Good generic disk utility

Post by **YourGrandpa** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 3:51 am

I need a utility that will show me bad sectors and give me the option to repair or isolate them.

Post by **YourGrandpa** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 10:54 am

I should have started by saying that windows check disc isn't working due to some kind of hard drive access issue, or so it says. Windows asks if I want to schedule a disk check on restart. I select yes and nothing seems to happen on restart.

Besides, I'd like to something other than the pre-packaged one the comes with windows.

Post by **raw** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 12:00 pm

YourGrandpa wrote:I should have started by saying that windows check disc isn't working due to some kind of hard drive access issue, or so it says. Windows asks if I want to schedule a disk check on restart. I select yes and nothing seems to happen on restart.

Besides, I'd like to something other than the pre-packaged one the comes with windows.

Flag checkdisk for reboot because it will not repair bad sectors while Windows is running and has files in use. It needs exclusive access to the drive to flag bad sectors.

Post by **Tormentius** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 5:56 pm

Pruned. Try to keep the Gramps-bashing out of T&T.

Gramps: I don't quite understand why the Windows one isn't good enough for what you are trying to accomplish. It will get the job done quickly and will flag bad sectors for you. If it does turn up any bad sectors a low level format "might" be able to fix them but thats by no means certain.

Post by **YourGrandpa** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 10:46 pm

Tormentius wrote:Pruned. Try to keep the Gramps-bashing out of T&T.

Gramps: I don't quite understand why the Windows one isn't good enough for what you are trying to accomplish. It will get the job done quickly and will flag bad sectors for you. If it does turn up any bad sectors a low level format "might" be able to fix them but thats by no means certain.

Is there no other utility?

I've tried to use check disk and I'm not sure if it's working. When I tell it to perform check disk on restart and then restart the computer, the following happens.

System post.
Windows boot screen with loading bar.
Monitor turns off (no signal)
PC just sit there accessing the hard drive.

It might be performing the Check Disk, I can't tell. So I asked for another utility instead.

Post by **Tormentius** » Thu Jul 27, 2006 11:01 pm

YourGrandpa wrote:
It might be performing the Check Disk, I can't tell. So I asked for another utility instead.

I couldn't find any that looked trustworthy. If its sitting there and accessing the HDD try leaving it for an hour or two. Full checkdisk scans sometimes can take quite awhile to complete. If that doesn't do it post back and we'll go from there.

Post by **YourGrandpa** » Fri Jul 28, 2006 12:13 am

I did that and restarted. But the monitor never came back on. I'm not really sure what it did, nor could I tell if it found any errors or how many.

Post by **+JuggerNaut+** » Fri Jul 28, 2006 1:29 am

not sure if this is exactly what you're looking for, but i've used various tools from the BART PE site with no issues. look at Disk Tool:

http://www.nu2.nu/utils/

Post by **YourGrandpa** » Fri Jul 28, 2006 2:49 am

Looks like it works, somewhat. Though it only gives me the option to select one drive and I can't tell which drive it's letting me select. It also has a max error detect of 1000, so if you have more than 1000 errors (which I seem to have), it won't complete the test.

Post by **FragaGeddon** » Fri Jul 28, 2006 3:26 am

There's one really good tool I believe and it's free. Just have to find out what it was called.

Post by **FragaGeddon** » Fri Jul 28, 2006 3:36 am

Well it's called SpinRite, but it's not free.

Post by **Tormentius** » Fri Jul 28, 2006 4:50 am

YourGrandpa wrote:Looks like it works, somewhat. Though it only gives me the option to select one drive and I can't tell which drive it's letting me select. It also has a max error detect of 1000, so if you have more than 1000 errors (which I seem to have), it won't complete the test.

IMO if you're hitting more than 1,000 errors its time to backup your stuff and retire that drive.

Post by **Tormentius** » Fri Jul 28, 2006 4:51 am

FragaGeddon wrote:Well it's called SpinRite, but it's not free.

Thanks. I was thinking of that product but the name just wasn't coming to mind.

Post by **FragaGeddon** » Fri Jul 28, 2006 4:54 am

I had to dig through some cd's to remember WTF it was called.

Post by **YourGrandpa** » Fri Jul 28, 2006 11:23 am

FragaGeddon wrote:Well it's called SpinRite, but it's not free.

I've had this before and found it again. I'll give it a try.

Thanks.

Post by **YourGrandpa** » Fri Jul 28, 2006 11:30 am

Tormentius wrote:
YourGrandpa wrote:Looks like it works, somewhat. Though it only gives me the option to select one drive and I can't tell which drive it's letting me select. It also has a max error detect of 1000, so if you have more than 1000 errors (which I seem to have), it won't complete the test.
IMO if you're hitting more than 1,000 errors its time to backup your stuff and retire that drive.

I've got two new 74 gig raptors coming (warranty) to replace my RAID array, because I've had to repair windows twice in the last month and the drives were ticking. I also wanted to test my storage drive for errors too. But if I can't tell which drive the program is testing, how do I know? :icon32:

Post by **YourGrandpa** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 1:51 am

Spinrite is the deal. Thanks for the reminder.

My two new Raptor drives arrived today and I got my video cards sold. My new video card should be here by Friday. So it's looking like a computer rebuild weekend.