What to do with Error Code 7 in Hard Drive Diagnostics

Question

I started having program crashes (explorer, fifa, etc) a few days ago. Ran spyware checks and found nothing. Ran ScanDisk and found 4Kb in bad sectors (?). Ran Hard Drive Diagnostics at the boot menu which reported Error Code 7. Went to Utility Partition from boot menu and ran hard drive tests, which found a bad block. I was going to buy a new HD since my PC's out of warranty, but came across someone's post recommending SpinRite v6, which IDs and puts away isolated bad areas of a hard drive. I went to wikipedia's page on the program and saw a free alternative called Victoria. Unfortunately it doesn't offer English manual or help, only an English interface. I didn't want to spend the money, so I tried the Windows version on hdd-911.com (if you use and can boot into Windows). Currently the latest version is 4.3beta, at http://hdd-911.com/index.php?option=com_docman&task=docclick&Itemid=31&bid=79&limitstart=0&limit=15 To find the link yourself, use the Babelfish translation engine at http://babelfish.altavista.com/ to translate the page from 'Russian to English' to find the download link. See the link called Files on the left of the page, currently the 3rd link in the menu. You'll have to remember the position of that link and go back to hdd-911 because Babelfish will mess up the file download link. Now, start the program and click on the 'Tests' tab. There's an area where you choose Ignore, Remap, Erase, and Restore. I clicked Remap, then the Start button (in Victoria). The program found 3 bad blocks and remapped them so they aren't used anymore. You may want to try Recover instead which probably attempts to restore the data on the bad blocks. Now all the diagnostic tests show the drive passing and without errors. Of course, if these bad sectors keep popping up, your drive really is failing.

tsee · Answer

As I understand it, chkdsk is the command-line version of the "check disk" tool when you choose Properties from the drive's shortcut (right-click) menu. As I said I ran that and found 4 Kb in bad sectors. Even though I had set it to fix any errors and try to recover data, the drive still failed diagnostics. I also explained that I used the Victoria for Windows because I was able to boot into Windows despite the disk errors. I don't know if the DOS version has the same interface.

Message Edited by tsee on 01-15-2008 04:59 PM

mombodog · Answer

chkdsk /r   will recover bad sectors also.   Thanks for the Victoria link, I assume this runs in windows, not from a boot disk? Message Edited by mombodog on 01-15-2008 03:50 PM

mombodog · Answer

If you do not want to post a link, just say so. It's not for me, but others that may trip across this thread later on. That's why this forum is #1 for Dell owners, we try to make things easy.

Nevermind I will do it.

Dos version of Victoria

http://hdd-911.com/index.php?option=com_docman&task=docclick&Itemid=31&bid=65&limitstart=0&limit=15

Victoria 4.3beta for Windows

http://hdd-911.com/index.php?option=com_docman&task=docclick&Itemid=31&bid=79&limitstart=0&limit=15

Victoria 4.2 for Windows

http://hdd-911.com/index.php?option=com_docman&task=docclick&Itemid=31&bid=78&limitstart=0&limit=15

Message Edited by mombodog on 01-15-2008 04:58 PM

tsee · Answer

Not to be rude but that's also something I explained in my post. Just follow the directions and you'll learn how to use the site. If my explanations are unclear I'll be glad to clarify but if you figure out how to get the program then in the future you can obtain the current version instead of relying on outdated links.

mombodog · Answer

Do you have a link to the dos version of victoria?   TIA

mortaz · Answer

Hi MomboDog   Thanks for posting links to Victoria.... and others.  Can I use these downloaded files to boot the PC!? Thanks in advance for all your help. David

Storage, Drives & Media

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