Troubleshoot External HDD with bad sectors. Help!

[Manish]

Briefly explain your current issue(s)

None

Steps taken to resolve, but have been unsuccessful

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Hello,
Last week my External HDD started acting weirdly. When I connected to the PC it asked me to format the drive in order to use it. I formatted it(full-format). Then I checked it in CrystalDiskInfo and Hard Disk Sentinel. Both showed some problems. Here are the screenshots:

Then I ran chkdsk on the said drive. Here are the results:

Hard Disk Sentinel says that there are 108 bad sectors whereas Windows says that there are none.
Does it mean that 0KB of the total HDD space is in Bad Sectors like the whole disk space is fine and there are no bad sectors or there are no used KB's that fall into the bad sectors of the HDD?
Can I use this disk to store some stuff?

PS: The disk in not making any weird noise, it never fell. Whenever I play a file from this disk, it runs fine; system never hangs.

 

[safe1st]

You can check your harddrive with other software.
Because look here
CHKDSK: What does 0KB in bad sectors mean?


Maybe Crystal disk isnt 100% accurate

 

[Roffen]

Suggest you google chkdsk. Seems there are several things chkdsk can do. Plus, AFAIK, formatting fixes bad sector problems - they can of course not be removed from the disk but they will be locked out, removed from sight, they will be like dead and buried and can't do any harm.

 

[Purshu_Pro]

Well the tests show that your HDD contains bad sectors. But you can still use this this Disk without any problem, but under one condition.
You should not make any more improper shut down of the HDD like turning it off without ejection and pulling the cable of the HDD while its running(This is for ext HDD), and do not shut down windows directly when its running.
To make this clear this for you, the HDD may contain bad sectors but still can be used, because when data is being written on the plate it neglets/dodge the damaged sector and try to store it in a different part, and at this moment if you do any of the above improper things then the bad sectors can extend. SMART is the best way to analyse, but it is not accurate. Use a back up drive now to prevent future loss of data and check the drive health with HD Sentinal and use the Disk if its health is only above 80% , else you may consider in replacing it, because it may last only for few months.

 

[jamescv7]

Sometimes accuracy report tends to be inconsistent however that's already a good early warning sign in order to avoid incident that HDD is busy on intensive task. Damage on sectors may not pose risk immediately but for future outcome can result on complications like system hang and numerous unbootable sessions.