Re: Can't reinstall XP because of bad sectors on disk.

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From: Steve Nielsen (steve_nielsen_at_nunya.biz.nes)
Date: 07/12/04 

Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2004 12:40:39 -0700

Dave wrote:

> "Allen" <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:2bea301c4683a$65627640$a301280a@phx.gbl...
>
>>I can not load XP because there are bad sectors on the
>>disk where the prior XP install was. The installation
>>hangs while checking for prior versions of Windows and the
>>disk heads just rattle over the bad sectors.
>>How do I get around this to load XP in a good area of the
>>disk?
>>
>>Booting in MS DOS works fine and I can read the disk
>>without any problems.
>>
>>I have tried running ghost 2003 to clone the disk, but it
>>keeps crashing when it tries to read the directory.
>
>
> I should think you need to boot from CD into the recovery console and then
> do a:
> chkdsk /f
> on the drive.
>
> This should mark the bad sectors. Having done this try repairing the current
> installation, or get your data off the disk (if it isn't already backed up)
> and reinstall.

No. CHKDSK /F only fixes file system errors. CHKDSK /R checks for bad
blocks as well as the file system check.

>
> You could try cloning the disk. I don't know how the software will deal with
> the bad sectors once they are marked.
>

Once the blocks are marked unusable the OS and software will leave them
alone.

Steve

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