Re: chkdsk /r and surface scan

Kerry Brown wrote:
"Anthony Ewell" <aewell@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:d92233$iip$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Anthony Ewell wrote:

Hi All,

  Is there an XP equivalent to Win 9x's scandisk
"Thorough" scan (surface scan)?

--Tony 


Hi All,

 I posted the above in a different posting.  I got
a lot of hits but no one directly answered the
question.  I was told to look up the options
on chkdsk and to use the /r option.

        /R   Locates bad sectors and recovers readable
             information (implies /F).

 Question: is "chkdsk /r" a surface scan?  And, is
it equivalent to 9x's scandisk "Thorough" scan?

 It really sounds to me like they are not the same
thing; sounds like it is looking for errors in
active data, not both data and empty space.
For one thing, scandisk's "Thorough"? takes
10 time as long.

 Please enlighten me.

Many thanks,
--Tony



Chkdsk /r does the same thing as scandisk with the thorough option. With modern drives if you are seeing bad sectors the drive is probably no good and should be replaced. Modern drives have replacement sectors they use automatically. Windows (and the user) don't see this until all the spares are used. The price of drives has come down to where you have to make a judgement call on what your data is worth to you. With large drives under $150.00 how much time do you want to spend when the drive ultimately fails and you have to rebuild your file system? If chkdsk /r finds bad sectors I would recommend downloading the usually free diagnostic software from the manufacturer of your hard drive and test the drive. Be sure to back up your data first. The act of testing can sometimes cause a marginal drive to fail.

Kerry


Hi Kerry,

  Thank you for the excellent answer.  I have used the "/r"
option frequently but have never seen any errors on the
last pass (open space).  The drives worked a lot better
afterwards.  This explains it.

  It is also nice to know that (S)ATA's are automatically
swapping out bad sectors.  (I knew this was the case with
SCSI drives) (Some SATA drives now support command queueing
too.  Cool stuff!)

--Tony
.

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