Bad sectors

[ajcstr]

I have a Maxtor 40 GB hard drive that was reporting bad sectors when i ran diagnostics on it. I did replace the drive, but I just ran Maxtor's low level format on it and now it reports no bad sectors. Is this just a temporary fix, or can I trust the drive at this point?

[rjfvillarosa]

What size is windows reporting the drive as?

[glc]

I would go ahead and use it, but not as a primary drive. Keep a close eye on it and run diags frequently. I'd probably use it as an external drive in a USB housing and I would not put anything on it I couldn't afford to lose.

[kilgoretrout]

Getting bad sectors can be a sign that the drive is going; it can also be just a random event not indicating problems with the hard drive. A low level format will mark the bad sectors so that they are no longer used by the drive. Your diagnostics will then show no bad sectors. If you start getting more bad sectors after using the drive for a while, it's almost certainly going. Just keep an eye on the drive for bad sectors. If you don't get any, you're probably OK.

[ajcstr]

The drive currently shows as 37.26 GB with no bad sectors