bad (unreadable) sectors detected from (lba) 63 to125 in hdd1

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SerjTank

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Geek
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#33715 10-May-2009 18:27

So I've broken the Master Boot Record for my 200gb IDE hdd (as the subject states) when zeroing out this disk.

I've tried using the windows XP recovery console and running fixmbr command, but this doesn't seem to do anything. Have also been using various tools as found on the ultimate boot cd to no avail.

I'm told messing around with the jumper settings won't do anything to help this problem.

I'm currently running active@ partition recovery, but this is going incredibley slow, having analysed 850mb (of 186.3gb) in around 4 hours, with no partitions being found as yet.

Has anyone had to deal with this before, or got any recommendations? I'd really like to get this HDD working as I use it for my primary OS.

any help greatly appreciated. I'd like to put XP (NTFS) back on it.

War does not determine who is right. War determines who is left.

SerjTank

42 posts

Geek
+1 received by user: 2

#213938 10-May-2009 21:52

apparently there's a fix using ubuntu live cd...

http://www.arsgeek.com/2008/01/15/how-to-fix-your-windows-mbr-with-an-ubuntu-livecd/

I got so far on the command line stuff...but then ran into errors. Anyone good with that kind of stuff?

War does not determine who is right. War determines who is left.

d3Xt3r

697 posts

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#214480 12-May-2009 21:15

If all you want to do is install a fresh copy of Windows, you don't need to do anything special. If the MBR/Partition Table's been zeroed out, it'll just appear as an unformatted drive and you can create a partition, format it, and continue the setup as normal. Windows will automatically install it's MBR code whether your like it or not (lol), so it doesn't matter what state your existing MBR is in.

Unless of course, your MBR has been marked as a bad sector. Now that shouldn't really matter, because

a) Most drives have a spare sector-pool, so if a sector has been marked bad the drive will automatically redirect those sectors to the spare ones in the pool. The spare ones will be more than sufficient to cover your MBR.

b) Zeroing is a physically non-destructive process, so it's very unlikely that the drive has indeed developed *physical* bad sectors - the drive may have just marked those areas bad as a precaution or logical error. You can use certain programs to unmark the bad sectors. Run a full surface/disk scan using your HDD manufacturer's diagnostics utilities (download from the website). Also, commercial programs like SpinRite and HDD Regenerator work great in this area. Personally, I would recommend SpinRite (been using it over 10 years), but it may be overkill if you need it only for a one time use.

SerjTank

42 posts

Geek
+1 received by user: 2

#214497 12-May-2009 22:21

d3Xt3r: If all you want to do is install a fresh copy of Windows, you don't need to do anything special. If the MBR/Partition Table's been zeroed out, it'll just appear as an unformatted drive and you can create a partition, format it, and continue the setup as normal. Windows will automatically install it's MBR code whether your like it or not (lol), so it doesn't matter what state your existing MBR is in.

Unless of course, your MBR has been marked as a bad sector. Now that shouldn't really matter, because

a) Most drives have a spare sector-pool, so if a sector has been marked bad the drive will automatically redirect those sectors to the spare ones in the pool. The spare ones will be more than sufficient to cover your MBR.

b) Zeroing is a physically non-destructive process, so it's very unlikely that the drive has indeed developed *physical* bad sectors - the drive may have just marked those areas bad as a precaution or logical error. You can use certain programs to unmark the bad sectors. Run a full surface/disk scan using your HDD manufacturer's diagnostics utilities (download from the website). Also, commercial programs like SpinRite and HDD Regenerator work great in this area. Personally, I would recommend SpinRite (been using it over 10 years), but it may be overkill if you need it only for a one time use.

The problem that I'm having is that the hdd wont boot for windows to do its thing, whether it be just installing or using the recovery console. I tried the linux link above, and that didn't work. The disk is reporting errors at sector 0, which doesn't look promising.

I'll be sure to try out the two tools that you've kindly recommended and post up the results. Is it a length process? (how long is a piece of string?)

Cheers!

War does not determine who is right. War determines who is left.

d3Xt3r

697 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 132

Trusted

#214545 13-May-2009 09:40

It is a lengthy process (can take a day or so), but only if you go through the full scan. But you could stop after the first few MBs are done (since the errors start at sector 0).