Re: [tlug] Program to Save / Remap Bad Sectors

[Raymond Wan <rwan.kyoto@example.com>]

On Mon, Jul 13, 2015 at 11:03 AM, CL <az.4tlug@example.com> wrote:
> Back in the days when you could cram a huge 800Mb into a full height 5
> 1/2" Maxtor HDD, there were DOS-based programs that would allow you to
> fix, move, and, alternatively, remap bad sectors but I can't seem to
> find anything I can use on a Live CD or boot into using CD or USB memory
> -- Linux or WIN based.  Anyone out there know and recommend a tool for
> this job?  Synaptic finds nothing, nor does a search of The Web.  Or am
> I just asking the wrong questions?


Perhaps the badblocks program?  I don't know if there is a program
that puts a UI in front, though.

Take a look at this forum posting, which also mentions smartmontools
for disks with SMART:

http://askubuntu.com/questions/291570/mark-bad-sectors-on-hard-drive-without-formating/490549#490549

Note that the (Ubuntu) man pages for badblocks says:

       Important  note:  If  the output of badblocks is going to be fed to the
       e2fsck or mke2fs programs, it is important that the block size is prop‐
       erly  specified,  since  the block numbers which are generated are very
       dependent on the block size in use by the filesystem.  For this reason,
       it  is  strongly recommended that users not run badblocks directly, but
       rather use the -c option of the e2fsck and mke2fs programs.


Ray

PS:  I've used badblocks only once (tried directly and indirectly)
before and it never succeeded in what I wanted it to do.  I'm not sure
if there is anything better.