Random Renegade Bits » computer problems http://rrbits.com/epb Whatever comes to mind Wed, 29 Feb 2012 18:10:32 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 Bad sectors on your hard drive? Don’t throw it out yet. http://rrbits.com/epb/2010/05/21/bad-sectors-on-your-hard-drive-dont-throw-it-out-yet/ http://rrbits.com/epb/2010/05/21/bad-sectors-on-your-hard-drive-dont-throw-it-out-yet/#comments Sat, 22 May 2010 03:57:07 +0000 epb http://rrbits.com/epb/?p=175 This week I was working on a computer that was having problems with it’s hard drive.  I could get it to start once, and then it would fail to start up again.  As you can imagine, the drive had some bad sectors, but the people I was fixing this for could not afford another $60 expense to replace the drive.  So I had to try to find a way to fix the computer without replacing the drive.

And that’s when I learned this: Before you throw out a drive with bad sectors, try to run the manufacturers test and repair utilities on the hard drive.  Western Digital has its Digital Lifeguard software and I’m sure Seagate has a similar tool.  If you can attempt a repair with it, try the repair option.  If the repair fails, then you will likely need to get a new hard drive unfortunately.  Hopefully this will help you wring another couple of months out of your drive.  (Who knows, it may work for years after you do so.)

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