If I'm correct, no, not really. You have a WEAK sector, not a bad sector.
The weak sector is yes, often cause problems. If it's in a critical system area, yes, it causes unexpected behaviour: unaccessible files/folders and so.
And yes, in worst case if a system file/folder is not accessible for Windows, then it may crash with blue screen.
Having some (or even many) weak sectors may not cause noticeable issues - but even one can cause disaster, depending on its location.
Real "bad sector" would never cause problem - as it is no longer used (instead the spare area used for all reads/writes).
But weak sectors can yes, cause such issues.
> [*]Surface test / Read test reported one single bad sector at the beginning of the disk.
Yes, it reports this unreadable sector.
> I ran CHDSK with full options, which reported making corrections to the file system.
I really wonder why...
The Support -> Frequently Asked Questions page: What is a weak sector? How to repair weak sectors?
https://www.hdsentinel.com/hard_disk_ca ... ectors.php
clearly describes that chkdsk does not fix it - but making things worse.
> [*]Short self-test of the disk aborts shortly after beginning.
Yes, it is completely normal and expected. This is also described on that page.
> [*]Surface test / Disk repair stopped when reaching that same sector, and crashed the computer with the same blue screen.
This sounds interesting.
This test designed exactly to repair that particular sector (and possible others).
If blue screen happens, I'd worry that it is related to a special system file (maybe a Windows system file / important driver file or so) and any repairing attempt may cause troubles.
> [*]Surface test / Read + Write + Read test refuses to run, because the disk contains a Windows Desktop
> (this is my data disk, but all the User files of Windows have been installed there instead of on my system disk).
Yes, this is completely normal and expected.
Also this test would not help in this case. The Read+write+read (refresh data area) is absolutely not designed to repair disks.
As the description of this test suggests, this designed to refresh the sectors (which are still readable, working, just may be slower than should). Designed mostly for flash-storage, to refresh pendrives / memory cards, but works on hard disks - but only if they are still perfect.
> What would you advise ? Is it really necessary to run a destructive repair for a single bad sector ? If yes, which one ?
Keep trying the Disk menu -> Surface test -> Disk repair test as this is designed exactly to repair such WEAK sector and improve the situation.
If required, yes, the weak sector will be replaced by a sector from the spare area, but in most cases, this is not really required, the sector can be repaired to restore its status to normal.
If this does not help, I'd recommend to start Disk menu -> Surface test -> Read test again.
The test will find and show the number of the appropriate sector in the bottom - and then you may cancel the test.
Please click on the disk surface map to show the raw disk contents of the sectors.
Navigate to the appropriate sector and when the error displayed (which means it is not readable) then you may try manual repair by the "Repair" button on the bottom.
Before this repair, I'd try to use the "Detect file information" option to attempt to detect which file is affected - just to be sure.
If it's damaged, maybe it is possible to replace/fix it after the disk sector is repaired.
If none of these work, then it means the operating system may be already damaged and many function(s) may be not working correctly.
It is possible that some other important system file(s) already damaged.
Then you may try to boot from a live Windows CD/DVD/pendrive and start Hard Disk Sentinel Pro Portable. In that, you can also try the above (Disk repair test or manual repair) which should work - as then the possible damaged Windows OS is not loaded.
And if things still do not work and/or after this procedure you still experience blue screens, it means that this Windows installation may have so serious damages, so after backup of important files/folders, I'd attempt the destructive Reinitialise disk surface test (from the above mentioned live Windows) and re-install the system. But I suspect this would be not required.
> Despite searching the offered resources, I could not make out the meaning of the software warning that the
> one "weak sector" on the disk (flagged as "bad" by Read test, not "weak") "may be remapped any time in the later use of the disk".
No. The read test shows the sectors with red which are unreadable or unwriteable (depending on the type of the test).
This red ("bad") block shows the location of the weak sector, which is still actively used - and causing troubles.
Real "bad sectors" are no longer used and never cause troubles, so they would never appear on the disk surface (see
https://www.hdsentinel.com/faq.php#health or the help for more information about bad sectors).
> Does this mean I am at liberty to remap it at some point in the future, and if so, should I do it ? And if yes, how do I do it ?
Things do not work this way.
The firmware of hard disk (or SSD) determines when a sector should be remapped.
With special methods, for example with the Reinitialise disk surface or the Disk repair functions of Hard Disk Sentinel we can help the drive to recognise if the current sector is still usable, safe - so it can be still used.
Or by these, we can force the drive to recognise problems and attempt the remap (reallocation).
Usually 1-1 single weak sectors do not require remap / reallocation.
These are usually related to a sudden power failure / power loss, reset, accidental disconnection and so and if this happens during a write operation, the sector will be in such weak state.
It can be usually repaired without problems, without remapping.
> Does this mean, on the other hand, that Windows might decide
NO.
This is absolutely completely independent from Windows.
Windows does not (and can't) decide.
> to remap it all by itself when
Windows (chkdsk) can "fix" by marking it as bad. But this happens in the level of the file system, so the file system will happily show "bad sector" without actual repairing. This causes even more troubles as
- the weak sector is still there, not repaired
- any cloning attempt may still fail due to the physically not repaired sector
- if somehow cloning may complete, the cloned partition will show "bad sector" even on a new, 100% perfect (really perfect) drive
- chkdsk marks entire cluster as bad, so may affect bigger part of file/folder than repairing of a single sector
This is why we'd need to perform the repairing - or at least help the hard disk itself to repair by these tests.
