A hard drive is segmented into sectors called "sectors." These little areas of hard drive grasp bits of in sequence in computer. If sector goes bad, Windows operating system detects bad division and moves information to a new sector on hard drive. You can physically detect bad sectors on hard drive using "chides" application. This command line application is obtainable to Windows user.

Instructions

• Click Windows Start button and choose "Run." In the text box displayed, go into "CMD" and press "OK" button. This starts Windows command prompt.

• Enter "chkdsk chkdsk volume:<drive> /f" into command prompt. restore "<drive>" with drive letter for hard drive desire to verify. The "/f" switch indicates that chkdsk should mechanically repair bad sectors.

• View results of chkdsk operation. The chkdsk command displays hard drive errors including bad sectors. If used "/f" switch in report, program mechanically attempts to fix bad sectors. or else, errors are only displayed and reported at end of scan.