<davidmcmaxii.TakeThisOut@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message news:1113242243.749017.85620@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com
> Folkert Rienstra wrote:
> >
> > If the driver was never tested with bad sectors on the drive then it may
> > cause unexpected behaviour like hangs.
> >
> > The way around it is to remove the cause of the problem, the bad sectors.
> > You can run Findbad from <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.partitionsupport.com," target="_blank">www.partitionsupport.com,</a> preferably from DOS,
> > which -if no bios support is available- may require you to find a DOS driver.
> > Findbad will overwrite the bad sectors which should then return to readable.
> >
> > You can start by running it from Windows first and if that runs into
> > the same problems as experienced now, then retry it from DOS.
>
> Many thanks for your reply. I downloaded findbad and ran it from the
> command prompt. Unfortunately, I am finding it difficult to follow its
> instructions such as
>
> "Disks are numbered from 1."
>
> What does this mean?
It actually means "harddrives" are numbered from 1.
And "numbered from" as in 'the order in which the OS (usually DOS) has recognized them. When the OS is Win2K or XP that may be a bit
difficult
to find out, but usually assume IDE first: PM PS SM SS, then USB.
Changed bootorder however, like booting from slave, will change that.
Drives disabled in bios will change that too. Unless you have a utility that
shows actual device numbers you have to second guess how the Bios or the
OS assigns them.
> I have 3 physical drives and 5 partitions. The
> first two drives are single partition and internal.
It works on the physical drive level, not partitions/logical drives.
> Does this mean that the external disk will be no.3
Quite likely.
> or [as there is some unallocated space on the second internal drive] no.4?
Nope.
>
> Also, if, as the program findbad suggests, I run it in dos...
Suggests.
> How will it access an external USB hard drive?
As it will access *any* drive, through bios, as I suggested.
If it can boot from USB then that's a clue.
If it get's a drive letter when in DOS then that's a clue too.
If an USB bios is not available then you need a driver.
> Are there USB drivers available for DOS?
Possibly. Google +Gisin +USB +driver.
> Or am I a very confused individual... [probably the latter]
Maybe a bit lazy? There is Google, but you knew that already.
>
> Anyhow, some explanation of the commands used in findbad would be
> fantastic...
The parameters between [ ] are optional.
You can use them but don't necessarily need to (except writef6).
Experiment and learn. It's not exactly rocket science.
It won't write anything unless it finds a bad sector and even then
you are in control so you won't break anything by experimenting.
If you don't trust yourself, just answer no.
>
> Cheers again
>
> David
Sample findbad.bat
set findbad=writef6
Findbad.exe 3 writef6<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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