How do I check for bad sectors on the hard drive? (Need help soon!)
I've asked this in a different thread but am not getting exactly the question answered completely. I need to run a check on my drive that will test each sector and if a bad sector is found, it will block that sector from being written to with data in the future.
I used to use Disk First Aid or Apple HD Setup or Norton Utilities to do this. Norton does not appear to be made for Mac OSX 10.4.4 and those other utilities appear to be System 9 and earlier utilities only.
Is there some way of doing this with current Apple tools? My original post is at http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=1592160#1592160
Thank you. I've been down since Saturday and really need to get an answer so I can move forward and get my computer back up and running.
There is only one way to do this. Make a bootable backup of your drive to an external Firewire drive (you can use the Restore option of Disk Utility.) Then do the following:
1 Boot from your Tiger DVD. After the installer loads select Disk Utility from the Utilities.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the number of partitions from the dropdown menu (use 1 partition unless you wish to make more.) Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled, if supported.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the volume(s) mount on the Desktop.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled, if supported.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process will take 30 minutes to an hour or more depending upon the drive size.
By reformatting using the Zero Data option DU will force checking for bad blocks.
If you wish to forego the above procedure you can purchase TechTool Pro (v. 4.1.1) which has a module for scanning the disk for bad blocks. However, repairing the drive can only be done by reformatting.
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