Keep getting a scandisk, when booting up, due to bad sectors.

[tonysolomon]

The hard disk has Win 98SE. Everytime I try to boot up the pc I get an error message that says "one or two of your disks have bad sectors." Then it runs scandisk and trys to scan the surface check. I've ran Norton System Check, Norton Speed Disk, and Norton Optomization Wizard, as well as a complete scandisk. Nothing has stopped this error message from showing up. I would just like the OS to ignore those bad sectors upon boot up. Are there any suggestions?

[skhips]

What about Norton Disk Dr, which I imaginge you should have with the other utilities, this should find the bad sectors and mark them un-usable.


A:>scandisk c: /all /autofix

from a Win 98 boot disk is normally quirte good if you don't have any luck with the first.

:)

[tonysolomon]

Thanks. I ran both of those and they both said that there were no problems found on the C: drive, but when I rebooted I got the error message again. It asked me to hit any button to run a scandisk with surface test. I did. The last time I ran the surface test it took many hours, since it is a 20GB hard drive.

There are almost 1.4GB in bad sectors. I don't know why. I got a message one time, after a surface test, that at least one area of drive C: has sustained physical damage, possibly due to power failure.

[david eaton]

I would be inclined to find the maker of the drive, visit their website, and download their disk utilities. Running that should determine if there are bad sectors on the drive.

How old is this drive? It might be possible to claim under the manufacturers warranty if their diagnostics show errors. Worth a try, otherwise you may have to go shopping for a new one soon!

David

[tonysolomon]

Thanks david, I'll check it out.

[mjc]

There are almost 1.4GB in bad sectors.

Backup whatever you deem vital, get those diagnostics and consider your self damn lucky that you are still able to anything at all!

That drive is about push its last byte.

Do not mess around with any more atempts to fix it, just get your data saved.

[tonysolomon]

I would like to disable the feature that gives me that error message and asks me to hit a key to run the scandisk. I just want to bypass that and allow the OS to load. It's windows 98SE. Is it possible?

[jabarnutcase]

Did you run the manufactures disk utility as suggested? And, more importantly...Have you backed up your data as mjc suggested?

Bypassing scandisk won't make the problem go away. It may just make you forget about it until it's too late and all your data is lost! :eek:

I wouldn't mess with it. Back up your data, run the utility...And then, see if it's under warranty...You may get a new one.

If you have ever lost a hard drive before, you wouldn't wait on this!

I noticed you first posted this a week ago...What's been going on since then? :confused:

[mjc]

Before too long you will not an OS to load...the drive is dying, and it is not pretty.

[DwnMp3]

What you want to do is get a low level format ultily for ur harddrive, it will fix the bad sectors or keep your harddrive from trying to put data on them. you might be able to save the harddisk but u gotta burn ur data on cds or post it on the net or somthing, the format gets rid of everything.

[jabarnutcase]

There are almost 1.4GB in bad sectors. I don't know why. I got a message one time, after a surface test, that at least one area of drive C: has sustained physical damage, possibly due to power failure

Hi DwnMp3.....
This is not a Hard drive I would take the chance on "attempting to save"

[mjc]

Unless this is a 120GB+ drive the percentage of the drive that is damaged (over 1% and depending on size...if this were a 2.2GB drive it would be over 60%) it is just not worth playing around with, the chance of imminent catastrophic failure is extremely high.

It is a doorstop, paperweight or rifle target, no longer a data storage device.

[DwnMp3]

This is not a Hard drive I would take the chance on "attempting to save"

I ask you 'jabarnutcase' what is drive a?
It is a floppy.
What is drive b?
Another floppy.
What is drive c, the one we are talking about??
It is the root directory, a harddrive where windows lives....
This is not a Hard drive
Hmmm........

[Budfred]

DwnMp3,

He isn't saying it isn't a hard drive, he is saying that the hard drive seems to be dying and trying to save it is risking losing all the data on it.

[jabarnutcase]

Say what? The fact of the matter is that his drive....Yes his hard disk- In this case His c drive, the drive where Windows happens to reside is shot.

What part don't you understand???

(edit) Well you beat me to it Budfred. How he could get "this is not a hard drive" and think I'm actually saying it's "not a harddrive" is beyond me.

Why don't you read the whole sentence and figure it out.

[mjc]

It's not pinin', it's passed on, it is no more. It has ceased to be, it has expired and gone to see its maker, this is a late hard drive. It's a stiff, bereft of life and if you hadn't nailed him to the perch he'd be pushin up daisies, he's run down the curtain and joined the choir invisible. This is an ex-hard drive!!"

No amount of playing around is going to do what needs to be done, save as much of the existing data as possible!

[tonysolomon]

Sorry for not responding, sooner. I got a new job and haven't been on the Net in a few days. It's a 20GB drive. I finally backed it up about two weeks ago, using the Backupmypc program. I couldn't get it to backup using Norton's Ghost, Take Two, or MS98's backup program. It isn't actually my hard drive and the person who owns it doesn't want to pay for a new one. I myself am looking for an 80GB or 120GB hard drive.
I'm going to copy the 22.5GB that I have on my 30GB drive. I'll then take the 30GB out and use it as a backup. I think it's better for me to use a hard drive than 25+ CD-RWs.

Does anyone know where to find cheap 80GB, 120GB hard drives?

Where could I find a very cheap 20GB hard drive?

I would still like to bypass the scandisk. How would I do that? I want to be able to turn the PC on without being told to run scandisk.

Thanks for all of the feedback.

[Budfred]

If you are looking for a new hard drive, I would go with one of the major chain stores and look for the sales. They typically have at least one drive each week for about $1 per gig or less with rebates. If you want a used drive, you may actually end up paying more and 20gig drives are likely to be pretty pricey per gig...

[tonysolomon]

Budfred, wouldn't online shopping be cheaper than the stores? I will call the major stores and price the drives. I just got a $14 rebate, on 50 CD-Roms that only cost me $16, from Best Buy. I'm going to get two 512MB sticks of SDRAM for $50 each, after the $30 rebate, from Tigerdirect.com. That's why I was wondering about online stores. I do love those rebates. :)

What do you think about buying a used hard drive on E-bay?

[Budfred]

Online vendors are better for lots of things, but right now the best deals I have seen for hard drives have been at the chains. As for the RAM from TigerDirect, believe it when you see it, they are very poorly rated on www.resellerratings.com and I won't do business with them at all anymore after the last time I tried. You may be able to get some of the good deals from the chains by ordering online, but I prefer picking them up in the store when possible....

About eBay: I have found that the prices on eBay for used drives is not any better than new drives and you run the risk of getting ripped off. I don't even look anymore....

[mjc]

tonysolomon, turning off scandisk is not really an option here, the drive is on its last leg and avoiding the warnings are not going to get you or the owner anywhere. Check the drive with the manufacturer's diagnostics. He may be lucky and still have some warranty period left, that way he won't have to pay.

If the owner will not see that there is no avoiding this fate, then pack the system up and give it back to him. Do not ever touch it again. This is the kind of thing lawsuits are made out of.....

[tonysolomon]

I appreciate your insight. I'll be calling the stores tomorrow. I've dealt with Tigerdirect before. I bought a board and a CPU from them, but they were incompatible, even though the Tigerdirect salesperson said they went together. I spent $45 to have a computer shop tell me about the incompatibility, and wasted a lot of time trying to figure it out myself. They paid to have the board replaced, but didn't replace the $45. I sure would like to trust them enough to get that RAM. I'll check out your link. Thanks.

[jabarnutcase]

Hi tonysolomon
I'm at a bit of a loss here. It's been mentioned several times that it's worth a shot to download the manufacturers diagnostics to check the condition of the drive. (Including just now by mjc)
At the same time, you can find out if it's covered under warranty.
Most of them had three year warranties...(I believe it's been lowered to one year now for most), but that may be "grandfathered", and it's still three years.(Not sure)
It's been a while since I had to send one back, but when I have in the past, they have been very good about it....(Western digital and Maxtor at least)

Your "friend" may be missing out on a brand new hard drive for free!

[Budfred]

I sent a drive back to IBM and that went smoothly too.

As for the RAM, I have seen some pretty good deals for that around too. You might want to check out some of the other options before volunteering for the aggravation of TigerDirect.

[tonysolomon]

jabarnutcase, I'm just tired, because I meant to say that I liked the idea. I will go to the website tomorrow and also try to find out if the warranty is still good. Thank you all for your replies. I always take them all into consideration.

Edit: MJC, I looked at your post again. No worries about lawsuits, because it's a family member. Thanks, though.

[tonysolomon]

I downloaded Maxtor's PowerMax v.3.04, ran the tests and got an all clear message from the program. However, when I rebooted I still got the scandisk message.

I checked the maxtor site and hard drive is still under warranty for 1 1/2 years. I will be sending the drive back if they are willing to replace it. I hope so.

I have to do some searches to find out how to make the data unrecoverable as possible. I've heard it is practically impossible.

[Budfred]

If Maxtor diagnostics say that the drive is ok, it probably is and scandisk is probably the problem. It is likely that Maxtor won't give you an RMA for the drive if their software says it is ok. If you have backed up already, you might want to just wipe the drive and reinstall. I don't have a clue what could be wrong with Scandisk, but maybe others will.

There is another thread going right now that is talking about programs to wipe a drive here:

http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=22000

[mjc]

There have been several threads lately discussing drive erasure products...my favorite is Eraser (http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/), and don't worry too much about it, 7 passes (if it makes it that far) should be enough. That drive will not become a refurb.

[tonysolomon]

Thanks guys. I'll check out those links.

@Budfred, that's got me baffled to. I'll see what they say at Maxtor.

[tonysolomon]

I found directions for disabling scandisk at the following site:

http://www.tekguide.net/doyouknow/d2001,12,03.shtml

Here's a different way for disabling scandisk:

http://www.cdmcss.com/Resources/PC/PC_Antiques/disable_scandisk.shtml

The second way worked on my Win ME PC. I'll try them out on the 98 PC tomorrow. I'm still calling Maxtor, though.