Hard Disk Sentinel box

Hard Disk Sentinel

Q&A Knowledge Base

Why bad sectors still reported after Disk Repair test shows no errors?

Print article
0.00

The Disk menu -> Surface test -> Disk Repair test of Hard Disk Sentinel Pro is not designed to "hide" the bad sectors already detected by the drive (so displayed in the text description).

In general, there is no need to fix (repair) bad sectors displayed by Hard Disk Sentinel as these bad sectors already fixed by the hard disk: now the disk drive uses the spare area instead of these bad sectors, all read / write operations use the spare area. This is called "reallocation".

So later disk operations (and any disk test) will not show/use the bad sectors: those bad sectors already fixed, so ideally (if all such sectors detected, fixed) the disk test should show 10000 good blocks only.

This is generally why manufacturers allow some or more of such bad sectors and they do not offer replacement until the amount of problems reach a designed threshold (when the Health % value is 0 % in Hard Disk Sentinel). More information: I have bad sectors and my disk health is 90%. Do I need to worry or ask for replacement drive?

The problem is that re-allocations may risk data corruption / data loss and can cause system instability. Also the problem is that when bad sectors already found, the chances for further bad sectors increase, so we can expect even more of them - which may fill the spare area completely very quickly.

Ideally hard disk drives/SSDs (even with such bad sectors) may work without problems, but (especially if the count of bad sectors is high) this may be not always true: re-allocations can risk data corruption and can cause system instability. So having high number of reallocated sectors (and low health) is risky.

Relatively low number of bad sectors can be acceptable, as mentioned at I have bad sectors and my disk health is 90%. Do I need to worry or ask for replacement drive?

Generally the Disk Repair test designed to detect and fix sectors NOT (yet) reallocated (so still actively used by the disk drive) as these not mentioned as bad sectors in the text description.
These sectors are usually referred as weak (pending) sectors and these can cause that files, folders are not accessible, not readable, so it is not possible to open/copy files, not possible to boot to the system and so. For more information, please check: Hard disk case: weak sectors

In this case the Disk Repair (and other tests in the software) help to detect and fix these sectors: to
- force the disk drive to reallocate (so prevent further use) or
- if the sector can be re-used, then restore to normal state (as in many cases this is possible and better solution)
In any case, the appropriate file(s) / folder(s) become readable, usable again.

So in general the Disk Repair test improves the usability of the hard disk drive - but may not improve the Health % value.

And if the test does not show errors (which means the hard disk is now stable, all possible bad sectors already re-allocated and fixed - which is a positive thing, as then you can be sure that all issues already detected, fixed), it is possible to acknowledge the reported problems and remove them from the text description, to improve the health back to even 100% as then the current installed software will only report future issues (if there will be).
This is described at How to repair hard disk drive? How to eliminate displayed hard disk problems?

So generally you'd not need Hard Disk Sentinel to repair the displayed bad sectors (as they already repaired) but you'd need Hard Disk Seninel to
- verify/confirm that there are no further (currently un-detected) problems - and fix them
- alert about possible further issues, health degradations in the future
which could cause data corruption / data loss (as the chance of newer issues is higher if the drive is not perfect).

It is always good idea to use Report menu -> Send test report to developer option, so then it is possible to check the actual situation of any hard disk drive or SSD and advise about it.

Why bad sectors still reported after Disk Repair test shows no errors?

The Disk menu -> Surface test -> Disk Repair test of Hard Disk Sentinel Pro is not designed to "hide" the bad sectors already detected by the drive (so displayed in the text description).

In general, there is no need to fix (repair) bad sectors displayed by Hard Disk Sentinel as these bad sectors already fixed by the hard disk: now the disk drive uses the spare area instead of these bad sectors, all read / write operations use the spare area. This is called "reallocation".

So later disk operations (and any disk test) will not show/use the bad sectors: those bad sectors already fixed, so ideally (if all such sectors detected, fixed) the disk test should show 10000 good blocks only.

This is generally why manufacturers allow some or more of such bad sectors and they do not offer replacement until the amount of problems reach a designed threshold (when the Health % value is 0 % in Hard Disk Sentinel). More information: I have bad sectors and my disk health is 90%. Do I need to worry or ask for replacement drive?

The problem is that re-allocations may risk data corruption / data loss and can cause system instability. Also the problem is that when bad sectors already found, the chances for further bad sectors increase, so we can expect even more of them - which may fill the spare area completely very quickly.

Ideally hard disk drives/SSDs (even with such bad sectors) may work without problems, but (especially if the count of bad sectors is high) this may be not always true: re-allocations can risk data corruption and can cause system instability. So having high number of reallocated sectors (and low health) is risky.

Relatively low number of bad sectors can be acceptable, as mentioned at I have bad sectors and my disk health is 90%. Do I need to worry or ask for replacement drive?

Generally the Disk Repair test designed to detect and fix sectors NOT (yet) reallocated (so still actively used by the disk drive) as these not mentioned as bad sectors in the text description.
These sectors are usually referred as weak (pending) sectors and these can cause that files, folders are not accessible, not readable, so it is not possible to open/copy files, not possible to boot to the system and so. For more information, please check: Hard disk case: weak sectors

In this case the Disk Repair (and other tests in the software) help to detect and fix these sectors: to
- force the disk drive to reallocate (so prevent further use) or
- if the sector can be re-used, then restore to normal state (as in many cases this is possible and better solution)
In any case, the appropriate file(s) / folder(s) become readable, usable again.

So in general the Disk Repair test improves the usability of the hard disk drive - but may not improve the Health % value.

And if the test does not show errors (which means the hard disk is now stable, all possible bad sectors already re-allocated and fixed - which is a positive thing, as then you can be sure that all issues already detected, fixed), it is possible to acknowledge the reported problems and remove them from the text description, to improve the health back to even 100% as then the current installed software will only report future issues (if there will be).
This is described at How to repair hard disk drive? How to eliminate displayed hard disk problems?

So generally you'd not need Hard Disk Sentinel to repair the displayed bad sectors (as they already repaired) but you'd need Hard Disk Seninel to
- verify/confirm that there are no further (currently un-detected) problems - and fix them
- alert about possible further issues, health degradations in the future
which could cause data corruption / data loss (as the chance of newer issues is higher if the drive is not perfect).

It is always good idea to use Report menu -> Send test report to developer option, so then it is possible to check the actual situation of any hard disk drive or SSD and advise about it.

 

Browse the Q&A Knowledge Base

Categories of the Q&A Knowledge Base

Hard Disk Sentinel home

Download Hard Disk Sentinel