How do I know if I have bad sectors

Let’s speak about how we can find out if we have some bad sectors on our hard disk. A simple read error that appears like this “Error reading from source” should be a problem that you really need to give a special attention.
This type or error can appear when you try to run a application, a video game, a movie, etc. & it means that the information that is on your hard disk is no longer accessible for the computer, this can be a part of the application & still we will get the same error. Bad sectors maybe already on our computer but now we need to find out if that problem is software or hardware. An error in the FAT system can create the reading error & the problem is not so big if we just re-write it. The serious problem appears only when you reinstall the operation system & still get the same error over & over again. In this case we must reboot & in the DOS mode we must run the application called Scandisk (Scandisk from Windows can trick us in this case and it might show us some false values) and this will check every cluster & sector on the hard disk and will indicate witch are the bad sectors, how big they are and in what partition of our hard disk exists.
Another way that we can concern if we have bad blocks is if we get for no reason the all ready know blue screen (remember also when we try to run an application). Many of us don’t even think of the blue screen error that it could be from the bad sectors & only after a full scan of the computer, finds out.
The free space that is indicated by the operation system can be another way to tell if we have or don’t have bad sectors. Let’s say that we have a partition of 10 gigabits & it is absolutely empty and the amount of free space, when we ask for this option, is shown that the partition has only 8.5 gigabits. In this case you must run a bad sector program over that partition to see if everything is ok. Do not get trick because of the safety space that every hard disk have. The safety hard disk is the measure of the hard disk for writing down the files. Surely every one of you knows the safety space but just didn’t know that this is its name. The safety space is the space that is not indicated by any operation program, for example: you buy a 100 gigabits hard disk & when you install it the operation system will show only 99.2 gigabits. Why? Well let’s just say that is more of technical information & is harder to explain.
When you install the operation system on your computer or any other application on the computer you might get the error report that looks just like this “cant copy to source” can also indicates the apparition of some bad blocks. Know we must see if the bad sectors are in the FAT sequence or a partition.
So if you don’t have any kind of the errors that we speak about it doesn’t mean that you don’t have bad sectors on your hard disk. For your safety & lack of concern it is better that once in a while to run a Scandisk or another application that identifies the bad sectors. Conclusion: we can never say that we don’t have bad sectors until we check with a license application specially designed to find those problems.

Why bad sectors appear

Why the bad sectors appear? That is a very debate problem as the engineers are struggling to explain it. But some general ideas of why the bad blocks appear to the hard disk have every person that has this problem. The reasons that they appear are explained in long forums discussions & also explained in the specialty magazines.

Let’s begin by telling you some generals reasons for which bad sectors appears:
- the reading heads are sustaining them self over the platens for that little distance whit the help of the air flow that creates from the high rotation of the platens; when the platens are stopped the air flow disappears & the reading head are gently touch the surface of the platens whit no risk for the hard drive. However, if the reading heads are touching themselves on a high speed that will create a disaster for the hard drive & also the bad sectors appear.

- another factor that can create bad sectors on your hard drive is the mechanical shocks. Hit the hard drive or accidentally drop it from your hand increase the apparition of the bad sectors. Also if the mechanical shock must not be applied directly to the hard drive & still creates bad sectors, for an example lets say that your entire tower case drops from the support. In the mechanical sector we must include the vibration. If you have the tower case of your computer opened & the hard drive is running, if you move it from its place or lean it from one side to another can also increase the chances of the creation of the bad sectors. The hard drive can sustain vibration by only a couple of grams & if you drop your hard disk on the floor consider yourself lucky if you don’t get some multiple bad sectors.

- heat can create bad sectors; inside your hard disk the platens are moving with speeds between 4400 rpm to 15000 rpm. Because of this speeds the hard disk is producing a very important quantity of heat and doesn't eliminate very much of it throw a standard cooling system on the computers. Is you notice that the hard drive is very hot when working you can consider installing an additional cooling fan especially for the hard disk. So the high temperatures can make some components of the hard disk not to work properly & so it leads to the apparition of bad sectors.

- the mechanical and electronic parts of the hard disk can create bad sectors if they malfunction. Most of you already know that the hard disk has a board full whit electronic piece. If some of those transistors or coils are not working in normal parameters & dos not transmits the right information or the right induction currents that where meant to be it can lead to a malfunction of the reading heads and so to the creation of the bad sectors.

- the demagnetization of the hard disk platens can also create bad sectors. The demagnetization can appear because of the cheap quality offered from the manufacturers or because of the head slap. If the hard drive is accidentally hit some particles on the reading heads can detach from them & creating a small and fine dust that will remain on the platens and when the reading heads are returning to that sector to perform a different action it will be stopped by that dust. You can already understand that the spot where the dust is already is transformed to bad sectors.

- one factor that was creating more hard disk bad sector then no other (that of course if we look in past, for the actually hard disk that are on the market is no longer available) is the power clinch. The newer hard disk has safety pieces to prevent damage from the clinch but is not always working for all of the hard disks.

Old Hdd vs New Hdd

From 5 megabytes to 1 terabit. That’s the story of the progression of the hard disks that was reach in only 20 years. The hard disks are always remarketed when some problems appears at them. Older hard disks, newer hard disk there was always a common problem that it is not solve even today with al of the technology & that problem is bad sectors.
The older hard disk where more exposed to the apparition of bad sectors because of many factors, & that factors where eliminated on the way of progress. In the factors area the common problem was the big size of the hard disks. A bigger case that protects the hard disk means more protection from eliminating the heat that is generated from the moving parts. This heat can only create bad sectors. Actually the case of the hard drive was actually so big & they reach a weight of even 3-4 kilograms. The new hard disks are protected from the heat problem because they have safety measures for this problem & the risk of apparition of bad sectors because of the heat was minimize but not eliminated.
The new hard disks have safety measures when the computer is being shutting down. That only ensure a better ergonomic function of it, and the risk of apparition of bad sector when the computer stops is also at a minimum level; the older hard disk didn't have the protection system for the off line mode & when the computer stops the hard disk also stops because of the lack of power. Shorter said when we cut down the power the reading heads are dropped exactly where they ware & so the apparition of bad sectors increases.
But an advantage did appear at the oldest hard disks & that is the speed of platens (rpm); even if they have a very reduce capacity 600 megabits to 3 gigabits the rotation per minute was smaller & that decreases the chance that two of the reading heads to hit each other (then the speed was at a maximum 3400 rpm) so decreasing the bad sectors apparition. In our days the high performance hard disk of 1 terabits are reaching speeds of 10400 rpm, a tremendous speed but with that speed also cams the risk of the bad blocks.
If we can speak of another difference between the old hard disks bad block & the bad blocks of the new ones that surely must be the functions that each other is completing. A older disk model has very few functions but that is not the aspect that we are interested of but the fact that the less function it has the smaller chances that those parts to malfunction. In the new generation the hard disks have all kinds of option & function but if one of them stops working can easily lead to the creation of the bad sectors. To understand better the chances to broke one function from ten are smaller then to break one function from 50.
Of course if we generalize the discussion the risk that the new hard disk to create bad sector is significantly smaller; otherwise the older hard disks where more predicted to create bad sectors. But bad sectors remained bad sector even in the apparition of the hard disk & even today we can minimize the risk of their apparition not entirely eliminate. In the end we can say that in the past the bad sectors where created easier then in our time but still bad sectors remains.

What is bad sectors

First of all we must understand what an error is & how errors can appears. The misapprehension between the data & between the boards & the compatibility of them can result in an error. All of the errors are supported by the hard disk & can be very destructive to it.

To make it easy for all of to understand what a bad sector is we will try to explain it away from the technical terms. Consider you have a piece of paper and the entire paper is the writable zone where your hard disk saves information. On this piece of paper we draw lines to divide it in small squares. One small square represents a sector of your hard disk, and if we divide one square in to 4 squares we can obtain, imaginary of course, 4 cluster. Ok know you want to write a sentence on the paper. You will notice that there no room to write the sentence in only one small square & you will need a certain amount of squares from different portions of the paper; know write down your sentence.

After that take scissor & cut a word from the sentence in the middle of it. You as a person can still read the sentence because we can realize what word is messing from the sentence but a computer to show you that sentence needs all of the words to reproduce it for you. The part that you cut from the sentence is our bad block, and now you can underst & how the hard disk functions. And all of you know that on the driver is more then a sentence written, and that it contains millions of letters & numbers & also holds information about all of the boards, along whit their drivers, that are in your personal computer.

Some surface errors have connections whit the hardware equipment of the computer directly & can create physically bad sectors on the hard drive, & that means a cluster from the hard disk sector is unreadable. The writing action on the hard disk is possible thanks to a “writing head” that floats at a distance of 0.3 microns over the writable layer of the disk. If one or more heads actually touch the writable disk the chance to destroy that cluster is almost 100%.

The bad sectors are in definition a portion of the hard disk writable part that cann't be change (read or write). So because of this definition the data that are on the bad sectors may be lost forever.
You can be easily be trick to think that your hard disk have bad sectors, most of the time are errors that appear because of the over churching of the partition or of the Windows directory.

Bad sectors also known as simple as “bad” can appear to any hard disk after a time of function. In most of the cases the bad sectors that appear aren't in a bigger quantity from your stocking space (about 0.01% for newer hard disk). For the new gene ration of hard disk there are some spare clusters just for these problems. When a bad sector appears the safety measure remove the information that it contains to a spear cluster & that way avoids the lost of data or the corruption of the data.

In a generally idea a bad sector is a big problem for your hard disk & for your entire computer. There are some programs that can repair them if there aren't physically & are from data corruption but that is another story about the hard disks.