| What are bad sectors | | | | unusable, crashing left and right and preventing you |
| Heard of bad sectors? Or course you have. It’s | | | | from accessing and backing up your data. |
| commonly referenced as one of the causes of | | | | If there is any critical data on the hard drive, you need |
| computer slowdown, or hard disk crash. | | | | to quickly transfer the data onto another hard disk (or |
| And rightfully so. A bad sector is a permanent damage | | | | any other media) before the disk crashes (GASP) on |
| to the hard disk platter, which by the way, is where | | | | you, taking your data along with it. However, you need |
| your data is stored. If any data is written to the bad | | | | to check if you suffer only from bad sectors and not |
| sector, that piece of data cannot be accessed | | | | physical failures (signs which include clicking, grinding, |
| anymore. | | | | scraping sounds). |
| Causes of bad sectors | | | | Get an external drive to backup the data to. However |
| Since bad sectors are a physical anomaly of the hard | | | | you need to get a hard drive which is at least the |
| drive, the causes are also of physical nature. | | | | same capacity as the old drive. I recommend however |
| Hard drives, by default, have bad sectors already | | | | that you get a drive of a bigger capacity just in case. |
| fresh out of the box. Although hard disk manufacturers | | | | Step 1 |
| can eliminate the bad sectors totally, the procedures | | | | First you need to install the hard disk as a secondary |
| and the resources consumed will make it impossible to | | | | drive. Remove it from your computer and install it into |
| market hard disks at its current low price. | | | | another computer. If you are using and IDE drive, you |
| Physical shocks to the computer (dropping of laptop, | | | | need to set the drive as a secondary drive. If you are |
| kicking, etc.) can affect the hard disk. When this | | | | using a SATA drive, adjust in BIOS accordingly. |
| happens, there is a possibility that damages to the | | | | Method 1: Copy Files |
| platter of the hard disk can occur, which causes bad | | | | As there we are copying from a hard disk with bad |
| sectors to form. This kind of damage can literally | | | | sectors, normal copy and paste will not do since if the |
| cause a head crash when the hard drive is in | | | | data is being copied from a bad sector, the copy |
| operation. | | | | process will get interrupted/hang/freeze and fail. Again, |
| Heat, resulting from extensive use, bad ventilation or | | | | we are going to use another freeware from ADRC. |
| poor housekeeping of your computer system, can also | | | | ADRC Data Recovery Tools |
| cause bad sectors to occur. This is due to the fact | | | | Download, unzip and run the application. |
| that hard disks work on the principles of magnetism. | | | | Under the tools menu, select “copy files”. Select |
| Or, the bad sectors could simply form over time, as | | | | the source location (the disk with bad sectors) and the |
| hard disks lose their magnetic properties. This is a | | | | target location (the backup disk) and press “start |
| “natural” degradation of the hard disk and users | | | | copy”. |
| should be aware of this, and replace their hard disks | | | | Why are do we need the software though? |
| once it has been in use over a period of time. | | | | What’s the difference? Isn’t it the same as |
| Superparamagnetic limit | | | | copying like in click-and-drag? |
| Over time, manufacturers will try to fit as much data | | | | No. For one, the software has and inbuilt function |
| on one platter as they can, increasing the data density | | | | where even if parts of a file is corrupted due to bad |
| on the hard disk platter. | | | | sectors, it will search the neighbouring sectors to |
| The superparamagnetic limit in hard drives is a limit set | | | | determine the extent of the bad sector blocks, and |
| on the storage density of hard disks due to the particle | | | | automatically calculate how many retries are needed |
| size of the magnetic elements on the platters. With the | | | | and reduce the number of retries over the bad sector |
| increasing density of data on the platter, the tolerance | | | | blocks. |
| for failure is decreased. | | | | Once it does, it will then recovery every readable bits |
| Looking out for bad sectors | | | | of a file and put them together to salvage your data, |
| Even though bad sectors are a physical anomaly in | | | | thus at the very least some parts of the file is |
| hard disk, this does not mean that you can actually | | | | recovered. This is still much better than having |
| physically see it. Instead, there are a few applications | | | | everything gone. |
| (or sometimes, signs) that can enable you to detect | | | | The application also has an option, “Copy Sub |
| bad sectors. | | | | Folders” where it scans through the entire directory |
| There is a system on most computers, called the Self | | | | and tries to copy everything you need. |
| Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology (or | | | | “Copy files” is works well when you want to |
| S.M.A.R.T.) is a technology that enables a computer | | | | only copy certain files and folders and not the whole |
| system to predict the future failure of storage device, | | | | drive. If you want to copy the whole disk, you need to |
| in theory anyways. | | | | utilise another function, “raw copy”. |
| This feature is supported in Windows version 95 | | | | Method 2: Ghosting |
| onwards, and can be accessed through BIOS, as by | | | | If you want to copy the whole disk to a new one and |
| default, it is disabled. | | | | do not want to reinstall the operating system. |
| One other option is to use Window’s resident | | | | Still using the same ADRC data recovery tools, select |
| checking application, chkdsk. This application can do | | | | “raw copy” under tools. Then simply select the |
| both quick and full surface scans. | | | | source disk (the disk you want to backup) and the |
| Of course there are other good external applications | | | | target disk (the disk you want to backup to) |
| such as ADRC’s very own hard disk checker. It is | | | | Then simply click transfer and wait for the operation to |
| free, and requires no installation. | | | | finish. |
| Also, some hard disk manufacturers have their own | | | | Results! |
| hard disk utility programs, where their application will | | | | If you are lucky, you will have recovered backed up |
| scan the hard disk for any problems. The companies | | | | almost everything in the drive. However, if you wait too |
| that have these applications are Maxtor, Seagate and | | | | long to backup the data on a badly infected (with bad |
| Western Digital. | | | | sectors) disk, some data may get corrupted and |
| Backing up drives with bad sectors | | | | inaccessible. |
| Bad sectors can cause your computer to be almost | | | | |