How often have you noticed the chugging or grinding noises from your computer? Do warning messages about failure to save your work on your data disk pop up on your screen from time to time? If they do, probably you will need to look into fixing the ‘bad sectors’ in your computer. Bad sectors are portions of the computer’s hard drive that are damaged and no longer have the ability to save or store your data. The common causes for bad sectors are magnetic disc failure or internal physical damage. You can repair the bad sectors in your hard disk, in case you are using a Windows Operating System, by running an auto-error check on your system and initiating the repair process. Here’s a step by step procedure on how to repair bad sectors in Windows 7 hard drive.
Steps to Repair Bad Sectors in Windows 7
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Close all open files on the affected disk
To initiate the repair process, it is important that all files are closed and saved in the faulty disk drive. So look out for any open files and save them before closing them.
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Open Your Start Menu
Go to your desktop and click on the start menu, which is located on the bottom left corner of your screen. If you are using Windows 7, your start menu will appear in the form of the Windows logo.
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Select ‘Computer’ from the Start Menu
On opening the Start Menu, you will find an icon saying ‘Computer’ in Windows 7 and ‘My Computer’ in Windows XP. Select the ‘Computer’ icon and open it.
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Select the Properties tab of the affected drive
After opening the Computer tab, your screen will list out the drives in your computer. Select the affected drive, use the right click of your mouse to open a floating menu. At the end of the floating menu, you will find the properties tab.
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Click the Tools tab
You will find a number of tabs in the next window that pops up. Go to the Tools tab and select it. This tab will take you to the error check and repair option in the menu.
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Click on the Check Now button
The menu will show you tabs for Error Checking, Defragmentation and Back Up. Click on the Check Now button placed against the Error Checking header.
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Select the ‘bad sectors repair’ option
On selecting the Check Now tab, a smaller window will pop up reading Check Windows (C:) and will have the options ‘Automatically fix file system errors’ and ‘Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors’. Tick the box in front of the second option and click on Start.
The procedure may take several minutes depending on the size of the hard drive and amount of data you have in your hard disk. On completion, you will receive a notification from Windows that the bad sectors have been repaired.
You can also use quality disk fragmenter programmes with automated scheduling to prevent bad sectors in your hard disk or use a good quality anti-virus and anti-malware software to prevent such problems.
