Windows 7 and Windows XP
Bad sectors are sections of your computer's hard drive that have been damaged, and have lost the ability to save and store your data. In most cases, bad sectors are the result of internal physical damage in your computer, such as magnetic disk failure, and can sometimes corrupt your saved data. Bad sectors are usually indicated by grinding or chugging noises inside of your computer or from error messages that inform you that data cannot be saved to your disk drive. To repair bad sectors on a Windows operating system, you can run your computer through an automatic error-check and repair process. If you have a Macintosh computer, you can re-install the affected sections of your operating system (OS) that contains the bad sectors, or you can choose to re-install the entire OS completely.1.Close any open files on the affected disk drive. In order for the repair process to work, you must close any programs, applications, and files saved or stored on the faulty disk drive.
- Open your Start menu.
The Start menu button is located in the bottom-left corner of your
Windows desktop and may appear in the form of the Windows logo if you
use Windows 7.
- 3Select "Computer" from the Start menu. If you use Windows XP, this option may read as "My Computer."
- 4Open the properties menu for the affected disk drive. The "Computer" folder will display a list of all your disk drives on the computer.
- Right-click on the affected disk drive and choose "Properties" from
the floating menu that appears. The properties menu will then appear on
your screen.
- Right-click on the affected disk drive and choose "Properties" from
the floating menu that appears. The properties menu will then appear on
your screen.
- 5Click on the "Tools" tab. This tab will allow you to access the error-check and repair option.
- 6Click on the "Check now" button. You will then be presented with options for checking and repairing existing problems with your disk drive.
- 7Select the option for repairing bad sectors.
- Place a check mark within the box next to "Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors."
- Place a check mark within the box next to "Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors."
- 8Repair the bad sectors.
- Click on the "Start" button to repair the bad sectors on the
affected disk drive. This procedure may take several minutes, depending
on the size of the disk drive you are repairing. When the repair process
has finished, Windows will notify you that the bad sectors have been
repaired.
- Click on the "Start" button to repair the bad sectors on the
affected disk drive. This procedure may take several minutes, depending
on the size of the disk drive you are repairing. When the repair process
has finished, Windows will notify you that the bad sectors have been
repaired.
Macintosh OS X
- 1Insert the Macintosh (Mac) installation disc into the disc drive. The Mac OS X installation disc was initially included with the contents of your computer.
- 2Select the "Install Mac OS X" option from your desktop. After your computer reads the installation disc, the "Install" option will appear in the form of an icon.
- 3Perform the installation process. An installation wizard will appear on your screen to walk you through each step of the process. You will be prompted to indicate the affected disk drive that contains the bad sectors, as well as the parts of the operating system you want re-installed.
- Click "Install" after following the prompts within the installation wizard to re-install the affected parts of your Mac OS X system.
