BAD SECTOR IN HARD DRIVE

Bad Sectors
What is a bad sector? A bad sector is a small area on the disc drive that is reporting errors and cannot be accessed properly. New bad sectors, sometimes called grown defects, are often caused by some kind of physical damage. If a file or folder uses this sector, then the file is incomplete or corrupt because the bytes are not readable.
Bad sectors can also be reported if the signal between your drive and host adapter is being misinterpreted. Bad cables can cause this. If you are using an ATA drive made in the last few years you should use an 80-conductor cable. Any ATA product that operates above UltraATA 33 requires an 80-conductor cable for proper signal integrity. ATA cables should also be less than 18 inches in length.
Before continuing, confirm that your cable is 80-conductor, is less than 18 inches in length, and is not damaged. If your cable does not meet these requirements then replace it.
Correcting Bad SectorsSeaTools Desktop Edition can check your drive’s health to determine if any serious problems are present. If you run the long Seagate test then SeaTools desktop can reallocate any empty sectors that are bad. If the sector contains data SeaTools will let you know the sector is bad, but will not attempt to reallocate it.
If you have bad sectors that contain data there are several options available from other vendors. One such option is the disk error-checking utility built into Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
To open the error checking utility follow these steps:
Double-click My Computer, and right-click the hard disk.
On the shortcut menu, click Properties, and on the Tools tab in the Properties dialog box, click Check Now in the Error-Checking Status area.
In the Check Disk dialog box, select the Automatically Fix File System Errors check box, select the Scan For And Attempt Recovery Of Bad Sectors check box, and then click Start.
View Windows help on detecting and repairing disk errors for more information.
Steps to prevent further bad sectors.Improper handling of the drive is the most common cause for bad sectors. See our handle with care videos for more information on how to properly handle a drive.