"Recovering allocation unit..." What is this???

[mlusr]

When I was formatting D drive (5GB of 10GB HD from one of my old PCs), this message, "recovering allocation unit 23,126?c" came out. This process is very slow and seems to last forever (it already has been more than 10 hours since it started ). What does this mean? Does my HD have a bad sector or is this HD broken? Please help! Thanks.

 

[AndyHui]

Yup...that's a bad sector.

What type of hard drive is it?

 

[mlusr]

Thanks for the reply.
My old PC is Sony Vaio (I had bought it before I realized that I could build my PC ) and has 10GB IDE HD.
More questions. Is it safe if I stop the recovering process by using ^C or something? Shold I let it finish? If recovering process completes, will the HD have less storage space? Thanks!

 

[AndyHui]

Sometimes it lets you stop the recovery process, sometimes it won't.

Yes, at the end of it, you will have less usable space as sectors marked bad will not be used. Once you start having bad sectors, usually more develop quickly right after the first few. It's best to get whatever important stuff you have off that hard drive and look at getting a new drive.

 

[TumBO]

Once it starts giving the 'Recovering Allocation unit' message, that drive is pretty gone. I mean, it'll still work but not for too much longer.

 

[mlusr]

Again, thanks
Ummm?cI am trying to sell this Vaio because I don?ft need it any more?cmaybe I should not sell it with this HD Aren't there any good ways to keep this HD from death? Is this HD doomed?

 

[oldandquitemad]

As TumBO says, the drive is in bad shape. DO NOT put anything on the drive that you would consider irreplaceable.

 

[boomerang]

I just want to know what's up with the little squares.

 

[H8tank]

Try and run a lowlevel format on the drive, it could fix it. Use a downloadable utility from the HD manufacturer.