Hard Disk Monitoring

HD Sentinel is a wonderful utility.
Yet in discovering more of its features, I came across with two questions, after scanning (read test) my external USB HDD 3TB, which confirmed 2 bad sectors. Moreover the general info gives 24 weak sectors.

1. Is there a way to get info on which files are located in the bad sectors detected by HD sentinel? I noticed that in another thread of this forum (agosto 2015) was mentioned the option "show filename", but I could not find anything in your utility about it.

2. Contrary to the bad sectors, which are detected and singled out with their precise number (and I took notice of that in my read test), I could not find a way to detect where the weak sectors are located in the HDD. Can HD sentinel show the sector numbers also of the weak sectors? I have another utility that tries to solve these weak sectors without destroying data, but I need to offer a restriction in the range of sectors to scan.

Thanks for any clarification.

Thanks for your message and kind words !

1) No: the "bad sectors" reported in the text description are no longer used by the hard disk: they are already reallocated.

It means that the hard disk moved the contents of these sectors to the spare area and now (instead of the original sector) the spare area used for all reads and writes targeting those bad sectors. So now (after the original sectors marked as bad) we can't really determine what was in the original sector numers.

Generally, these sectors can no longer cause problems, as this way you can be sure that the original (bad) area can not contain important data and can't risk data loss. This is done by the hard disk itself, regardless of the used operating system, file system, software - so you can be sure that even after a complete re-partition / re-format, these sectors can't cause problems.

Please check http://www.hdsentinel.com/faq.php#health
for more information about bad sectors.


2) Yes, contrary to the bad sectors, weak sectors are still used by the hard disk and can cause problems.
Yes, during the disk test performed in Hard Disk Sentinel by Disk menu -> Surface test -> Read test, the proper sectors marked and the sector numbers also listed on the bottom section.
In newer Hard Disk Sentinel versions (for example 4.60.9e) you can check which file is affected, which file contains that sector.

The best way to diagnose and repair weak sectors is the Disk menu -> Surface test -> Reinitilise disk surface test: as this repairs the weak sectors completely - and also stabilize other sectors (for example if the performance of the hard disk is fluctuating).

Please see http://www.hdsentinel.com/hard_disk_cas ... ectors.php
for more information about weak sectors.


> I have another utility that tries to solve these weak sectors without destroying data, but I need to offer a restriction in the range of sectors to scan.

Excellent.
I can confirm that this function is under construction and Hard Disk Sentinel will also soon have a repair for these sectors.
Just some other functions (for example to detect and reveal any kind of problems, detect previously un-detected weak sectors and detect and report the files probably affected by the weak sectors) has higher priority.