bad clusters

[Dan]

win 98 se:
out of the blue (after cleaning up a nasty worm a a couple of trojans...don't ask where they came from, I haven't a clue)
I started getting a message before desktop that I may have bad sectors on one or more of my drives and the system can't run scan disc,that I should run it from Windows.
I ran scandisc on my C: hard drive, no problem. When I tried to run it on my second drive (D:\) it froze the system. After straightening that out, I ran Norton Disc Doctor. It reported that I have some bad clusters in one folder and tried to move them but could not. When I try to access the D: drive everything slows down to a snails crawl. I have a backup of the folder in question so I tried to delete it. Access denied. Is there a way to delete this folder, perhaps in DOS? and can some one explain how? I would guess the command rem would work, but what should the command line look like? do I need to reboot into dos prompt, or can I do it in Windows in MSDOS?

[glc]

Time to back up everything you need on that drive. At the very least, you are looking at a reformat, probably a zero fill, and possibly a new hard drive.

Bad sectors are almost always a physical defect, and it will only get worse.

[Dan]

thanks glc-
after more time than I will admit, I was able to get scandisc to fix the problems. now all the data on the drive is very quick to access.
during defragmenting I noticed a few spots that were reported as "bad sectors"...so these are physical you think?
I keep all my graphics libraries and business records there...maybe it is time to move it all to another computer on the network and replace the drive like you suggest???

[Cricket]

Originally posted by Dan during defragmenting I noticed a few spots that were reported as "bad sectors"...so these are physical you think? I keep all my graphics libraries and business records there...maybe it is time to move it all to another computer on the network and replace the drive like you suggest???

Yes, start preparing for the eventual hard drive replacement. Bad sectors are like cancer...they keep spreading until the hard drive is unusable.

Cricket

[glc]

Back up your data NOW.

[Dan]

thanks Cricket-
I've copied the entire contents of the bad drive to another drive. So what are these "bad sectors", are they scratches on the drive or something else?

[glc]

Generally, they are flaking bits of magnetic material. Now it's time to use the hard drive manufacturer's utility to test the drive and probably zero fill it. If they are only logical errors, the drive will be reusable but if the sectors remain bad, replace the drive.

[Dan]

thanks glc
I have the IBM drive fitness test...will run it.
Is there much difference in final result if I just reformat it?
...and I'm sure there must be a post somewhere here about zero filling...

[glc]

DFT has a zero fill and in this case I'd recommend it.

[Dan]

ok, been there and did that. drive checks out ok after running test the second time.
I posted my problem reformatting the drive under the "drives" forum...but here's my next problem:
bios recognises the drive, went to cmos to auto-detect it.
fdisk utility doesn't report the drive, typing: format D:/s reports wrong drive label....
It's been awhile since I've done this, just can't figure out what I'm missing or doing wrong....help, please!

[Dan]

problem solved:
on the reccomendation of Panama Red. I disconnected my hard drives and reconnected the one in question as master...rebooted and was able to run fdisk and then reformat.
thanks all....I'm relocating my data now.