"Bad" sectors repaired by writing zeroes

[Raptor]

Concerns:

Seagate 60GB ST360020A (ATA)
Diskread error when loading Windows.

Cure:

Using SeaTools Desktop to determine that several sectors were damaged

Using DiscWizard Starter Edition to write zeroes to the Hard Disk Drive.

Additional:

Windows XP setup would not load when the HDD was connected. Windows XP would load with the HDD disconnected.
AT system with AMD processor showed exact same symptoms.

After writing zeroes to the HDD, Windows XP setup would load and the diskread error dissapeared.

Can bad sectors be repaired by writing zeroes to the Hard Disk Drive?

Seagate told me that:

Normally writing zeros to the drive does resolve the issue of the bad sectors. The drive is shipped with plenty of spare sectors for instances such as these.

Any thoughts?

[2k dummy]

It does not actually repair the bad sectors. It uses SMART to relocate them to the "spare" sectors, thus making the disk usable again. Once all spare sectors have been used you are headed for catasrophic failure. That is when SMART warns you of impending failure. If using a disk defragger that verifies writes (Norton Speeddisk is one) the defrag is somewhat slower but nothing will written to a sector that cannot be read.

[Raptor]

but nothing will written to a sector that cannot be read.

What causes these sectors to go bad? What actually happens to a bad sector? Is it dust that causes them to go bad?

[2k dummy]

Mishandling, bad spot in the substrate, head contact with platter, old age, amongst others.

[Raptor]

How to prevent the head from hitting the platter? Use as many screws and fit them as tightly as possible in order to eliminate most vibration?

bad spot in the substrate

I assume there is absolutely nothing that can be done against this.

[2k dummy]

Correct. These are normally manufacturing defects and may not be readily apparent. They might take a long time to show up or you might never know they are there. A good disk utility will find them and relocate the data, marking the sector bad in the process. After using fdisk and format on an older HD, it is a good idea to really put it through its paces with a thorough surface test. With a thorough test every sector is written and read multiple times before it is passed as good. A thorough test can take a long time to run (from hours to days) depending on the size of the HD, so most people never use it.

[Raptor]

A thorough test can take a long time to run (from hours to days) depending on the size of the HD, so most people never use it.

Where do I find such a test?

[Computer_Commando]

Hard Drive Mechanic

[Raptor]

Is neither the software HDD manufacturers offer for download nor Scandisk capable of doing so?

[Fed]

I think scandisk does it.

[Raptor]

I think scandisk does it.

With what attributes?

[Michael]

I think I am having the same problem with mt Seagate ST340014A 40GB. The HDD is the secondary slave. When it first happened, Windows cannot detect the HDD although it did a few times. Scandisk showed that it has some bad sectors when the computer restarted and it ended up that most of my files on the drives had been converted into .chk files. I almost broke into tears as I found out that its warranty had just been expired for one month! Strangely, the HDD worked normal again soon after and nothing happened until last week, when I got kinda I/O error and couldn't detect the HDD again. I wonder whether this can be solved by what Raptor suggested.  

[Raptor]

when I got kinda I/O error and couldn't detect the HDD again. I wonder whether this can be solved by what Raptor suggested.
      

If you do not care for the data that is stored, you can try doing as I suggested.

The only way to 'activate' these spare sectors is by writing zeroes to the Hard Disk Drive and then rerunning diagnostic software. Or so it seems.

I am not sure if an I/O error is the same as a "diskread error". The computer I was repairing could have been infected by a virus which I somehow did not take notice of. (If this is the case, then AVG is not doing a very good job)

[2k dummy]

Here is a scandisk.ini file. It shows all the options and settings for scandisk. If you are running it from boot floppy, modify your .ini file to whatever you want. When you run scandisk from the command prompt, the default number of passes is one. When running in windows and the thorough test is selected, the default passes is 5.
; SCANDISK.INI
;
; This file contains settings you can use to customize the ScanDisk program.
; The settings in this file do not apply when running ScanDisk in Windows 95,
; unless you are checking an unmounted compressed volume file. These settings
; will apply if you run ScanDisk from an MS-DOS prompt in single-application
; mode.
;


; -------------------------------------------------------------------
; The [ENVIRONMENT] section contains the following settings, which
; determine general aspects of ScanDisk's behavior:
;
; Display      Configures ScanDisk to run with a particular type of
;              display. The default display type is Auto (ScanDisk
;              adjusts to the current display).
;
; Mouse        Enables or disables mouse support. The default value is On.
;
; ScanTimeOut  Determines whether ScanDisk should detect disk timeouts
;              while performing a surface scan. The default value is Off.
;
; NumPasses    Determines how many times ScanDisk should check each
;              cluster during a surface scan. The default value is 1.
;
; LabelCheck   Determines whether ScanDisk should check volume labels
;              for invalid characters.  The default is Off.
;
; LfnCheck     Activates Scandisk to validate Long File Names, if they exist.
;              The default is ON, to check Long File Names for problems.
;
; SpaceCheck   Determines whether ScanDisk should check for invalid spaces
;              in filenames. The default is Off.
;
; Mount        Determines whether ScanDisk will mount unmounted DoubleSpace
;              drives once it has determined they are error-free.
;

[ENVIRONMENT]
  Display     = Auto   ; Auto, Mono, Color, Off
  Mouse       = On     ; On, Off
  ScanTimeOut = On     ; On, Off
  NumPasses   = 1      ; 1 through 65,535 (anything over 10 is slow)
  LabelCheck  = Off    ; On, Off
  LfnCheck    = On     ; On, Off
  SpaceCheck  = Off    ; On, Off
  Mount       = Prompt ; Prompt, Always, Never
Break in post due to length
; -------------------------------------------------------------------

[2k dummy]

; The [CUSTOM] section determines ScanDisk's behavior when ScanDisk is
; started with the /CUSTOM switch. You can adjust these settings to
; create a customized "version" of ScanDisk. This can be especially
; useful for running ScanDisk from a batch file. The [CUSTOM] settings are:
;
; DriveSummary  Determines whether ScanDisk displays full-screen
;               summary information after checking each drive.
;               The default is Auto (ScanDisk displays the summary
;               only if it encounters errors on that drive).
;
; AllSummary    Determines whether ScanDisk displays full-screen
;               summary information after checking all drives.
;               The default is Auto (ScanDisk displays the summary
;               only if it encounters errors on any drive).
;
; Surface       Determines whether ScanDisk will perform a surface scan:
;                  Never    (Default) Does not perform a surface scan.
;                  Always   Performs a surface scan without prompting first.
;                  Prompt   Prompts before performing a surface scan.
;               The /SURFACE command-line switch overrides this setting.
;
; CheckHost     Determines whether ScanDisk will first check a host drive
;               before checking any compressed drives located on that drive.
;                  Never    (Default) Does not check the host drive.
;                  Always   Checks the host drive without prompting first.
;                  Prompt   Prompts before checking the host drive.
;
; SaveLog       Determines what ScanDisk does with the repair log file:
;                  Off        (Default) Does not save the repair log.
;                  Append     Appends the log to the previous log, if any.
;                  Overwrite  Replaces the previous log with the new log.
;
; Undo          Determines whether ScanDisk creates an Undo floppy disk.
;               The default is Never (ScanDisk does not create an Undo disk).
;               The Prompt value causes ScanDisk to prompt you for a disk.

[CUSTOM]
  DriveSummary  = Off          ; Auto, On, Off
  AllSummary    = Off          ; Auto, On, Off
  Surface       = Never        ; Never, Always, Prompt
  CheckHost     = Always       ; Never, Always, Prompt
  SaveLog       = Append       ; Off, Append, Overwrite
  Undo          = Never        ; Prompt, Never

; The following settings determine the corrective action ScanDisk will
; take if it was started with the /CUSTOM switch and finds a disk error.

; The next five settings accept any of the following values:
;    Prompt     Causes ScanDisk to prompt you before fixing this problem.
;    Fix        Causes ScanDisk to fix the problem without prompting you.
;    Quit       Causes ScanDisk to terminate if it encounters this problem.

  DS_Header     = Fix       ; Damaged DoubleSpace volume file header
  FAT_Media     = Fix          ; Missing or invalid FAT media byte
  Okay_Entries  = Fix          ; Damaged, but repairable, directories/files
  Bad_Chain     = Fix          ; Files or directories which should be truncated
  Crosslinks    = Fix          ; FAT-level crosslinks


; The next seven settings accept any of the following values:
;    Prompt     Causes ScanDisk to prompt you before fixing this problem.
;    Fix        Causes ScanDisk to fix the problem without prompting you.
;    Quit       Causes ScanDisk to terminate if it encounters this problem.
;    Skip       Causes ScanDisk to skip fixing this problem, but continue
;               checking the disk.

  Boot_Sector   = Fix          ; Damaged boot sector on DoubleSpace drive
  FSInfo_Sector = Fix          ; Incorrect free space count
  Invalid_MDFAT = Fix          ; Invalid MDFAT entries
  DS_Crosslinks = Fix          ; Internal (MDFAT-level) crosslinks
  DS_LostClust  = Fix          ; Internal lost clusters
  DS_Signatures = Fix          ; Missing DoubleSpace volume signatures
  Mismatch_FAT  = Fix          ; Mismatched FATs on non-DoubleSpace drives
  Bad_Clusters  = Prompt       ; Physical damage or decompression errors


; The next setting accepts any of the following values:
;
;    Prompt     Causes ScanDisk to prompt you before fixing this problem.
;    Delete     Causes ScanDisk to delete the damaged directory entries
;               without prompting you first.
;    Quit       Causes ScanDisk to terminate if it encounters this problem.

  Bad_Entries   = Delete       ; Damaged and irrepairable directories or files


; The next setting accepts any of the following values:
;
;    Prompt     Causes ScanDisk to prompt you before fixing this problem.
;    Save       Causes ScanDisk to save the lost clusters as files in the
;               root directory without prompting you first.
;    Delete     Causes ScanDisk to delete the contents of the lost clusters
;               without prompting you first.
;    Quit       Causes ScanDisk to terminate if it encounters this problem.
;    Skip       Causes ScanDisk to skip fixing this problem, but continue
;               checking the disk.

  LostClust     = Delete       ; Lost clusters