How to check the broken sectors on the hard drive? Broken Sectors: Hard Drive

One of the biggest troubles for computer owners is the damage to sectors on the hard drive. These sectors are usually called broken, and the hard drive, on which there are damages, starts to "pour". Such problems often cause rather unpleasant consequences, including: inability to obtain information and loss of files; No possibility to run some programs. The computer may be completely paralyzed. That's why it's worth checking periodically the broken sectors on the hard drive.

Why look for errors on the hard drive?

Before you talk about how to check the broken sectors on your hard drive, you need to consider the technical nuances of this issue. Winchester is a sealed box, inside which are placed rotating discs, and it is on them that data is recorded. The information in the process of writing to the disk is divided into small memory cells, or sectors. If the read head can not remove information from a certain area, the file that is written to it will not be launched, and the operating system will issue a warning about it, indicating a file read error.

A good hard drive is characterized by whole sectors, as well as the ability to read any information. In most cases, the appearance of such defective areas indicates the probability of an early failure of the hard drive. If you track the appearance of the first broken sectors as quickly as possible, you can save a very significant part of important information by copying it to some other hard drive. It is for this reason that it is recommended to check the status of the hard drive.

The essence of the problem

If you consider that the hard drive is the custodian of the most important information on a personal computer, starting from the control system and the necessary software and ending with the archives of family photos in recent years, its failure can well cause a huge number of troubles. However, in this situation, one should not despair, because there is a way out of it. It is important to know how to check the broken sectors on the hard drive. Below there is an algorithm for performing some actions that can eventually restore the hard drive's performance.

The broken sectors on the hard disk can be located either in the place where the files of the system are located, which often causes the computer to not boot after turning on, or at the location of other files, which allows the user to load the PC. So, if we talk about how to check the broken sectors on the hard disk, then it should be noted that the method depends on the current state of affairs, that is, whether the control system is started or not.

If the computer's operating system boots

Fix bad sectors on the hard drive in the event that they did not affect the system's performance, it's quite simple. It is necessary to perform such actions to start the scan and then restore the sectors: first enter into "My Computer", and then call the context menu of the desired logical drive; In the Properties dialog box, select "Service", and then give the command to perform the test. Before starting the process, tick the "Automatically correct system errors" checkbox, then click "Start".

The user's participation in this completely ends. And the computer itself, using a whole complex of built-in programs, will check the hard drive for errors, and then he will correct all the detected problems. If we are talking about how to check the broken sectors on the hard disk, then if all these actions are performed the computer will need to be rebooted, since the program needs exclusive access to the HDD without the operating system.

If the computer does not start

To overcome the difficult situation, each owner should have at hand a disk with a virtual system. It needs to be inserted into the drive, after which the computer is turned on in normal mode. There is a boot from the disk, and after that you can perform all the manipulations specified in the previous section. If there are no "signs of life" for the operating system, you will have to tinker a bit more to repair the damaged sectors, and this requires an installation disk with OS or with a virtual system.

You can find damaged sectors on the hard disk even if you do not have a removable media with a virtual system, you can use the installation disk to do this. When it starts, you need to activate the "Restore the system" item. In the recovery process, the HDD surface is checked for broken sectors with further elimination of damage.

Special programs and opportunities

If you talk about how to check the broken sectors on your hard disk, you should know that the Recovery Console starts if necessary and without a boot disk. It is done this way: when you turn on the PC, you should press the F8 key, and in the list that appears, select the safe mode with command line support. You can check and then restore the hard drive and by running the program through the recovery console. After downloading it, you need to select a partition with the operating system installed. By default, Windows is installed on drive C, so you need to select it, and then press "1" and enter the administrator password. When the prompt appears in the line, you need to enter the command: CHKDSK ([drive:] [[route] filename] [/ F] [/ R] .When you press Enter, the recovery process will begin. The recovery console in which the command should be specified: chkdsk c: / f / r.

Victoria - program for testing and recovery

One way to determine the possibility of a future failure or even to save a hard drive is to use software diagnostics and repairs through the Victoria program. It allows you to quickly find any damaged sectors, which will immediately be marked as non-working. Further, they will not be read at all, so that hangs and errors during reading will be eliminated. This software complex performs excellent diagnostics. After it, it becomes clear how much more your disk will work and whether it needs to be treated with a paid version of the software. In use, this program is quite simple, and much knowledge for this is not required. Even inexperienced beginners are able to conduct many tests, which can quite give interesting results.

You can consider an example of testing using Victoria and then recovering the hard drive. The application itself can be downloaded in the archive, there is no installer for it. The program takes about 600 kilobytes, which is negligible by modern standards. After launching, you will see the application window. It may seem complicated and incomprehensible, but everything is quite simple. By switching between tabs, you can get information about the status of the disk, its testing, settings and other parameters and functions.

Main settings

The TEST tab contains the necessary part of the program: testing for errors and the possibility of fixing them. In the working area of the program there are cubes that denote sectors. During the check, they will be painted depending on the current state. Gray sectors - good, green ones require more time for reading, but their condition is satisfactory. Orange means that reading takes a very long time, it is they that create braking when the HDD is running. They are still workers, but they will fail quite soon. Reds are damaged or completely unreadable. They can not be restored. In the presence of this phenomenon, it is worthwhile to think about changing the hard drive. Blue with a cross on reading cause a failure. The information from them is not restored, and they need to be redrawn so that data is not written to them later. After the start of the scan, the program will begin scanning, which takes a long time.

conclusions

To meet such troubles and be able to check the disk for broken sectors, anyone who actively uses a computer must have a boot disk with programs, for example, MHDD or Acronis Disk Director suite. Such simple utilities allow you to automatically perform the necessary verification, and then provide a detailed error report.