3 Simple Tips to Check Hard Drive for Bad Sectors - Comprehensive Guide?

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Updated by

Sherly 

Updated on April 22, 2024

Bad sectors refer to permanently damaged areas on a hard disk, resulting from improper shutdowns, dust contamination, virus attacks, and more. Data within bad sectors is irretrievably lost and cannot be stored. If your computer starts making unusual noises or slows down, it might indicate the presence of bad sectors on your hard drive. How can you identify bad sectors on your hard drive? Tools has prepared three methods for you.

Tip 1. Use Tool Partition Master - Easy & Safe
Tip 2. Run CHKDSK Utility - Requires Basic Computing Knowledge
Tip 3. Check Hard Drive for Bad Sectors in Partition Properties - Limited Information

Tip 1. Use the tool Partition Master

tools Partition Master Professional is a simpler and more professional bad sector detection tool. Its "Disk Surface Test" function enables you to test the bad sectors on the hard drive and highlight them in red, helping you identify their locations and quantity. Additionally, it doesn't necessitate entering any commands, making it more user-friendly for beginners.

Go install this tool and start testing the bad sectors on your hard drive now.

Step 1. Launch tools Partition Master. Right-click the hard drive that you want to check and choose "Surface Test".

Step 2. The operation will be performed at once and all bad sectors will be marked in red.

AOMEI Partition Assistant not only performs a disk surface test to locate bad sectors (if any) on the hard drive but also directly detects the disk's health status to provide more comprehensive information. The tool evaluates your disk's health score directly and issues warnings when necessary.

Here's how to check hard drive health:

Step 1. Launch AOMEI Partition Assistant and click the blue arrow to activate the "Disk Health" feature under the "Discovery" section.

Click the blue arrow.

Step 2. Choose the target disk and click the "Refresh" button. You'll then see the disk's health status.

Choose the target disk and click "Check Now".

Moreover, Partition Master provides an amazing feature, “Check File System.” This feature lets you fix the bad sectors detected during the surface test.

Here's how to fix bad sectors using the Partition Master tool:

Step 1. Right-click the problematic partition.

Step 2. Choose "Tools" > "First Aid".

Step 3. Confirm whether you want to hide the partition or not.

Step 4. In the Check File System window, select the "Try to fix errors if found" option.

Step 5. Click "Start" to begin checking for errors on the partition.

With this simple click, you can more intuitively understand the health status of your disk and whether you need to replace it with a new one. If your health score is low, it's advisable to clone your original data to a new disk事先 to prevent data loss. You might be interested in the following topics:

Tip 2. Use the CHKDSK Utility

The Command Prompt can not only perform basic disk management tasks but also scan, locate, and repair bad sectors on the hard drive. However, compared to Method 1, this method may be a bit more difficult. Please be sure to read the steps below carefully:

Step 1. Search for "Command Prompt" in the Windows 10/11 search bar and select "Run as administrator."

Note: Make sure you run Command Prompt as an administrator. Otherwise, you might not be able to run the chkdsk commands due to insufficient privileges.

Step 2. In the Command Prompt window, type the commands and press Enter to execute the check disk utility: chkdsk C:

Here, replace “C” with the correct disk letter.

You May Also Like: Run CHKDSK to Check and Repair Hard Drive

Then CMD displays the file system type first, and the check proceeds through various stages:

Here are the translations for the given language segments into English: 1. Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure. 2. Stage 2: Examining file name linkage. 3. Stage 3: Examining security descriptor.

Here are the translations of the languages mentioned in the image: 1. 简体中文 (Simplified Chinese): Check disk commands 2. 英语 (English): Check disk commands 3. 日本語 (Japanese): ディスクのチェックコマンド 4. 한국어 (Korean): 디스크 체크 명령어 5. Français (French): Commandes de vérification du disque 6. Deutsch (German): Festplattenprüfcmds 7. Español (Spanish): Comandos de verificación de disco 8. Italiano (Italian): Comandi di controllo disco 9. Português (Portuguese): Comandos para verificar disco 10. Русский (Russian): Команды проверки диска 11. العربية (Arabic): الأوامر لفحص القرص 12. Türkçe (Turkish): Disk kontrol komutları 13. עברית (Hebrew): פקודות בדיקה של ה드יסק 14. Polski (Polish): Polecenia sprawdzające dysk 15. Українська (Ukrainian): Підписи до команд перевірки диску 16. български (Bulgarian): Команди за проверка на диск 17. Čeština (Czech): Kontrolní příkazy disku 18. Svenska (Swedish): Skicka kontrollkommandon för hårddisk 19. Magyar (Hungarian): Lemez ellenőrzési parancsok 20. Ελληνικά (Greek): Εντολές επιθεώρησης δίσκου Please note that the image seems to be missing some languages, and the provided text is a combination of abbreviations and full translations.

While performing the check disk process, CMD will inform you if any bad sectors exist. Share this article to help more users learn how to run the CHKDSK commands to check for bad sectors on a hard drive.

Tip 3: Check for Bad Sectors on the Hard Drive in Partition Properties

In Windows 11/10/8/7 systems, apart from CMD, you can also utilize partition properties to check if your hard drive has bad sectors.

Note: If the target hard drive is already turned on, you won't be able to check it for bad sectors right away. Please power off the target hard drive before proceeding with the following steps.

Step 1. Click "This PC" and right-click on the target drive, then select "Properties."

Check disk in partition properties

Step 2. Click "Tools" and "Check" in the pop-up window. Choose "Automatically fix file system errors" or "Scan and attempt recovery of bad sectors" and click "Start."

If there are bad sectors, a prompt window will appear in time. If there are no bad sectors, it will display "No errors found."

When Should I Check a Hard Drive for Bad Sectors?

Bad sectors refer to sections of a hard drive that are permanently damaged. This can be caused by improper shutdowns, dust contamination, virus attacks, and more.

Bad sectors include logical and physical bad sectors. Physical bad sectors refer to physically damaged storage clusters on the hard drive, while logical bad sectors refer to those clusters that no longer function correctly.

When bad sectors appear on the hard drive, corresponding symptoms will also manifest. Generally, hard disk bad sectors can be detected when encountering the following scenarios:

Here are the translations of the provided statements into English: 1. The computer frequently makes unusual noises. 2. Blue screen or the computer becomes unresponsive. 3. A "file is corrupted" error message appears when opening the file. 4. The Windows system crashes. 5. The hard disk temperature is excessively high. 6. The hard drive fails to boot up. 7. It prevents computers from accessing data.

If you find many of them on a hard disk, remember to repair them. With the help of tools like Partition Master, you can easily test and repair bad sectors on your hard drive.

Conclusion

Bad sectors can lead to data loss, but this doesn't necessarily mean a hard drive with bad sectors is unusable. A bad sector won't directly cause your hard drive to fail. You can still use a hard drive with a few bad sectors until it completely fails. However, once bad sectors are detected, it's crucial to back up your data or promptly migrate the system to an SSD or another disk to prevent data loss and system crashes.

Through the above three methods, you can promptly determine if there are bad sectors on your hard drive. By backing up data in advance, you can prevent more significant losses. Share this article to inform more users.

"FAQs: Testing Bad Sectors on a Hard Drive"

For beginners, CHKDSK might seem a bit complicated. Below, we've listed three additional questions and answers to help you out. Feel free to read them if you need more information.

< strong >1. Does CHKDSK fix bad sectors?

You can use various CHKDSK commands and switches to fix hard drive errors. If you've detected bad sectors on the disk, try using the following command to repair it:

CHKDSK C: /R - Locates bad sectors on the C drive and attempts to recover readable information from the bad sectors. Replace "C:" with the letter of your target disk.

2. What should I do if my hard drive reports bad sectors?

You can usually fix bad sectors by using the built-in spare sectors on your hard drive:

Here are the translations for the given language instructions into English: 1. Use the Error Checking utility built into Microsoft Windows. 2. Double-click 'My Computer' and then right-click the hard drive. 3. Click 'Properties', and on the 'Tools' tab of the Properties dialog box, click 'Check Now' in the Error Checking Status area. 4. In the 'Check Disk' dialog box, select the 'Automatically fix file system errors' checkbox, select the 'Scan for and attempt to recover bad sectors' checkbox, and then click 'Start'.

This will usually repair a small number of bad sectors on the disk; however, it is worth noting that any information written to the bad sectors will usually be lost.

3. How do I test my hard drive for bad sectors?

You can use the error-checking utility provided by Microsoft Windows:

1. Double-click "My Computer" (or "This PC") and right-click on the hard disk. 2. From the shortcut menu, select "Properties," then click on the "Tools" tab in the Properties dialog box. 3. Click "Check" within the "Error Checking" section.

< strong > 4. Can a hard drive with bad sectors still be used? A hard drive with bad sectors can still be used to some extent, but it may not be as reliable or efficient as a healthy drive. Bad sectors are areas on the drive where data cannot be properly read or written due to physical damage or corruption. Here's what you need to know: 1. **Limited Data Storage**: The bad sectors will reduce the available storage space on the hard drive. You'll have fewer areas to save new files. 2. **Data Integrity**: Files stored on a hard drive with bad sectors are at risk of becoming corrupted. This can lead to file loss or errors when accessing the data. 3. **Performance Impact**: The hard drive might take longer to read and write data around the bad sectors, potentially slowing down your computer's performance. 4. **Worsening Condition**: If the bad sectors are due to physical damage, they can multiply over time. It's essential to back up important data regularly because the drive could fail completely. 5. **Software Workarounds**: There are tools that can reallocate bad sectors to unused areas of the drive, but this is only a temporary solution and doesn't fix the underlying issue. In summary, while a hard drive with bad sectors can still function, it's advisable to use it for less critical tasks or as a secondary storage device. It's crucial to backup important data regularly and consider replacing the drive if the number of bad sectors increases significantly.

It depends on the number of bad sectors on your hard drive. A hard drive with a small number of bad sectors can still function normally, but it's advisable to backup your data or migrate the operating system to another drive as soon as possible. However, if the disk has numerous bad sectors, it's highly recommended to clone it directly to a new disk. This is because the disk may fail at any time, potentially resulting in data loss.