Member Avatar for bagpipes1000

How do you completely wipe Hard drive (NOT using "format c:" or "fdisk"?

My old Sony Vaio Pcg f350 randomly crashes and is genrally crash prone. I have checked the hard drive and it contains "bad clusters"! I have used "format c:" and "fdisk" but neither get rid of the bad clusters when reinstalling 98se! Please help me find a way to wipe the hard drive completly.

Thank You. Craig

  • 5 Contributors
  • 4 Replies
  • 336 Views
  • 2 Days Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by jwenting

Dani AI

Generated

Brief, practical guide for ’s Vaio: "bad clusters" normally mean failing sectors on the platters rather than a filesystem problem, so a simple high-level format won't cure the root cause. Follow these steps in order to diagnose, attempt a full wipe, and decide whether replacement is required.

  1. Backup anything important immediately.
  2. Run a S.M.A.R.T. and extended/long self-test (use a bootable diagnostics or the drive vendor’s utility). Watch attributes like Reallocated Sector Count and Current Pending Sector Count — non‑zero values point to physical media problems (this is in line with points raised by @Paul.Esson and @jwenting).
  3. If the vendor test is inconclusive, try a full-disk overwrite (a single-pass zero or the drive’s ATA Secure Erase command if available). A complete overwrite can force the drive’s firmware to attempt remapping of marginal sectors; it’s useful as a diagnostic and for secure wiping, but it does not “repair” physically damaged media.
  4. After the overwrite, re-run the vendor long test and a surface scan / filesystem check for FAT (Scandisk) to see if new bad sectors appear or if the reallocated counts increased. If the drive fails tests or the bad-sector counts grow, replacement is the correct choice.

Practical notes: older laptops may not boot from USB — remove the drive and connect it to a desktop or use an external IDE/USB adapter to run modern tools. As suggested, the manufacturer’s diagnostic and erase tools are the safest first choice; low-level fixes are usually manufacturer-only. In short: wipe/overwrite to test and remap, but don’t count on a long-term fix if the SMART/errors persist — plan to replace the drive.

Recommended Answers

All 4 Replies

Member Avatar for Paul.Esson

Im pritty dang certain you can't get RID of bad clusters(since there just that clusters that have gone bad, physicly bad)

You can mask bad clusters on your HDD, Your manafacturer may have tools for that.

or if you wish to fork out some dosh Spinrite from www.grc.com is spost to work well

I was also under the impresson that file systems avoided using them by masking them as bad (FAT apparently does (oviously not that well))

Member Avatar for wuxiwilliam

DM has a function names Zero Fill, you can try it~

Member Avatar for jwenting

Bad clusters are hardware errors, there's no cure.
Sometimes a lowlevel format can fix them but that requires special equipment with modern harddisks and is best left to the manufacturer.

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.