if you want to wait all week for results.

Or has it been improved? Nevermind, I have 6.0 and it's slow as hell.

[Raa]

Still takes a long time. To check and flag them - use chkdsk. To attempt to rebuild them, spinrite.

TBH, if you have bad sectors, - warranty the drive, or replace it. Any drive with bad sectors is going to get more on it, and I hate non-reliable drives ;)

[MeddleMan]

Thats true, bad sectors are like cancers. The longer you leave them, the bigger they become. But think of this problem as positive. At least you now have good reason to go out and get that 1 TB hard drive you;ve always wanted. (Although I would still be pi**ed if I had to throw away an otherwise perfectly working HDD for almost no reason :pinch:

[Raa]

Too bad if it was a problem on my current 1TB drives then huh? Lucky i've got a pair of 2TBs sitting here ready to go in. Also lucky I don't have bad sectors... lol

Love WD RE's :D

[chisss]

Yeah I stopped hdd regen an started spinrite. It's taking forever! Lol. It's only a 250GB drive.

I'll keep I guys posted.

[+Warwagon MVC]

Yeah I stopped hdd regen an started spinrite. It's taking forever! Lol. It's only a 250GB drive.

I'll keep I guys posted.

forever as in the time it takes to scan or to fix an sector?

[chisss]

Hahaha you know what did it? TechTool Pro on my mac. Woohoo! I got everything back in no time (figuratively speaking). I can access the users folder tho I stopped Techtool after a little scan to see if it picked up on anything.

There are still some errors but TTP is working on them right now.

[deadite66]

Yeah I stopped hdd regen an started spinrite. It's taking forever!

depends on if you want it done quickly or you want it done right. :)

[Draconian Guppy]

spinrite FTW, it fixed 8 bad clusters in my OEM hd, took around 2 days :s But never had a problem afterwards :) Just be patient like deadlite66 says, get it done right :)

[chisss]

Yeah no. I had over 1000 bad clusters. If it took you 2 days to recover 8 clusters it will take me a lifetime to recover mine. Lol. Needless to say the hard drive will be disposed. Lol

[Draconian Guppy]

Chiss, but it's well worth it :) and not... It as 1tb disc so...