Best way to scan a laptops hard drive for bad sectors?

[eno]

I have been trying to use DriveImage7 to back up my perfectly setup laptop hard drive. I use it for work so I really need to back it up now but I was getting a error after trying to backup over the workgroup. Stating cannot read certain sectors. What utility can I use to scan my hard drive and repair or nuetralize my bad sectors?

 

[Matthias99]

Uh, Scandisk (you know, the one that comes with Windows)? Or is that not working?

 

[Zepper]

I thought DriveImage only worked from DOS (or possibly Safe Mode). If Windows is running in normal mode, lots of files are either open or locked and other programs won't be able to touch them.
. If that is not the problem, and running a ScanDisk or CheckDisk (2k/XP) doesn't do it, then check the FAQ and other support info on Symantec's web site.
.bh.

 

[eno]

I already ran the Check Disk and turned on the extra fix options with it. It found 1 sector but was looking for a program like DFT but for different brands of HD's. Right now it is coping a image from the laptop to the desktop and at 10g's so far. I hope this finishes finally without issues. Guess I should of created a image before I loaded FarCry,Battlefield(DC,Viet,1942),Steam,UT2k4.

 

[VirtualLarry]

If you were using Ghost 2003 to make a backup image of your HD, you could use the '-fro' switch, to make it ignore bad sectors when backing up the drive. (All files containing bad sectors would be hosed, of course, but that allows the overall backup to complete.)

 

[eno]

Thanks. I just finally completed a full back up with DriveImage7. Damn no compression at all, it was 30gb file onto my 120gb storage drive on the main desktop. Luckily the server is almost running and will have tons of room in it for images of the 3 other systems.

I did check that box about ignoring the bad sector files, but I did that before with the same settings and still got a error. I think the fix came from the scan to the hard drive and the fix single sector. O well its at least backed up.

 

[So]

Magnifying glass.