Windows 7 Check disk on External USB drive

Adren

Hi there,

I think part of my external hard drive is a bit messed up, if not a lot of it.

So I decided to run Check Disk with 'Automatically fix system errors' and 'Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors.

It has been running now for at least 10 hours


Is this normal??


Thanks.

Cuddlesworth

Depending on how big it is and how badly damaged it is, yes it can be. I wouldn't rely on it in the slightest though in future.

Capt'n Midnight

if it is making funny sounds then on the way out


scan for and repair of bad sectors - LOL

windows does Neither, it just reads from the drive and it's the electronics on the drive that remap a bad sector (the don't repair it just use another one instead and swear blind it's the original one even though it means two seeks to access it)



if you have data on the drive - stop the scan now and copy the important files off it

if the drive is on it's last legs then it's only a matter of time before it fails so doing anything other than pulling files off it is a waste of time

Once you have your data off the drive you can use HDTUNE to check it out ,

if you see multiple bad sectors on non-scsi drive made in the last 20 years you can assume the drive is knackered ( one or two can be put down to a softwre glitch but if there are many it means the spare sectors added during manufacture have all been used up )



if data is critical you can get a third party to recover it , for several hundred euro

otherwise the linux utility ddrescue is yer only man - when I get some time I'll do up a cheat sheet for it
dd_rescue if using ubuntu

ressem

Just an addition to Capt'n's post...
ddrescue is a newer better program then dd_rescue + dd_rhelp script combination.

The page
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DataRecovery#Data%20Recovery%20from%20damaged%20filesystem%20or%20drive

Outlines the suggested use..


Under Ubuntu it's provided in the package gddrescue, you need to allow the 'Universe' repository to download it.

Adren

Right this is what HDTune is giving me, yellow warning on both of these, I have included the log also.


(05)Reallocated sector count:
Description: Number of damaged sectors which have been replaced: 42
Status: The drive has damaged sectors.

Number Date/Time Current Worst ThresholdData Temp

1 18/02/2010 01:23:19 100 100 36 6
2 18/02/2010 01:25:20 100 100 36 6
3 18/02/2010 01:43:17 100 100 36 6
4 18/02/2010 22:24:27 99 99 36 42
5 18/02/2010 22:25:47 99 99 36 42
6 18/02/2010 22:26:48 99 99 36 42
7 18/02/2010 22:27:49 99 99 36 42
8 18/02/2010 22:28:50 99 99 36 42
9 18/02/2010 22:29:51 99 99 36 42
10 18/02/2010 22:30:52 99 99 36 42
11 18/02/2010 22:31:52 99 99 36 42
12 18/02/2010 22:32:53 99 99 36 42
13 18/02/2010 22:33:54 99 99 36 42
14 18/02/2010 22:34:55 99 99 36 42
15 18/02/2010 22:35:56 99 99 36 42
16 18/02/2010 22:36:57 99 99 36 42
17 18/02/2010 22:37:58 99 99 36 42
18 18/02/2010 22:39:31 99 99 36 42
19 18/02/2010 22:40:01 99 99 36 42
20 18/02/2010 22:41:02 99 99 36 42
21 18/02/2010 22:42:03 99 99 36 42
22 18/02/2010 22:43:04 99 99 36 42


(C5) Current pending sector
Description: Number of unstable sectors: 1060
Status: The drive has unstable sectors.


Number Date/Time Current Worst ThresholdData Temp

1 18/02/2010 01:23:19 100 100 0 283
2 18/02/2010 01:25:20 100 100 0 283
3 18/02/2010 01:43:17 100 100 0 283
4 18/02/2010 22:24:27 100 100 0 1060
5 18/02/2010 22:25:47 100 100 0 1060
6 18/02/2010 22:26:48 100 100 0 1060
7 18/02/2010 22:27:49 100 100 0 1060
8 18/02/2010 22:28:50 100 100 0 1060
9 18/02/2010 22:29:51 100 100 0 1060
10 18/02/2010 22:30:52 100 100 0 1060
11 18/02/2010 22:31:52 100 100 0 1060
12 18/02/2010 22:32:53 100 100 0 1060
13 18/02/2010 22:33:54 100 100 0 1060
14 18/02/2010 22:34:55 100 100 0 1060
15 18/02/2010 22:35:56 100 100 0 1060
16 18/02/2010 22:36:57 100 100 0 1060
17 18/02/2010 22:37:58 100 100 0 1060
18 18/02/2010 22:39:31 100 100 0 1060
19 18/02/2010 22:40:01 100 100 0 1060
20 18/02/2010 22:41:02 100 100 0 1060
21 18/02/2010 22:42:03 100 100 0 1060
22 18/02/2010 22:43:04 100 100 0 1060

Whats the story here so?

Many thanks.

Capt'n Midnight

The drive is on the way out.

Backup your data and get a new drive, simple as that.

Adren

Thanks!