Re: Is there a better disk-maintenance utility than Chkdsk out there?

Tech-Archive recommends: Repair Windows Errors & Optimize Windows Performance

philo wrote:
"Pavel A." <pavel_a@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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"Borgholio" <borgholio@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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This is a re-post of something I asked over in Help and Support. I
didn't
get any useful answers over there, so hopefully this will be a better
place. Thanks in advance!

I know that Chkdsk /r is supposed to locate and repair bad sectors, but
I
have discovered that it only does so on the parts of the hard drive that
contain data. I have a few old crappy hard drives with known bad
sectors
on them that I used for this test. Using an IDE to USB adapter, I
formatted the drives as fat32 and ran Chkdsk on my XP machine...no
errors.
I moved the drives to a Windows 98 machine and ran Scandisk...bingo, it
found bad sectors.

Next, I re-formatted the drives and put them back on my XP machine. As
before, Chkdsk did not find any bad sectors. However after I copied
test
data to the drive, Chkdsk found the same number of errors that Win98's
Scandisk did. Obviously, Chkdsk does not find bad sectors on a drive
unless data has already been written there...which in my opinion is
kinda
stupid. :-/

Long story short, is there another disk diagnostic program I can use
that
properly scans an entire disk, just like Win98's old Scandisk program
used
to? Another thread mentioned SpinRite. Would that do a better job than
Chkdsk for locating bad sectors over the entire disk (even in unused
space)?
Yoo may want to check with the maker of your HD.
Each of them has their diag tools.
Note that USB adapter can hide or distort test results,
direct connection is better.

SpinRite is worth to try from two reasons - a. It runs on pure DOS,
closer to the metal. b It is independent from
the disk vendors. Please visit grc.com for the first hand info.




Though I have no doubt that Spinrite is a good utility...
For the price of it, you can just go out and buy a new HD.


I have used Spinrite since it first came out and have found that it is very useful not only for diagnosing drive problems but in saving data on a "bad" drive. The last time I used it Ghost would not copy a failing drive because of errors on the drive. I used Spinrite to repair the errors and Ghost worked fine for copying the entire drive. I didn't lose any data or have to spend weeks reinstalling all the programs and updates. The nominal cost of Spinrite has always been far less than the value of the program.
I have used it many times for testing a drive to see if problems are drive related. In one case I found that the electronics were failing as the lengthy testing caused them to heat up enough to start failing. I would not have seen this problem with a quick scan of the drive.

Spinrite would probably be most useful for a. refurbisher who works on large
quantities of older machines


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: CHKDSK results
    ... Run chkdsk again, and often for a few weeks. ... The 32k in bad sectors though, is unusual but, as I said, not ... Technically it shouldn't happen on today's better drives. ... disk dies and you lose all the data. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: chkdsk parameters?
    ... Would running CHKDSK C:/r be the right way to go at this ... It works the same for all DOS commands that work in XP. ... If you do have bad sectors, continue to minitor the drive for a few months; if more appear over time, the drive is failing - get it replaced on warranty. ... Try disconnecting everything that's not necessary, like printers, external drives, etc. and see what happens. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware)
  • Some questions concerning defective sectors on an internal HD
    ... chkdsk found 12 KB of defective sectors on this drive (I ... chkdsk /r found the same 12 ... Perhaps I could save the data on several slower drives and then do a ...
    (comp.arch.storage)
  • Is there a better disk-maintenance utility than Chkdsk out there?
    ... I know that Chkdsk /r is supposed to locate and repair bad sectors, but I have discovered that it only does so on the parts of the hard drive that contain data. ... Using an IDE to USB adapter, I formatted the drives as fat32 and ran Chkdsk on my XP machine...no errors. ... Long story short, is there another disk diagnostic program I can use that properly scans an entire disk, just like Win98's old Scandisk program used to? ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware)
  • Chkdsk doesnt find bad sectors in unused space
    ... I know that Chkdsk /r is supposed to locate and repair bad sectors, but I have discovered that it only does so on the parts of the hard drive that contain data. ... Using an IDE to USB adapter, I formatted the drives as fat32 and ran Chkdsk on my XP machine...no errors. ... Long story short, is there another disk diagnostic program I can use that properly scans an entire disk, just like Win98's old Scandisk program used to? ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)