How to Check Bad Sectors

Bed sectors are places on the hard drive that can't be used because they are damaged. When your hard drive is checked for bad sectors, each bad sector is marked so that the computer does not try to use it again and the location is remapped to another part of the hard disk. Your computer can be checked using the built-in disk checking utility.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Click on "Start," then choose "My Computer."

2. Right-click on the drive you want to check for bad sectors and click "Properties."

3. Switch to the "Tools" tab, and then click on the "Check Now" button under error checking. This will bring up a disk-checking window.

4. Check the box for "Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors." Optionally, also check the "Automatically fix file system errors" box.

5. Click the "Start" button to begin the scan. Windows will then scan that hard drive for bad sectors and attempt to recover data in them. If you receive a message stating that disk check needs exclusive access to that drive, click "Yes" to schedule the scan for the next time you restart your computer and then restart your computer. This will happen if you have files on that drive open or if that drive contains your Windows installation.

Tips & Warnings

• The scan can take a long time depending on the size of your hard drive.

References

• Microsoft Support