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I have a hard drive that is giving a number of error 23s when I scan it. Will formatting remap the bad sectors and is it safe to use or should I throw it away?

The exact error is "The device, \Device\Harddisk1\DR1, has a bad block.." GetDataBack reports it as an error 23.

The drive is a WD Raptor.

Thank you,

Rick

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3 Answers

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Hard drives are so cheap nowadays, that there really isn't a good reason to "fix" one, unless you like living on the edge and don't fear data loss.

I would NEVER use a disk that reported bad sectors, when there's one, there will be more.

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Even in a raid 5 array at home? – rboarman Jan 21 '11 at 21:41
Yep. I replace at the first signs of trouble. – DanBig Jan 21 '11 at 22:42
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From Googleing 'error 23 hard drive' I'm guessing its CRC?

Error 23: Data error (cyclic redundancy check)

If it's cyclic redundancy check, then it's best to ditch the drive. Run a program like HD Tune on it to view the health of the drive and also do a full error scan. If you get any red blocks on the error scan, these are bad sectors and it is best to buy a new drive.

Hope this helps :)

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I'll run that. I added more detail to my question too. – rboarman Jan 21 '11 at 18:57
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Spinrite, all day long. Try it, I doubt you'll be disappointed. I've used it on multiple drives, and literally stretched years out of them by doing so.

http://www.grc.com/spinrite.htm

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So you would trust the drive after running it? – rboarman Jan 21 '11 at 19:02
Well, it's going to tell you whether or not you should, and it's going to perform all the repairs that it can. In my experience, I've used it to take drives that were showing failure indicators (SMART Tests, etc) and ran SpinRite's deeper cleaning on it, re-imaged everything back to it, and it was just about like new. – JohnThePro Jan 21 '11 at 19:03
If you use the disk in a professional/server environment, don't try this, you can't trust the disk anymore. Disks are cheap, and data loss and/or downtime is expensive. – SvenW Jan 21 '11 at 19:19
@SvenW, I couldn't agree more. This is an approach that I'd use for a consumer's drive who isn't willing to make the investment in a new drive just yet. – JohnThePro Jan 21 '11 at 19:23
@JohnThePro: I would say the same for consumer drives, because I tend to value my private data and time as well, as do friends that ask for my help. But this is SF, not SU, so we are speaking about servers and stuff. – SvenW Jan 21 '11 at 19:25
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