[rescue] Bad Sectors

[Geoffrey S. Mendelson]

On Fri, Jan 19, 2007 at 01:33:01AM -0500, Nick B. wrote:
> If you're seeing bad sectors on a modern IDE hard drive it's junk.  All modern
> drives have a set of spare sectors to replace sectors as they go bad, and once
> that list has filled up you're at the other end of the bathtub.

Sometimes it's not a big problem. Many drives can be "rescued" by the
manufacturer's utilities programs. Assuming the drive works to the point
that it can access the data on it at all, reformating with the utility
program may fix it.

Sometime's it works, sometimes it doesn't. But in either case, these programs
are IMHO the best bet.

Look very carefully at the drives. Warranties have varied of the last
5 years from 1 year to 5 years. Sometimes people give you old drives that
still have valid warranties. Most manufacturers will honor the warranties
from the date of manufacturing if you can't prove when you bought it.

I knew a shady character in the U.S. who did that. He went to flea markets,
and bought dead drives. He knew which ones the manufactures would replace
and he got them at junk prices. 

I on the other hand had no such luck. I bought a drive for a reasonable price
with a warranty in the flea market at TCF. Of course it was broken, and
the phone of the vendor was never answered. 

Geoff.

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