surface test results

How, what, where and why - when using the software.
zakhail
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Joined: 2011.12.10. 22:07

surface test results

Post by zakhail »

hi , i just want to know when does surface test will make affects on bad sectors if it finds one , will it repair it stright away or will repair it at the end of test ?
and one thing more i want to know is , is it normal to appear bad or damaged blocks on surface test while it repairs? or in progress of repairing ?
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hdsentinel
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Re: surface test results

Post by hdsentinel »

It depends on the type of the surface test.
If you use a read test, it only detects the problems but does not repair them while the write tests (especially the Reinitialise Disk Surface test) repairs them if it is possible.

Please note that repairing the bad sector means re-allocation of the sector: to force the drive to use a spare area instead of the original bad sector.

It means that the number of bad sectors appearing in the text description will not decrease after the test, but if the test completes without problems, you can clear these problems by acknowledging that all bad sectors are re-allocated and you want to be notified about further problems only.


Yes, it is normal to see damaged / bad blocks on the surface test. In READ test, these show the location of problems and if things are fine (for example the amount of problems and the disk damage is low and the spare area is not full) these may be fixed during the WRITE test.
However, in case of too much problems it is not possible to completely repair the drive due to the high number of damages of the disk surface (like on this drive):

Image

For more information, please:

- click on the "?" next to the text description (and check "bad sectors" section)
- open Help -> Hard disk tests

Even more information:

- http://www.hdsentinel.com/faq.php#health
- http://www.hdsentinel.com/faq.php#tests
zakhail
Posts: 6
Joined: 2011.12.10. 22:07

Re: surface test results

Post by zakhail »

but in my case bad sectors appears on write-test and processing it.
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hdsentinel
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Re: surface test results

Post by hdsentinel »

Yes, I see.

During the write operation forces the drive to check the sector and fix it by re-allocation.
However, this is not possible in all situations, sometimes further passes required.
This is exactly discussed in an other topic: viewtopic.php?f=32&t=1266&start=0
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