I have several partitions on my computer, and I have Norton Save & Restore (Norton Ghost) setup to image a couple of them regularly. Well, recently, I started getting errors every time I try to backup one of these partitions (just this one).
The problem partition is a 5GB NTFS partition that simply contains my Documents and Settings folder and a couple other things. I have tried running chkdsk /r, but that finds nothing. I have been wondering if this might be caused by a bad sector in the disk, and that I could possibly solve this by copying the files out, re-formatting the partition, and then copy the files back.
ONE CRUCIAL NOTE: At one point I did get this working again by deleting a couple files that seemed to be where the backup got hung at. But a few days later, this started all over again. I wonder if some new files got written where the problem files were previously.
Does anyone know how I can solve this?
Here is the error Norton Save & Restore gives me:
Error EC8F17B7: Cannot create recovery points for job: Daily E Drive Backup. Error E7C3000F: Device \\.\SymantecSnapshot1 cannot read 3640 sectors starting at LBA 882016. Error EBAB03F1: The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error.
Details: 0xE7C3000F
Source: Norton Save & Restore
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If you are getting "bad sectors" that means it is a physical problem with the drive. As stated by jared, any attempt to fix it could make the problem worse. I would suggest copying everything off that drive now, and replace it immediately.
Even if it is just 1 sector, 1 sector becomes 5, really fast.
Good luck.
Clearly the drive does indeed have some failing sectors ... and the fact they've not been automatically remapped by the S.M.A.R.T. system most likely means it's out of spares ==> so I'd agree the best thing to do is simply replace the drive.
But if you DO want to try to resolve this, the best utility to use is Spinrite, from http://www.grc.com/sr/spin
Another alternative -- if you know exactly which section of the drive has the issue, you can create a small partition that includes the defective area; and then just never use that partition. This is better than simply mapping out the bad sectors ... as once a particular area has failing sectors, access to "close" sectors can often cause additional problems => but if you block out an area "around" the bad one, otherwise-good drives can last a long time. I've got a 320GB drive with a 800MB "DONOTUSE" partition that's been working just fine for a couple years.
But I agree the easiest "fix" is simply a new drive :-)
The only errors that were even in the Event Viewer's System log were related to my DVD drive and services. It simply complining that I have a ATA66 drive connected with a 40-wire cable, and that a few services didn't load when I started windows a few days ago.
Does it mean anything that these Bad Sectors errors only came from Norton? Because I don't get any errors when I run chkdsk /r on the problem drive. And this is the ONLY partition I get this error on, the other two partitions I backup go perfectly.
But, if the only solution for this is to get SpinRite which costs $89, I would rather just go ahead and buy a new, bigger drive.
I wonder if running the Drive Diagnostic tools could conclude whether this is a problem with the drive itself or just a problem with the file system.
Spinrite is an excellent tool to have available ... but I agree it's a bit pricey for a one-time use.
It's possible ... but not likely ... that this is just a strange Norton-only error => but it's fairly clear from the error message that Norton is having problems reading from that partition; and you indicated it's happening frequently ... so I suspect it's truly an error on the disk.
Won't hurt to try a different imaging program on that partition => NOT just a copy utility (e.g. SyncToy) ... which will only read the actual data area and will NOT let you know if there are any bad areas on the partition itself.
I would either (a) stop using that specific partition [or do a bit of restructuring to only block the part that's got the problem if you don't want to lose 5GB]; or (b) replace the drive.
>> Another alternative -- if you know exactly which section of the drive has the issue, you can create a small partition that includes the defective area; and then just never use that partition. This is better than simply mapping out the bad sectors ... as once a particular area has failing sectors, access to "close" sectors can often cause additional problems => but if you block out an area "around" the bad one, otherwise-good drives can last a long time. I've got a 320GB drive with a 800MB "DONOTUSE" partition that's been working just fine for a couple years.
This method above I don't recommend. What may happen is that the bad area may grow and move into the good area. I've experienced this. In this case the hard drive surface was flaking and the flake area moved into the good area. YMMV.
You can download utils from the hard disk manufacturer that will test the hard disk for you. Check the manufacturer's web site or grab the UBCD http://www.ultimatebootcd.
But whatever grab a backup of all of your data before you proceed.
Anything you do to "mask" the problem is doing just that. While you can do what dbrunton says there is a gash of some kind on the physical platter. Regardless of if you hide it or whatever that is still there, so using the drive can make that gash spread,
As to chkdsk not seeing it, it is an outdated program that isn't as useful as other hard drive diags out there.
Another note, Norton does sometimes report problems that aren't there. If it is just one program saing it, don't replace the drive just yet. As with any doctor (or dis diagnostic) get a second opinion.
Good luck again.
Well, this looks promising... I used Partition Magic to move the partitions around, and I left 5GB empty where I was having problems before. And then I ran a backup on the partition, and it copied successfully.
If I don't get anymore errors, I'll just leave it like this, and keep an eye out for hard drive deals in the sunday paper.
As long as you don't use the area where the problem developed, the drive is likely to be just fine. It IS true that bad sectors can effect those immediately around them (i.e. the defects tend to "grow"), but unless it's physically flaking (which is probably not the case, as these kind of issues grow VERY fast -- and your symptoms don't support that), just never accessing the bad area is a good way to keep the defect contained.
... Nevertheless, it's a good plan to be prepared with a new replacement drive.
I just remembered something that makes a whole lot of sense after all of this. I do video capture and editing on my computer once in a while, and the past few times I've tried to do this, I had problems with the recording dropping frames badly. I have been doing this for about 5-years without problems like this. So I think everybody is right, the drive is just on its way out.
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by: jared_lukerPosted on 2008-08-04 at 13:46:23ID: 22156046
Look at your system event log and look for Disk errors. If you see them, then the drive is probably going bad. I would not try to "fix" it. I would back up your stuff by any mothod and get a new drive. My opinion is that once a drive starts to go south, it only gets worse.