WD DLGdiag Extended test

[veraphil]

My WD 80gb Jb series is accumulating more and more bad clusters, both under scandisk and Norton diskdoctor. I have the DLGDIag but I would like to know if the extended (surface) test is destructive to the data on the disk?

I am running Windows 98, AMD 2000xp, Soltek sl-75frn2 mb, 512Mb PC333 ram, 400w Leadman P/s. No overclock.

[morriswindgate]

NO! But understand bad clusters on a hard disk is like terminal cancer in a human>It is only a matter of time before it dies and you lose everything on the drive. If the drive is still under warranty you should find a way to save you stuff and get it back to WD for replacement.

[glc]

Run the quick test, it should come up with an error code, which is all you need to get a RMA. If it comes up 0000, then run the extended test.

[veraphil]

I have run the extended test under DLGdiag and it did not come up with any errors at all. Scandisk and Norton Diskdoctor are both reporting 8 bad clusters (all in the system area of the disk). I started out with 3 bad clusters about 1 month ago and I have been running disk doctor every week to keep an eye on the situation, and have been picking up an extra bad cluster almost every time. Could this be related to something in my system corrupting the formatting on the hard disk? Is it possible that a re-format of the drive will get rid of the bad clusters, since DLGDiag says the disk is OK?
Thank you for help - it is appreciated.
Regards
Phil J.

[glc]

Problem:
The utility ScanDisk reports bad clusters or bad sectors on the drive.

Cause:
Bad sectors as reported by ScanDisk may or may not indicate physical damage to the drive. Anything from a virus, to a faulty data cable, to improper BIOS settings can cause bad sectors to be incorrectly reported in ScanDisk.

Resolution:
Test the drive with an alternate method to determine if the drive has physical defects.

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You have done this by using DLGDiag. I'd check your cabling and jumpering, you should be using 80 wire Ultra ATA cables and CS jumpering. Being that you are using Win98, have you applied the Fdisk patch from M$ to fix the displayed size error that you get with drives larger than 64gb? Your motherboard is new enough to handle drives up to 137gb and probably higher, so that part is fine.

If you don't mind wiping the drive and starting over, I'd use the zero fill utility in DLGDiag, then repartition and format it, and get a fresh start. Make sure you use an updated Fdisk to do the partitioning.

[veraphil]

Thanks. I will re-check jumpersetting - I believe that is how it is set but it can't hurt to look. I might try a new cable as well and do as you suggest to see if I can get rid of these bad clusters. I already have the patch for Fdisk.
Regards,
Phil J.

[veraphil]

I found the disk drive jumper lying on the bottom of the computer. I put it back on (making sure it is securely on this time) in the cable select position where it was originally.
I then used partition magic options to retest bad blocks and recover if possible. This left me with one bad block that I could not recover. Scandisk is now reporting only the one bad block and DLGDiag is saying the drive is ok. I will leave things as they are for now and retest on surface test from time to time, but all problems probably stem from no jumper on the drive.
Thanks for your very correct help - it saved a lot more angst.
Thanks again.
Regards
Phil J.
:)

[veraphil]

I found the disk drive jumper lying on the bottom of the computer. I put it back on (making sure it is securely on this time) in the cable select position where it was originally.
I then used partition magic options to retest bad blocks and recover if possible. This left me with one bad block that I could not recover. Scandisk is now reporting only the one bad block and DLGDiag is saying the drive is ok. I will leave things as they are for now and retest on surface test from time to time, but all problems probably stem from no jumper on the drive.
Thanks for your very correct help - it saved a lot more angst.
Thanks again.
Regards
Phil J.
:)

[piasabird]

Winxp has some file cleanup programs you might try running under system tools. Defrag and System Cleanup are both useful. I also wonder if virus software can cause problems if it quarantines a virus.