Does format command map out bad sectors?

  • Thread starter Thread starter liu
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liu

I have an old 40GB Maxtor drive that can't be recognized by an old PC.
I mounted fine with an external USB case on a new PC. I then used Disk
Management tool on Windows 2000 to format the HD. It takes 2-3 hours
and it stucked at 71% for a while. The final total size of the HD
becomes 32GB instead of maybe 35GB that you usually get from a 40GB
drive.

I wonder if format command actually map out bad sectors of the HD so my
drive is probably healthier than it was before??

Thanks for any suggestions!
 
BTW, are these files (eg. file0001.chk, etc) inside found.000 bad
sectors? I have another drive with these files. I've not tried to
delete them since I'm afraid I might bring back the bad sectors.

Thanks.
 
liu said:
I have an old 40GB Maxtor drive that can't be recognized by an old PC.
Click to expand...

What were the symptoms when it couldnt ?
Does it show up in the bios ?
Or is it just not visible in My Computer in XP ?
I mounted fine with an external USB case on a new PC.
I then used Disk Management tool on Windows 2000 to
format the HD. It takes 2-3 hours and it stucked at 71%
for a while. The final total size of the HD becomes 32GB
instead of maybe 35GB that you usually get from a 40GB drive.
Click to expand...
I wonder if format command actually map out bad sectors of
the HD so my drive is probably healthier than it was before??
Click to expand...

In theory, yes. In practice with such a large number of bads,
its on its last legs and likely wont be much use, essentially
because what appears to be bad at format time is likely
to be quite variable. In other words if you repeatedy scan
for bads, you'll get a different set every time.

You should use PowerMax on the drive inside the PC to
get a better idea about how dead it is. It can map bads too.
BTW, are these files (eg. file0001.chk, etc)
inside found.000 bad sectors?
Click to expand...

Nope, bad files found by scandisk type programs.
I have another drive with these files. I've not tried to delete
them since I'm afraid I might bring back the bad sectors.
Click to expand...

It wont. They are just fragments of files that are usually the
result of the system rebooting without the file being closed.
 
Thanks for the quick response and information.
Does it show up in the bios ?
Click to expand...
No, nothing showed up at all. It's on a PC that I've not turned on for
a while. Nothing showed up in BIOS and under Windows. I took it out and
made sure connections were fine. It still won't show up. It worked
before for a few years.

I will download PowerMax and try to format with that tool.

Thanks,

cpliu
 
No, nothing showed up at all. It's on a PC that I've not turned on for
a while. Nothing showed up in BIOS and under Windows. I took it out and
made sure connections were fine. It still won't show up. It worked
before for a few years.
Click to expand...

Loose or bad cable on that PC? Since it worked on your other PC, the
hard drive itself is probably not the problem.
I will download PowerMax and try to format with that tool.
Click to expand...

Don't rely on your old 40G for important stuff if it's picking up a
lot of bad sectors. When they start to go and low level format
doesn't help, chances are the whole drive will eventually lose the
ability to retain any file.

I'd start shopping for a new hard drive if you don't have another one
to use and you do need to have the old PC running.
 
liu said:
Thanks for the quick response and information.
Click to expand...
No, nothing showed up at all. It's on a PC that I've not turned on for
a while. Nothing showed up in BIOS and under Windows. I took it out
and made sure connections were fine. It still won't show up. It worked
before for a few years.
Click to expand...

You should check that the drive type entry is still set to AUTO.

It can end up set to NONE and then it wont show up in the bios.

It can be a bad ribbon cable too, you're
obviously not using it in the external case.

It can even be something as basic as a bad power connector
in the PC too, the metal tunnels can open up over time and
not make good contact. The best test for that possibility is
to try with one off one of the optical drives.
 
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