Hard Disk Bad Sectors and Disk Crash

How would I know if I have bad sectors? (What does a bad sector mean?)

If you discover that some of your files are missing, corrupted, unreadable, or some of your folders are not anymore accessible, this is mostly because of Bad Sectors.

Bad Sectors can be discovered also by the Operating System itself by showing you error messages telling that your Hard Drive might have Bad sectors, the messages might flagged as CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Error).

Bad Sectors are an early signs for Hard Disk Crash.

They also can cause the Instability to the System and affect the System performance speed.


Why Bad Sectors might occur?

There are two main reasons for Bad Sectors:

Logical Errors.
Physical Errors or damages.
For the Logical Errors, while the Hard Disk is storing data it performs parity bits storing with the data itself, the parity bit used for the validation and integrity of the written data, so when parity bits corrupted due to abrupt power shutdowns or errors while transferring data or other reasons, it will result Bad Sectors Errors. Normally this kind of Bad Sectors can be restored and fix without loosing of the existing data by using some tools.

For the Physical Errors, there are many reasons behind them, either there would be a magnetic weakening on the Hard Disk which might increased over time, physical shocks to the Hard Disk, Head crash, sudden power shutdowns, disruptions during read/write operations… etc.


Hard Disk Crash

Hard Disks have a limited life time which is normally between 3 to 5 years; this life time might get decreased in case if you’re using your Computer every day heavily, in other words the possibility of having a Hard Disk crash is increased.

Now let me tell you, if one day you hear banging/scrapping sounds from your Hard Drive or your PC performance sucks, sometimes if you get some messages from the System telling you that a bad sector found, in this case you have to backup your files immediately to another Hard Disk Drive, because the mentioned symptoms means your Hard Disk about to reach a breakdown.


How to take precautions?
Always back up your files regularly to another media or Hard Drive.
Always have a antivirus program installed on your system and always keep it updated.
Prevent from turning your PC off from the power plug directly without shutting down the Windows first.
Put your PC on a good fixed table that doesn’t shake to prevent sudden quakes.
If you have a laptop, prevent of drawing liquids on it by mistake and when moving it from one place to another be sure to treat it smoothly.
What should I do if I have a Hard Disk crash?

I will show you how to retrieve back your Data from a crashed Hard Disk but:

I won’t guarantee you will succeed.
I am not responsible if your Hard Disk stopped working and become completely dead.
If you don’t want to risk, you can search for a good Data recovery specialist to help but normally it will cost you a lot of money.
The bellow steps normally used when someone experienced a Hard Disk crash.

Step one:

Don’t try to use the chkdsk command because it might make the situation worse.
Stop using the Computer immediately.
Remove the Hard Disk and connect it to another computer (if the infected Hard Disk is a laptop’s one, you can use the USB port to connect it to another PC or laptop).
Step two:

Download one of the Files Recovery software which I prefer using Easeus Data Copy software (its Free of charge and can be downloaded from here)
Creating a bootable CD/DVD, The Easeus Disk Copy software package contains a so-called ISO image in the file DC2.iso. It can be used to create a bootable Disk Copy 2.3 CD with any operating system using CD writing software of your choice as far as it supports creating CDs from an ISO image.
Booting from the bootable CD/DVDs, Insert the bootable Easeus Disk Copy CD/DVD into the corresponding drive. Switch on the computer or reboot it. Make sure that the BIOS boots from the respective CD drive.
A pre-start menu will appear. You have three options: Start Easeus Disk Copy, boot from the hard disk and reboot.
Select Start Disk Copy and hit enter.
Once you get into the program, it will take you through the recovery wizard, follow the wizard by selecting the source Disk (the infected one) and the Destination one (the new located Hard Disk) and start copying the files.


Important Note: You may only get one shot to get the data, so you need to be sure of what you are doing and to perform the above steps only from the first trial.