[Menos]

I have a bad block on my hard drive, or did, at least. I ran disk check, does this fix bad blocks? If so, I should be fine. If not, the block isn't causing any trouble as far as the computer goes, so is it worth taking the time to fix? This is a family computer, and to this day, after owning it for 7-8 months, we have only used a fourth of the hard drive, so space isn't an issue. Would there be any other reason to fix it?

Thanks in advance.

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after owning it for 7-8 months

I'd call computer manufacturer for hard drive replacement.
What chkdsk does, it marks corrupted blocks as bad, so they're non-existent to OS. It doesn't actually fix anything.
However, bad sectors have a tendency of spreading out, so the replacement would be in your best interest.

[Broni]

after owning it for 7-8 months

I'd call computer manufacturer for hard drive replacement.
What chkdsk does, it marks corrupted blocks as bad, so they're non-existent to OS. It doesn't actually fix anything.
However, bad sectors have a tendency of spreading out, so the replacement would be in your best interest.

[rshaffer61]

Just to add to what Broni stated...
I would suggest doing this asap so that there is little risk of losing anything on the HD.
If this is not possible then please backup your important data as soon as possible.

[Menos]

Ok, will they replace the hard drive for free? Or will there be a fee. I don't think we have the money to be spending on a new hard drive, unfortunatly.

[Broni]

I assume, you bought the computer as new one, so at 7-8 months it's still under warranty, thus free.

[rshaffer61]

I agree with Broni again.
I want to emphasize though that the company will NOT normally back your data up as that is a step that you the owner are responsible for.
Before sending the system back please back your data up as there is no guarantee you will have it once they have it in their possession.
Just a FYI and a precaution warning before sending it back.

[Broni]

Before sending the system back

If they establish, the drive is failing, he doesn't have to send back a whole computer.
They can simply send him a new drive in exchange for the old one.
Backing up the data still applies.

[Menos]

Ah, yeah, we don't have anything particularly important on the hard drive, nothing worth backing up at any rate, so thank you for the concern, but it's not really nessacery.

And I may have been off on the amount of time we've owned it for, so if it's warrenty has expired, it isn't free I assume?

[Digerati]

It doesn't actually fix anything.

I am afraid that is not true. Chkdsk can repair problems related to bad sectors, lost clusters, cross-linked files, and directory errors. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315265

I doubt the drive maker will do anything for 1 bad block. If you continue to get new bad blocks, then you have a problem. In any case, it is likely the maker will have you run their diagnostics, see Hard Drive Diagnostics - listed by maker.

[Broni]

Surely not, but hard drives are cheap.

[Digerati]

hard drives are cheap.

That's very true. I see Newegg has a 1.5Tb drive for under $110.

[Menos]

Still a bit much to be spending on a non vital piece of the household, and at any rate, I'm not the one with the money in the house, so.

At any rate, thanks for all the help, we'll probably look into calling dell (That would be the person I call for the new hard drive right? The maker of the computer?) when and if this one starts getting worse again.

[Digerati]

Yes, you would call Dell.

when and if this one starts getting worse again.

If this has only happened once, I might wait, but if this problem has already occurred more than once, then I would heed Broni's advice in his first reply, and contact Dell and get the problem on record.

[Tweene]

Hello


So bad news if I understand.

Here is the topic where I noticed the bad block if it may help
http://www.geekstogo...52#entry1619152

Error - 8/24/2009 11:30:25 AM | Computer Name = HomePC | Source = disk | ID = 262151
Description = The device, \Device\Harddisk0\DR0, has a bad block.

Error - 8/24/2009 11:31:05 AM | Computer Name = HomePC | Source = disk | ID = 262151
Description = The device, \Device\Harddisk0\DR0, has a bad block.

Error - 8/24/2009 11:34:50 AM | Computer Name = HomePC | Source = disk | ID = 262151
Description = The device, \Device\Harddisk0\DR0, has a bad block.

[Menos]

Yeah, see, I saw that they all occured on the 24th, and I ran the disk check, per tweene's advice, on the 25th, so I figured it was fine. It said it replaced data in a cluster, so I had assumed it had been fixed. And yes, this is the first time I've ever heard of a problem like this. Thanks for clarifying with dell, by the way, and thanks again for the help, tweene.