So bad clusters mean a death sentence?

[SadlyStupid]

So Yeah a few days ago I used a defragmenting program which after using it I had bad clusters. I used the disk checker which told me there wasn't enough disk Space to replace the bad clusters when I have a little more than half free space. Would freeing up more disk space fix this?

[patio]

Which defrag program did you use ? ?
As to the disk check i'm assuming you used the Windows one.
DLoad and run the diagnistic utility from the drive manuf. site...

[SadlyStupid]

Perfect disc. I think it was. uhmmm I think It's a Toshiba disc drive. I went to the site but couldn't find any downloads for that.  Maybe reformatting could clear this right up?

[patio]

No a format will not do this ...you will still have bad block/clusters.
Is this a laptop? ?
I was unable to logon to Toshiba's site to find their disk tools.
Let me check my bag of tricks for a generic freebee...

[SadlyStupid]

Yeah it is. *censored* It won't? I heard reformatting would be the only way.

[patio]

Again, a  reformat will not repair/move bad clusters. Chkdisk or some other equivalent would need to be used.
If you format and re-install you will have the same situation with no errors being corrected.
If you can free up enough space on that drive to allow chkdisk to run properly than it should be fine.

The other option is if you are considering formatting then you could run chkdisk on the empty drive and let it fix things and then do a clean install of all your stuff.

How old is this drive ? ?
It might not have much time left.

[SadlyStupid]

hmm The drive isn't that old. Less than a year. I'm not sure exactly how long but just less than a year. I was thinking about doing a clean install. I thought if you reformatted it would just skip around the bad areas.I guess that's why I'm a novice? lol. But yeah it said it doesn't have enough disc space to replace the bad sectors and I have a little more than half free? How much more should I have to free?

[patio]

Format from a bootdisk...
Run chkdsk from the bootdisk when done...
Re-install.

[SadlyStupid]

ahaha Sounds like fun. Well Sounds plasusible.