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From: Nil on 10 Dec 2009 01:28
Seems like this crew has dealt with every possible computer problem, so
maybe someone has some advice.

My boot hard disk has gone bad. Chkdsk first started reporting bad
sectors, and when I'd run it again every day or two, the number
increased. I bought a new disk and today used Acronis True Image Home
11 to first make a disk image to my external backup disk, then to clone
the old disk to the new. One thing I didn't anticipate... the sectors
that had been marked bad by chkdsk seem to have been cloned to the new
disk as well. So, now when I run chkdsk on the new disk it reports a
huge number of bad sectors, but I know the disk is OK.

I really REALLY want to avoid reformatting and reinstalling the OS and
all my programs. Is there any way to, like, reset the chkdsk records,
or "recertify" the integrity of the disk or something? Or is there some
other way to clone the old damaged disk to avoid the problem?
From: John Braner on 10 Dec 2009 05:35
Nil wrote:
> Seems like this crew has dealt with every possible computer problem, so
> maybe someone has some advice.
>
> My boot hard disk has gone bad. Chkdsk first started reporting bad
> sectors, and when I'd run it again every day or two, the number
> increased. I bought a new disk and today used Acronis True Image Home
> 11 to first make a disk image to my external backup disk, then to clone
> the old disk to the new. One thing I didn't anticipate... the sectors
> that had been marked bad by chkdsk seem to have been cloned to the new
> disk as well. So, now when I run chkdsk on the new disk it reports a
> huge number of bad sectors, but I know the disk is OK.
>
> I really REALLY want to avoid reformatting and reinstalling the OS and
> all my programs. Is there any way to, like, reset the chkdsk records,
> or "recertify" the integrity of the disk or something? Or is there some
> other way to clone the old damaged disk to avoid the problem?

You're supposed to make the backup images before the disk goes bad ;-)
If you try to image it now - you can't trust the data you're pulling off the disk - since there are
problems reading it. CHKDSK doesn't mark bad sectors - only low level formatting does that - what
you're seeing is the result of not being able to read the original disk properly.

Does this make sense?

--
===========
John Braner

jbraner(a)NOblueyonderSPAM.co.uk
http://www.soundclick.com/johnbraner
From: Tom B on 10 Dec 2009 08:16


At this point, I wouldn't trust it. By the time you find all the stuff to
recover everything, you still won't know for sure if you got it just right.

I would just start your re-install and forget about it. Just be sure to
image that as soon as you get it done.


From: Nil on 10 Dec 2009 10:39
On 10 Dec 2009, John Braner <me(a)myhouse.com> wrote in
cakewalk.audio:

> You're supposed to make the backup images before the disk goes bad
> ;-)

Doh! Now you tell me!

> If you try to image it now - you can't trust the data you're
> pulling off the disk - since there are problems reading it. CHKDSK
> doesn't mark bad sectors - only low level formatting does that -
> what you're seeing is the result of not being able to read the
> original disk properly.
>
> Does this make sense?

Too much sense.

The frustrating this is that all the files seem to be intact and the
system is working well. It's just that almost half the capacity of the
partition is marked by the system as being unusable.

It's times like this that I miss the old DOS/Win98 days. Then I could
just copy all the files from one system disk to another pre-formatted
hard disk, then boot up with a floppy and perform the SYS command to
make the new disk bootable, and voila! I don't know how to do that with
an NT/XP/etc. type system.
From: Nil on 10 Dec 2009 10:41
On 10 Dec 2009, "Tom B" <nottb(a)123.com> wrote in cakewalk.audio:

> At this point, I wouldn't trust it. By the time you find all the
> stuff to recover everything, you still won't know for sure if you
> got it just right.

I'm beginning to think you're right. It's just that it will take me
weeks to get it back to the way I like it. Maybe after three years it's
time to clean out the closet, so to speak.

> I would just start your re-install and forget about it. Just be
> sure to image that as soon as you get it done.

Oh, yes.
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