Bad blocks??

Question

I was using Acronis Disk Direstor to resize a partition, which I have done many times before. Just today, when I tried to resize my D drive, I got an error message saying "Cannot resize partition with bad blocks...(and something about restart the computer)". What exactly is a bad block? Is it permanent physical damage on the HD? Should I be worried? Is there a way to fix it?

Answer 1

reformatting the whole thing may straighten it out ... if it was ever dropped though it could be physically damaged ..

Answer 2

Well you can say it that way.A bad block is a part where the drive has been damaged. I think its permanent, but you don't really have to worry if the bad block has free space in it. If the bad block has something on it, then your computer will most likely malfunction and have frequent crashes. But once bad blocks are identified, the computer will try not to/prevent users to copy a file to it automatically.

Reformatting is a good way so that you can be sure that no file is in the bad block. Don't worry too much about it though.

Answer 3

Try running chkdsk http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/chkdsk.mspx?mfr=true

Bad blocks are damaged areas on a hard disk. It is a physical problem. When you run a disk utility such as Chkdsk, Scandisk and Norton Disk Doctor, such faulty sectors are marked with a "B" and won't be used. That's important, because if data is saved on these blocks it (data) could become corrupt.

Disks have come from the manufacturer with minor surface scratches, however, you should back up anything on that drive you don't want to loose, just in case.

It's important to note that in my experience, Windows won't work around a bad block in the area where it works the most, so if the bad blocks are on the C drive, or where Windows is installed, I'd suggest back up your stuff and reformat.

Answer 4

You may have to backup files on the partition and remove it. Then you could recreate it. If that doesn't work you MIGHT need a new harddrive.