How can I fix a damaged hard disk so it will work again?
This question is becoming more and more popular with people upgrading computers and moving drives/information from one computer to another. This can be an expensive repair if you end up using a company to recover the data. But a good way to prevent this issue from arising is to perform regular maintenance on your hard drive(s). Also creating a regular backup of your data allows you to retain your data even when the hard drive fails.
Within Windows ’98-XP there is a built in product which can be used to check the health of your hard drive. In Windows XP you can find the utility by double clicking on “My Computer” and finding your hard drive which is normally named “Local Disc C:”. Once located right click on the icon for the hard drive and then left click on “Properties”. At the top of the window that opens click on the “Tools” tab and then click on the “Check Now” button in the “Error-Checking” box at the top of the window. In the small window be sure to click in the two small boxes to select both items and then hit “Start”. This will perform a surface scan of your hard drive and correct any errors it finds.
This process is something that you should perform once a month to ensure reliable performance from your hard drive. But this utility will not always be able to correct every error it finds. It is sometimes beyond the ability of this utility to recover some errors. This is when special utilities are required to recover a hard drive. A reasonably priced utility is called SpinRite. This program gets down to the lowest level of your hard drive and starts from the ground up to fix your drive. To get more information on the program and to purchase the program can be found at http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm . The program retails for $89 but in comparison data recovery firms usually charge between $250-500 for an average repair.
The best way to think of this issue is to compare it to your car. To keep the engine running well you change the oil at regular intervals. If you didn’t your motor would not work properly. The same can be said for your hard drive. If you don’t test it at regular intervals to ensure the health of it you may be in for a bad surprise when you turn your computer on and it can’t read the disc.
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Tags: Error-Checking GRC Hard Drive Hard Drive Maintenance And Recovery Recovery SpinRite Windows '98 Windows XP
Comments
Sat, 02/23/2008 - 01:59 — rollyp
Checking windows Vista ? keep your drive healthy
How does one go about error checking with windows Vista as u described under properties
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Sat, 02/23/2008 - 18:54 — Fraser Morrison
Error Checking In Windows Vista
A website which gives a good step by step process to check your hard drive in Windows Vista can be found at http://www.vista4beginners.com/Check-Disk .
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Fri, 03/21/2008 - 07:13 — docmur
Tips and Subjects
Living in my house I have some computer users here which to put it nicely have about as much computer ability and my Grandmother does play Olympic downhill skiing.
There are two things that can happen when windows goes bad on a hard disk, I learned this 2 years ago in my fifth year of high school studying under A+ and Network Administration with my CCNA and Linux+ so needless to say I have a bit of expert bias in this area.
The best way to keep your hard drive good from the start is running a solid all around checking utility that does a aggressive scan of everything and I mean even the MBR.
Doing this once a week is a really good way to make sure your hard disk stays in good order. Now that being said it can still go bad. You should look at the costs of A)Formatting and B) Replacement if this happens. Most Desktop computers are just there for the general use need and formatting them is a safe means of fixing minor OS inflicted damage. I'm not a big or even a fan of buying into a 3rd party program saying it can "fix" the drive, because to me that's not really the best method. It would be like getting a tooth knocked out and then the fix is to put patch over it with a white shaped object.
I'm first going to talk about formatting. Formatting can be done via several methods.
1) The high level no verify format.
When you boot up and OS cd I'm not just going to say windows in this case you get the chance to format a disk, Now on most cases your only allowed to do a high level format, This means the data on the disk is quickly erased but not gone, and for the most part the MBR is not touched. This is fine in most cases and for very minor damage why not just use it, I can't see a reason not to.
2) The high level verify
Just like the high level format above this format is a very much the same but the job is verified at the end meaning the bits on the hard disk are checked for CRC. It's usually a waste of time in my books to run this cause for the extra time required a normal high level format would fail anyway.
3) Low level format
This is the end all of the formats, this is not a toy. What I mean is running this is the final answer. A low level format is one in which each bit of the hard disk is wiped, checked and verifed and wiped one more time. If this fails in the middle or is stopped you can turn your hard disk into nothing more then a paper weight. Once a low level format is error'd out of running it's done. Nothing more can be done
Different from the the high level format this type of format does wipe the MBR, This is an important feature of the low level format, cause usually the MBR is just over written and over written but never erased. If this type of format finishes you can be 99.99% sure you hard disk is in good working condition. I have seen it where the hard disk was still bad but it's extremely rare So buy a lotto ticket the day this happens lol.
The other major addition of this type of format is the time required. This type of format can require easily 8 - 10 hours of time as oppose to a high level format 30 seconds.
Okay so that breaks done my thoughts about formatting, I welcome criticism.
The second option I want to bring up is replacing the hard disk. This is my favorite option. With the hard disk being as cheap as they are now there is no reason to not scrap the old 80GB and bu a new 500GB for $100. I understand that there are some reasons you might not want to take this option but if you really need to dual run the drives and transfer what you need to and be on your way.
Of course everything I've said here is the disk being damaged not it being flagged or anything.
Had a friend Matt who had this MBR wiped accidentally on windows on his USB hard disk. That is not damaged I want to point of that well you can think of it as being damaged and some computer shops may tell you that the disk is damaged it's fine. Just like your file can be corrupted or you can have a file over written this can happen to the hard disk. There are options if this happens, and as such this is where those programs mentioned above can come into play. There really just checking the disk and repairing anything thats not exactly right. This is just what the dentist does when he cleans, he's putting your mouth back into working order but he's physically not doing any major overhaul.
I don't usally get this type error but when it happens there are many wonderful open sourced based program capable of running checks. Gparted for one is a good tool. the grub super disk etc... do dont give up to fast.
Over all when you thinks there is damage don't be to quick to think the worst but if you find you need to do major damage repair don't rely on programs. Just like in the 70's and 80's the best course of action is to Format or Replace and be sure the problem is gone
Thanks
Andrew Murdoch
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