Bad sectors on disk

You should check your system or motherboard manual to be sure, but unless it is an unusual motherboard, any IDE/ATA hard drive will work in it. And your system appears to be recent enough so that size is not a limiting factor. (In some older systems there was a limit on HD size that required a special software overlay in order to use all the space on a large drive.) Look in the Sunday supplements for adds for Staples, Office Depot, CompUSA, and other such companies and you will find good deals on HD's.

I would suggest that you arrange for an experienced computer nerd help you with imaging the drive and installing the new HD. Good luck!

 

Hi Shortgal,

I looked up your drive:

http://www.beachaudio.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=9100&GCID=C12585x005&GTKW=wd1200bb

MODEL- WD1200BB VENDOR- WESTERN DIGITAL CORP
Interface: Ultra ATA/100

That's a standard interface for internal drives, and not MOBO specific. All the major MFG's make them in various sizes. You don't have to be a "nerd" as someone put it to take out the old and insert the new one. If your not comfortable in openning your case, then certainly ask someone to help you.

Forgot to add that however this is done, the whole process would be much easier if the current drive could be placed in the secondary "slot" as a non-booting drive, if your system has the capacity for a second internal drive, temporarily or permenantly (until it dies). That way you'd have access to your user data - transfer to the new drive, and as secondary storage for as long as the old drive functions.

The other option, if the system doesn't have a second internal slot, is to put the old drive into a external drive cage and connect to the system via USB.

http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=38548 My thread on external drive cages.

Matt or one of the other "nerds" on this BBS will I'm sure have more to add

Regards - Charles

 

shortgal10

32kb = 0.03% of 120Gb. There's nothing wrong with that disk. Just stop running scandisk or defrag. Modern HDDs have seek times under a fraction of a thousandth of a second, so fragmentation will not slow you down enough for you to feel it. The bad sector is not being used. The message you're worried about is informative only. There's also no reason or need to run any 3rd party program such as "mechanic ". so stop it.

Stop worrying and have fun.

 

Hi Sparrow,

There's nothing wrong with that disk.
The consensus among the hardware people is that there is a potential problem here.

You're right in the sense that one could keep operating untill the drive drops dead, could be soon or not for a long time. As long is there are procedures in place for backing up, just continueing makes sense as well. Someone advised keeping an eye on whether the bad sectors grow, good advice, that'll be the warning if does.

I personally wouldn't operate w/o two HD's which is why I went into my "riff ".

Regards - Charles

 

Hi Charles

We agree. All magnetic media are subject to failure eventually, and failure may occur slowly or catastrophically, irrespective of the file system (NTFS or FAT for WINDOWS). The best protection is multiple partitioning to reasonable sizes, especially for the operating system (certainly NOT one 120Gb), separation of programs and data, and backup, preferably by imaging of the individual partitions, storing the backup files on optical media. IMO, there's no reason for concern if that is done regularly.

That is the advice I give when asked. I know some folks that are obsessive about minor faults in the hardware or software, and that takes away much of the fun of computers.

 

Everything said here is good (correct in my opinion). It is just the various ways of dealing with it that differs.

You could get a new HDD, but there is nothing to say that that is a guarantee of "safety ", that drive could fail the day after you load it (the MBR could get corrupted and all data is lost, the electronics fail, etc, etc).

I personally, would invest the money and time in having a secure backup system (I don't care in the least that my drive keeps developing bad sectors, I know I can restore my system to any harddrive no matter how many of them "blow up "). I think you will find this is the way IT people view keeping their systems safe.

My advise (and this is not to detract from anything the others have said), DO NOT worry about the bad sectors, DO worry about the backup system (and if you only have a "single" backup method, don't expect that it will work when you most need it...I have two or three backup systems). Think to yourself "What if I went to start the computer tomorrow and the harddrive had vapourized during the night, what will I do?"

If you get another harddrive, that is one of the best ways of backing up. I would mirror everything to the new drive (the harddrive setup utilities can do this), but I would keep the new drive as a backup and keep using the suspect old drive. You could create a folder on the new drive for backing up new data. Any dramas, unhook the old drive, hook up the new, update your files and you're "rocking ". Testing the "backup" is merely a matter of hooking up and booting to the new drive.

Sparrow (Mike) and I use optical storage as backup. We can restore our systems, but do not need another drive unless it is necessary. Not as efficient as using a second drive, but just as effective.

Matt

 

Lordy, I am so confused now.

I think I will buy one of those outside storeage things, but what are they called? Omega drives? then I just hook it up to my USB and transfer my files to it?
the program that comes with xp in the system tools, that says "backup" is that how you do it?


how do I know what size of external thingy to get?


I am sorry but I am not very smart at computer stuff that I haven't tried yet.

 

Hi Shortgal,

They're called USB Drives, and the sizes vary, and they come with backup software - usually touted as "backup with the push of a button ".

XP's backup can be used also - You tell it what files/folders to backup and then you disignate the output device.

Regards - Charles

EDIT: Forgot to ask, don't you have a cd burner? How do you back up now?

 

Hi Shortgal,

As I suggested earlier, do yourself a favor and arrange for some on-site help with this problem. Based on your apparent experience level, it will take more than a bunch of different people giving you different ideas on this forum to get you through this crisis. The people on this forum are well meaning and most know what they are talking about, but you will be spinning your wheels, so to speak, if you continue trying to solve this issue by remote, time-delayed assistance.

If you have a friend or co-worker who is computer savvy, buy them dinner and invite them over for a consultation and assistance with a backup scheme, and possibly help swapping out your HD.

 

Hi Larry,

Have come to the same conclusion.

Until someone actually tries to do something, all we can do is throw out ideas.

Right now, the most critical issue is whether or not there is a current backup procedure, which is why I asked about a cd/dvd burner. This is critical whether there is a suspected drive problem or not.

Regards - Charles

 

Yes, indeed! Like I told her, I think her best bet is to get some on-site help. I'm basing that recommendation on her apparent level of computer experience/understanding. She needs to consult with someone face-to-face who will help her understand the options for backing up her files/drive and to help her implement a simple procedure she can use daily or at least weekly to ensure the survival of her data.

People on this forum are trying very hard to help and to give her good ideas on how to resolve this issue, but I sense that she is not able to assimilate and translate the information into something practical that she can implement herself. I could be wrong, but that's my take on it.

I occasionally help local computer users who are at a similar level and in person I try to walk them through every step of a process that they want to implement. That includes helping them install and configure hardware and software, and describing and explaining in some detail, the steps in the process they will be performing

Remote technical support is a very difficult thing to do successfully and I have a great deal of respect for those tech's who have the knowledge, patience and ability to help people solve problems at the other end of a phone line or a keyboard not really knowing their level of expertise. Unfortunately, in some cases there is no satisfactory substitute for real-time, face-to-face communication and interaction when providing techincal assistance. IMHO, this is one such case.