Hello my forum friends its been a long time since I contacted you guys I need need your guidance in this situation, my hard drive is working well with no problems, but I discovered that it has some bad sectors and I have another new hard drive with no faults, should I clone the old hard drive or reinstall windows 10 to the new hard drive and put my backup files on it. Here is a picture of my hard drive with the bad sectors
hard drive has some bad sectors
- Thread starter carl a
- Start date
There are multiple drive tests.
SMART attempts to predict failure.
A drive may display 100% with excellent by SMART and still fail a drive test.
Drives can be used until the terminal event as long as files are backed up to another drive or the cloud.
Also make backup images to have a quick method to restore an image to a new drive.
Before the drive fails you may have performance problems such as slow read, slow write, hangs, freezes, unexpected shutdowns and restarts, etc.
With the lower cost of replacement drives you can replace the drive now rather than dealing with any later anxiety that may occur.
To test the drive:
Run HD Tune (free version) (all drives)
HD Tune website
Post images into the thread for results on these tabs:
a) Health
b) Benchmark
c) Full error scan
Run Sea Tools for Windows
long generic test
Post an image of the test result into the thread
SeaTools for Windows | Seagate
How to use SeaTools for Windows | Seagate Support US
Post images for all steps and results:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/13776/windows-10-use-snipping-tool-to-capture-screenshots
For any problems posting images please use share links: one drive, drop box, or google drive
These steps can be performed overnight:
a) HD Tune full error scan
b) Sea Tools for Windows long generic test
SMART attempts to predict failure.
A drive may display 100% with excellent by SMART and still fail a drive test.
Drives can be used until the terminal event as long as files are backed up to another drive or the cloud.
Also make backup images to have a quick method to restore an image to a new drive.
Before the drive fails you may have performance problems such as slow read, slow write, hangs, freezes, unexpected shutdowns and restarts, etc.
With the lower cost of replacement drives you can replace the drive now rather than dealing with any later anxiety that may occur.
To test the drive:
Run HD Tune (free version) (all drives)
HD Tune website
Post images into the thread for results on these tabs:
a) Health
b) Benchmark
c) Full error scan
Run Sea Tools for Windows
long generic test
Post an image of the test result into the thread
SeaTools for Windows | Seagate
How to use SeaTools for Windows | Seagate Support US
Post images for all steps and results:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/13776/windows-10-use-snipping-tool-to-capture-screenshots
For any problems posting images please use share links: one drive, drop box, or google drive
These steps can be performed overnight:
a) HD Tune full error scan
b) Sea Tools for Windows long generic test
britechguy
Well-known member
I have come to despise CrystalDiskInfo, because it is more than a little hypersensitive about bad sectors.
It is expected, by design, that HDDs (and even SSDs) will develop bad sectors during their service lives. That is perfectly normal, and the fact that any drive has a few is no cause for alarm.
What is important is the number of bad sectors, if it's high, or the rate at which a drive is developing bad sectors. If it has a stable number of bad sectors, where you see no change when you check it in a week, then a month, then two months, etc., etc., the drive is NOT in the process of failing. It has simply developed a few bad sectors - no big deal. If that number is climbing, and particularly climbing during a short interval like a week, then you have a drive in the active process of failing and you need to get everything off of it and on to its replacement ASAP.
Here are my CrystalDiskInfo results:
Here's what HDTuneShows:
That single bad sector has been present, and no more have developed, for years (plural) since it first appeared. This is not a drive that's in trouble.
It is expected, by design, that HDDs (and even SSDs) will develop bad sectors during their service lives. That is perfectly normal, and the fact that any drive has a few is no cause for alarm.
What is important is the number of bad sectors, if it's high, or the rate at which a drive is developing bad sectors. If it has a stable number of bad sectors, where you see no change when you check it in a week, then a month, then two months, etc., etc., the drive is NOT in the process of failing. It has simply developed a few bad sectors - no big deal. If that number is climbing, and particularly climbing during a short interval like a week, then you have a drive in the active process of failing and you need to get everything off of it and on to its replacement ASAP.
Here are my CrystalDiskInfo results:
Here's what HDTuneShows:
That single bad sector has been present, and no more have developed, for years (plural) since it first appeared. This is not a drive that's in trouble.
It is important to remember that "ALL" drives "will" fail - eventually. So obviously, having a robust backup plan, and using it is essential.
I agree with Brian and you need to see if the bad sector count increases. You have your baseline now. See how it is in a week or two. If you get more, then for sure, replace the drive.
As far as HD utilities, I don't fuss with them. I use Check Disk. So if me, from an elevated command prompt, I would enter chkdsk /r on the drive. Note this can take many hours to complete and even look like the system is locked up. Just let it run until complete.
I agree with Brian and you need to see if the bad sector count increases. You have your baseline now. See how it is in a week or two. If you get more, then for sure, replace the drive.
As far as HD utilities, I don't fuss with them. I use Check Disk. So if me, from an elevated command prompt, I would enter chkdsk /r on the drive. Note this can take many hours to complete and even look like the system is locked up. Just let it run until complete.
Hey Digerati thanks for your swift and informative reply the bad sectors count have been the same and the disk has been performing well no problem at all , however since I have a new hard drive disk the same as the one I have now( including the same size) I was wondering is it better to clone the hard drive disk or do a fresh install of the os and put my data back on the new drive., simply put will cloning the old disk to the new one will it clone the bad sectors as well to the new disk?
I noticed that ZBook and Britechguy also responded very quickly to my post and I want to give them thanks also for the excellent counsel reguarding my situation. I have been getting counsel from the forum and its staff for years now and know most of them by name, when I saw Digerati reply I zoom in on him and didn't notice ZBrook and Britechguy came quickly to help me also much thanks and appreciation to you guys I know that I am getting wise counsel when I reach out to sysnative forum.
Ran the Hd tune scan and the results looks good my question is if I clone this disk to the new disk will cloning also tranfer bad sectors to the new disk ? or is it better to do a system image backup on the new drive and have a usb repair disk. The reason I ask this question is because I saw on the internet a computer tech emphatically said that an OS should be installed and not clone is he right?
The problem with cloning is you often bring problems over from the source to the cloned drive. I generally like to do a fresh install - but that's me.
That said, if I were replacing a hard drive, I would replace it with a SSD. But again, that's me.
That said, if I were replacing a hard drive, I would replace it with a SSD. But again, that's me.
You're right and I know better I was lazy and remiss after scanning the disk I just printed out the results being glad that there were no bad blocks reported froim hd tune long scan. Hang in there with me because I am about to act like I am a well schooled tech and perform a clean install of windows 10 to a new ssd and then create a system image of the fresh install and a bootable repair usb using macrium reflect. I will be asking for you knowledge when needed. Thank you so kindly
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