Bad disk sector

[kiwi]

Well I am gonna be Photoshop less for a while.I have a bad sector on my HD and PS was sitting right on top of it,so I removed PS and it made no difference.


Imac OS 9.1 512m


These are the things I have tried.


Run Disk doctor,progress bar gets to about one quarter of the way along and starts making screeching noise while checking disk media.


Run Michromat Deluxe same as Disk doctor.


Unfortunatley neither Michromat or Norton let the progress bar get far enough so that either utilitiy can pick it up as a problem and try and cure it,.My only way out seems to be initialize the drive and re partition,only I dont have the know how to partition it in 3 as I now have it.I have had this problem before and the shop had to initialize the drive and re partition it,only it was a different program sitting on top of that sector.The drive has been fine for about a year give or take and it is around 18 months old.Oh ya its an IBM Deskstar 45g partitioned in 3.


The other two partitions are fine,and the utilities ok them as fine.


Any ideas guys?


If I could just get one of the utlities to slap the drive up the side of its head I might be able to avoid involving the shop again at $80 an hour....grooooooooooooooan


Stu.

 

[{OZ}]

Ohh Stu.. I'm sorry, bud.

your drive is new... only 18 months old and its not good for a drive to have bad sectors that new. do you know the warranty on your hard disk? you might have to replace it but that would take quite a while.

since you have norton disk doctor, what you might wanna do is to go to options and make sure "mark bad sectors" option checked. then run NDD again. it will mark the bad sectors on the drive so programs and OS will not read and write to that sector. you are going to lose some data of course. I hope you have a back up. before going to the shop try that option... you can recover the drive with the bad sectors marked. happend to me 4-5 times already.

by the way, marking bad sectors can be a long process so you better not sit on the computer and wait for the progress bar to move..... those screeching noises are normal.... check your NDD options and run the utility before going to bed or something...

good luck bud

 

[sfm]

Hi ya Stu
go to www.ibm.com
click on support and enter in your hdd serial number and model number etc and see if it is still under warranty
IBM's have a 3 to 5 year warranty on them
I hope all goes well
sfm

 

[kiwi]

Thanks guys


I have three partitions,on my graphics one I have Bodypaint 3d and After effects,Cinema 4d,and Photoshop and Illustrator.The only program that screeched and would not open was Photoshop,all the other progs and partitions are fine.



I suppose I could re install PS for the moment on another partition though.



The thing I dont get though OZ is how can my main drive not pass the disk media test,yet the graphics partition passes with flying colors and that is where PS was?.........I dont get it[confused]


I will do the NDD options bad disk trick before I hit the sack though...thanks for that


Stu.

 

[kiwi]

[doh] I forgot to add the screeching noises bring the progress bar to a halt,it stops moving altogether,and it only makes this noise when it gets to that small area.


Stu.

 

[sfm]

the more you play with it the worse it is going to get mate - I wouldn't use that drive if you want to get information off it - you do have it all backed up right? [stuned]
sfm

 

[kiwi]

Some of my art etc.



So do I back up the the whole drive parttitions included,or just the parttion where PS was?


Stu.

 

[sfm]

when backing up you dont do the programs just the files with in them that you want to keep on the whole drive

you said that you have it partitioned into three - you can't just send back a section of the drive so back it all up everything that you want to keep

for a warranty you will have to send that drive back to IBM and they send you another being a 45gb it is highly possible that you will get a new one
sfm

 

[{OZ}]

Stu,

Bad Sectors are physical flaws or damages on the media. When that happens, the OS can't read or write to that sector. (every kind of read/write happens on the OS level regardless of the program you are using to read/write data)

you hear those screeching noises because when you run Norton and if it hits a bad sector, the program does several things. it continuosly tries to read data upto a certain point and tries to recover the data that sits on the bad sector. then the program tries to write to that sector. if all fails, then it marks that sector as "bad". this whole operation is not a one-time read/write attempt tho. the program tries it several hundred times maybe. usually when you have a bad sector on your hard drive, its not just on one block but sevral blocks. so for each block, the program does the test. that might be a very time consuming process. several years ago, when I had bad sectors on my hard drive, norton took 7 hours to find and mark those spots. of course it was an old and slow hard drive but my point is that the process can take a while.

you might start backing up your data -- not the whole programs but whatever you saved on your disk, your emails, your work, pictures etc -- Like I said, bad sectors are physical damages and that kind of wear/tear are to happen to all mechanical devices sooner or later. you might want to start saving for another hard drive Stu or send it back to IBM and they will replace it. Think of it like a car...once the mechanical problems begin, no matter how you patch it up or try to fix it, it will happen again and again until you completely replace that part. ahh mechanics... what you gonna do..

 

[kiwi]

Ya I have everything backed up


Sue I know I cant send them a partition mate



Here is what I have decided.....This drive has done this before so I will use it right up to the day it goes to the shop,thus making it more likely to be replaced this time {fingers crossed} and I will upgrade to a 45g firewire drive regardless of whether the drive is replaced or fixed etc by IBM.The last time it was in the shop labour cost me $180 so I assume this time it will be $180 regardless so I might as well chuck the drive and get a new one regardless and actually save myself some cash in the long run


Stu.

 

[Erik]

For that price here I buy two brand new HDDs of 40GB UDMA133...

Still, If a disk starts with bad sectors, back up and back up your backup and...for those few dollars you pay for a box with 50CDRoms...
And try to make screenshots of the progs stating which sectors and or clusters are damaged.

I have a similar problem now, perhaps anyone knows an answer:

I have a HDD of 20GIG that I completely formatted (I had FAT32 and NTFS partitions on it.)
The BIOS says that it is 20MB. FDISK run from a Win98diskette also, and I can format it as FAT32 and install WIN98SE on it. I have 20GB at my disposal.

But whether I try to install Win2KPro from CD on the HDD made completely empty or completely formatted, or try to install it when the Win98 is on it, it only recognises 8GB.

I tried FDISK/MBR to renew the Master Boot Sector, tried to run scandisk from DOS, nothing...
So there must still be NTFS info on it in some way that tells 2K there is only 8GB available...

Anyone an idea how to clean to a zero file with NTFS on the disk?????

 

[{OZ}]

Erik,
Do you want dualboot? run windows 98 with FAT32 and windows 2000 with NTFS? then, you have to create 2 partitions on your drive.

when you Run FDISK from your Windows98 boot disk, select #4 (display partition information). Check if you have any other partitions. You said you have formatted your drive but if you boot from Windows98 boot-disk, then you won't be able to format the NTFS partition, if you have any. So first, I would recommend you check how many partitions you have.

If you have an NTFS partiton, then within windows98 FDISK you have to delete that partition. Remember, windows98 will recognize your NTFS partition as "Non-DOS Partition". You have to make your selection accordingly within fdisk.

After you have deleted all your non-dos and dos partitions, then you can format FAT32. After the format, run Windows 2000 setup and let windows convert your FAT32 to NTFS. Do NOT let win2000 format your drive NTFS.

The above steps are only for a clean format and setup of windows2000. not dualboot.

I hope that helps

OZ

 

[kiwi]

I odered a new drive yersterday.......120 gxp 80g IBM......Now wouldnt you think a 120 GXP would be a 120g drive?,well nope it has several different sizes and configs as my dealer and I found out and they are all 120 GXP,after much head scratching my dealer and I worked this out


Stu.

 

[{OZ}]

whoohoo Stu an 80 gig!! thats a nice one! you are gonna get back your PS soon huh

 

[kiwi]

Fingers crossed bud


Stu.