How do we find out , if bad sectors of a chkdsk is logical or software bad block or hardware bad block

Hi, I had windows 10 on a seagate hdd of 500 gbcapacity, which was working properly suddenly not working properly. I tried Chkdsk, It checked it but could not complete five stages but would run for some time. Repeated chkdsk also did not complete successfully. I went into the eventviewer and found that the disk has 4 kb of bad sectors. I am unable to enclose a copy . I had done chkdsk multiple times. I tried to run diagnostic tool by seagate tools, but it returned failed in short surface test, quick test etc. I had tried victoria, and it gives me access denied error while remapping operations .I tried all tricks to remove this 4kb bad sectors. I do not know, if it is physical damage in hdd or logical damage in software. as a final attempt, I have copied essentials and then tried new installation of windows 10.This time, I have used the advanced options in install stage, deleted the entire volume and formatted before reinstalling the windows 10. the windows was successfully installed and immediately I used chkdsk to find if there is any change in the disk check results. wow. the chkdsk completed five stages and there was no bad blocks at all. I was happy that i could use the hdd without bothering about the bad sectors.
So, the 4kb shown in chkdsk happened to be logical bad blocks that was cleaned up while reinstalling.
My query is , is there a way of knowing if the bad sectors are logical or physical. Physical bad sectors could not be corrected in any manner, where as the logical bad sectors could be fixed. the low level chkdsk codes could not be deciphered to know , if those are causes of logical or software or physical. I already told that i am unable to enclose the test results as I have formatted the entire disk. Now, the results are with no bad sectors .

You already have the answer. Change storage now. Base in my experience for HDD Seagate has high failure rate vs Western brand in long term usage. I own more than 30 HDD.

Pl see the query I raised. Is there a way of knowing if the bad sectors are caused by logic or physical

I use CrystalDiskInfo. I think long term usage cause bad sector more on Seagate brand. And you cant fix it

jraju said:

My query is , is there a way of knowing if the bad sectors are logical or physical. Physical bad sectors could not be corrected in any manner, where as the logical bad sectors could be fixed. the low level chkdsk codes could not be deciphered to know , if those are causes of logical or software or physical. I already told that i am unable to enclose the test results as I have formatted the entire disk. Now, the results are with no bad sectors .

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Formatting the disk would allow the hard drive's internal controller to remap any bad sectors and replace them with sectors from a pool of spare sectors. This would make the disk appear to be completely healthy again.

Download the zip file for the standard version of CrystalDiskInfo from here: Download

Unzip its contents to a folder somewhere. This is a portable program that needs no install, you could run it from a usb stick. It can read the SMART data from your drive. The important thing to look for is the raw value of '05 - Reallocated Sector Count'. This is the count of how many (if any) bad sectors have had to be replaced. If it is anything other than zero then the disk is failing and should be replaced.

If the disk is failing then the 'C5 - Current Pending Sector Count' may start to increase. This is a count of potentially bad sectors that may (or may not) be bad. Another format would test these sectors and reallocate new ones if they test as bad.

Don't you just miss the old days of bad sector mapping.
Nowadays it's all hidden from the user, until it's too late.
Your description suggests physical damage, but logical or physical makes no difference if you can't read it, but both can be corrected easily.
GRC's oldie Spinrite or HDD Regenerator are your best bets.

I would definitely replace the disk.

A failure of Sea Tools Long generic test is used for warranty replacement.

If unable to complete the Long generic test then this is equivalent.

Please backup important files.

Replace the disk drive.

For confirmation you may be able to run:

GSmartControl extensive test

Hi, bree , I used the victoria software and read the s.m.a.r.t data. there is 0 in both the reallocated and current pending . does that mean the hdd is healthy physically? but there are some entries in the other column data on these which i cannot understand. codex , has reported that he has 30 hdd. Probably , all would work , if he reformat those and again install his operating systems . I have tried all the softwares , while trying to fix the bad sectors. the low level code in chkdsk raw data could not be understood at all.
Is there really anything that could segregate the logical bad sectors from the physical bad sectors. chkdsk results are in kb. So, i presume, that anything that chkdsk shows as bad sectors entirely related to logical one and can be set right. Am I not correct? Sometimes, i changed hard drive due to bad sectors presence. Is there any article dealing with the physical and logical bad sectors .

jraju said:

I used the victoria software and read the s.m.a.r.t data. there is 0 in both the reallocated and current pending . does that mean the hdd is healthy physically? but there are some entries in the other column data on these which i cannot understand.

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You can ignore the other columns, it's the Raw value that's important.

This may help....

BackBlaze said:

For the last few years we’ve used the following five SMART stats as a means of helping determine if a drive is going to fail.

Attribute --- Description
SMART 5 ---- Reallocated Sectors Count
SMART 187 - Reported Uncorrectable Errors
SMART 188 - Command Timeout
SMART 197 - Current Pending Sector Count
SMART 198 - Uncorrectable Sector Count

When the RAW value for one of these five attributes is greater than zero, we have a reason to investigate....

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Your 187 Uncorrectable ECC Errors is non-zero.

Hi, bree, As you have pointed out , 187 error amounts to more than thousands and it is a self diagnosis report and would not change on evrey opening of victoria app. I have decided to use this as storage device and to buy a new 500 gb ssd drive. I think that i could use the same license to activate. In the meantime, please give me suggestions of how to remove this error. can i remap, if possible , all the sectors, lba, if allowed. There is a catch in the program, is it produces access is denied error, for the logical partition, which the disk now have.As I have bios supported pc, i can only have 4 primary partitions, which are reserved for OS. the remaining partition is logical and there is access denied error on remapping . This i could try, after deleting the volume and then try remapping. Please tell me about this ECC error, how it is happening. if it is caused by logical ,or software, then what to make it correct. Your clue about the five indicators out of total s.m.a.r.t data is helpful in narrowing in finding the cause for the data.

jraju said:

I have decided to use this as storage device and to buy a new 500 gb ssd drive. I think that i could use the same license to activate.

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Windows 10/11 is activated by a digital licence, stored on Microsoft's activation servers and linked to the unique hardware ID of the PC. The disk drive plays no part in this hardware ID. You can replace the drive and Windows will still activate from the existing digital licence.

jraju said:

please give me suggestions of how to remove this error. can i remap, if possible , all the sectors, lba, if allowed. There is a catch in the program, is it produces access is denied error, for the logical partition, which the disk now have..... Please tell me about this ECC error, how it is happening. if it is caused by logical ,or software, then what to make it correct.

Click to expand...

Your '187 Uncorrectable ECC Errors' in the SMART data were detected by the drive's own internal controller, they are not logical or software errors.

Only the internal controller can reallocate sectors, to make it do so you can create a single partition using the whole of the drive's space and perform a full format.

To remove all existing partitions from the drive use DiskPart. Use the List Disk command first, make VERY sure you correctly identify the disk number of the old drive as the next steps will wipe it clean. Select it, then use the Clean command, this will remove all previous partitions from the drive. You can now use Disk Management to create a new partition.