Bad Sectors are a common place on Hard drives and also on modern SSDs. Bad Sectors are the bad blocks on any Storage Drive that may turn your data corrupt and render it unreadable. Bad Sectors can quickly accumulate and render large chunks of data corrupt and unusable in any way. Hence, Bad Sectors need to be kept in check and repaired ASAP.
Understanding Bad Sectors/Bad Blocks
Bad Sectors/Bad Blocks are the sectors that have been left unreadable and unusable. Bad Sectors may occur due to a number of reasons on both traditional Hard drives and modern SSDs. Though the data on the bad sectors is copied to other sectors automatically by the system, files are often left corrupt and unusable by the bad sectors.
Types of Bad Sectors:
There are two different types of bad sectors classified on the basis of their nature; Physical and Logical Bad Sectors, otherwise known as Hard bad sectors and Soft Bad Sectors.
Physical or Hard bad sectors are the one which have occurred due to either physical wear & tear or is a manufacturing defect. In both the cases, the bad sector has occurred on the physical surface of the storage drive. In the case of HDDs, Physical bad sectors may develop because of the hard drive being damaged by the Head of HDD, or may have occurred while shipping. Traditional HDDs are delicate and can be easily damaged. The damaged part of the disk then becomes the bad sector/bad block. SSDs are prone to imperfect manufacturing methods used by the manufacturers. Also, the cells that store the data get worn out over the period due to being constantly written and deleted.
Logical or Soft bad sectors, on the other hand, occur due to various reasons. One reason being, the computer turned off inappropriately, either by being directly switched off while the computer was writing on the drive, other being improper copying of data and malwares. In these cases, the damage isn’t permanent and the bad sectors on the hard drive can be repaired with bad sector repair tools. (More on it in the end)
Note: One should keep an eye on bad sectors. If occurring frequently, Storage Drive should immediately be replaced and the data should be copied because it is the system’s sign that the storage may probably be dying. However, a few bad sectors aren’t the thing to worry about and can be resolved with the bad sector repair tools, but if they occur frequently, that’s when you have to take a decisive step.
Data Loss due to Bad Sectors:
It may be a hard pill to swallow for the people who think it is okay to keep hard drives running forever and not take backup of their data because they have it on their PC. Bad Sectors can easily corrupt some or all of your data and may even render your Hard Drive or SSD useless. Bad Sectors or Bad blocks are often considered inconsiderable but they can have a chilling impact on the storage drive of your PC. There are thousands of cases where people lose their data because of hard drive corruption and crashes which are a result of overlooking bad sectors on Hard Drives.
How to deal with Bad Sectors/Bad Blocks on HDD and SSD?
For Physical or Hard Bad Sectors, there isn’t much one can do. As explained earlier Physical and Hard Bad Sectors occur due to physical wear and tear. Physical Bad Sectors are hard to undo. They have a permanent impact on the drive that can’t be nullified.
For Logical or Soft Bad Sectors, there is software that can fix those and can help you keep them in check. There are a few software available in the market to help you deal with the bad sectors and keep your storage device health in check. One software that we suggest and use is Systweak Disk SpeedUp.
Download Disk Speed Up Defragmenter Software by Systweak For Your PC
Systweak Disk SpeedUp is a utility software created to take care of a PC’s storage drive in every possible way and can also be used as a Hard Disk repair tool. Here are few of the most highlighted features of Systweak Disk SpeedUp:
- Deals with Bad Sectors: Systweak Disk SpeedUp, as mentioned earlier, is designed to take care of the storage drive on the PC. In the process, it scans for the bad sectors on the Hard drive and SSD and repairs them to be used perfectly for future use.
- Prevents Data Loss: Disk SpeedUp also ensures that users don’t lose their data due to corruption of files and crashes.
- Improves Performance: Systweak Disk SpeedUp employs various techniques like defragmentation, cleaning junk files & temp files to improve system performance.
- Remove Duplicate Files: Disk SpeedUp is also designed to automatically identify duplicate files on the system for you. And then you can choose to delete them or keep them. This can keep your device’s storage space in check.
With all these amazing features and more, you can definitely keep your hard drive or SSD health in check. To know more about Systweak Disk SpeedUp.
So, this was all about Bad Sectors or Bad Blocks and how you can deal with these bad sectors on your hard drive and SSD. We hope we were able to help you out with the useful information.
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Anamika Sinha
Thanks for providing this complete solution