How to clear 984 bad sectors ina 1.5 tb external hard disk

[jraju]

Hi,
I had the chance to download the free version from Give away of the day site to download harddisk sentinel.
When it opens, i had a red alert of 984 bad sectors in my 1.5 tb external hard drive. The drive is usable normally, but i got this alert.
when i look in to SMART tab, i did find a yellow warning on reallocated ..
Would not the hard disk itself would move the bad sectors in to some place in the total space.
how to locate those bad sectors.
if i resort to chkdsk , then i have to wait a wahole day, or more to scan
What should i do in this case.
i tried your solution to change the 0000000 to -8, but the scan result does not change from yellow exclamation.
is there any way out experts
please share

[jraju]

Hi, i had not received a reply
J just tried chkdsk /f G: in my G drive , which is the external hdd
the results are given
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Clink v0.4.9 [git:2fd2c2] Copyright (c) 2012-2016 Martin Ridgers
http://mridgers.github.io/clink


C:\Windows\system32>chkdsk /f g:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is New Volume.

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)...
102400 file records processed.
File verification completed.
14 large file records processed.
0 bad file records processed.
0 EA records processed.
0 reparse records processed.
CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)...
116046 index entries processed.
Index verification completed.
0 unindexed files scanned.
0 unindexed files recovered.
CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)...
102400 file SDs/SIDs processed.
Security descriptor verification completed.
6824 data files processed.
CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
35637488 USN bytes processed.
Usn Journal verification completed.
Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.

1465136127 KB total disk space.
727044136 KB in 95330 files.
32308 KB in 6825 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
247915 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
737811768 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
366284031 total allocation units on disk.
184452942 allocation units available on disk.

C:\Windows\system32>
My chkdsk shows no bad sectors, but sentinel software gives 984 bad sectors,
experts give solution

[hdsentinel]

Hi,

> when i look in to SMART tab, i did find a yellow warning on reallocated ..
> Would not the hard disk itself would move the bad sectors in to some place in the total space.

The hard disk itself moved the data to the spare area and then all further reads/writes re-directed to this spare area.
Ideally, then you'd NOT see any problems. This is the purpose of the spare area and "bad sectors": to prevent the use of the original sectors and then the disk should seem "perfect".

> how to locate those bad sectors.

There is no need to locate those bad sectors. Those are no longer used, those never cause any more problems as all reads/writes of the original bad sectors are automatically redirected to the spare area instead.

Before posting similar, I'd recommend to check numerous topics which cover this exactly:

https://www.hdsentinel.com/faq.php#health
https://www.hdsentinel.com/faq.php#tests
https://www.hdsentinel.com/faq_repair_h ... _drive.php

(or if you click on the "?" next to text description, you can immediately read about "bad sectors" in the Help)

> if i resort to chkdsk , then i have to wait a wahole day, or more to scan

It is described numerous times WHY
- chkdsk *never* finds and repairs problems with the disk drive (even if sounds surprising) but checks only the partition.
So it can show perfect status on almost failing drive (and even vice versa).

If you'd search this forum, you'd find lots of topics:

https://www.hdsentinel.com/forum/viewto ... 974#p15974
https://www.hdsentinel.com/forum/viewto ... 12&p=16085
https://www.hdsentinel.com/forum/viewto ... 67&p=16375

and there may be others .....


>What should i do in this case.

Please check the suggested page in Support -> Frequently Asked Questions -> How to repair hard disk drive? How to eliminate displayed hard disk problems?

https://www.hdsentinel.com/faq_repair_h ... _drive.php

As you can see, it does not recommend chkdsk at all, but recommends real, proper disk testing which is sensitive enough for problems and can reveal and stabilize the issues - before attempting to clear the error counters.

> i tried your solution to change the 0000000 to -8, but the scan result does not change from yellow exclamation.

Changing 0000000 to -8 does not have any effect of course.

To clear the error counters, please (on the S.M.A.R.T. page of the disk drive)

Locate the attribute(s) where you see the yellow exclamation mark. If I'm correct, this is the "5 Reallocated sectors count".
If you select that, you can see the actual number of problems (eg. 984 in this case) on the bottom graph, below the list.
Click on the 0 between the + and - in the Offset column. After the small confirmation dialog, specify -984
(number of errors with negative sign) in the small window.


Soon the health would improve and the problems will disappear from the text description.

Please note that you may need to do similarly (just with other value) for other attribute(s), for example 196 Reallocation Event Count too.
I do not see the real value there, but if you use Report menu -> Send test report to developer option, I can check the proper numbers and assist step-by-step about how the restore the health to 100%, how to clear the bad sectors, how to prevent them from displaying - and this way how to focus on possible new problems, degradations (if there will be).

[jraju]

Hi, Thank you very much for the detailed reply.
please kindly confirm,
can i go on with the first solution at 5
If there is nothing shown in 196, can i do the first thing.
This is the concern, i am having
There is no 196
Or shall i wait for it to show, and then do.
please quick reply please,

[jraju]

Hi, I wish to inform further that i have given the exact error bad sectors in the 0 code as suggested by you and now , my external hard drive shows full health 100 percent from 11 percent previously. Thanks for the exact solution.
But there is no 196 item shown in, as advised by your solution. So, i sent the report via, text to developer and which was successfully created and sent .
May i wait for your advice further.
Now, there is no problem shown and the resultant result is given in the attached
https://ibb.co/VNgpWZ3

[hdsentinel]

Thanks, good to hear it was successful.

Most drives have attribute #196 also which may need similar correction.
But it is not always present, yes, I see that your drive has no such attribute. It is not problem of course: in this case things were simpler.