Bad sectors: how bad can it be

[Michaël Grünewald]

Many thanks to the contributors of the list for their input on this 
question! I always got quick and detailed answer to my questions on this 
list, which is very appreciable in this time of (small) trouble.

(I feel sorry for the very poor english I demonstrated in the message I 
wrote this morning: I was in a hurry!)

Polytropon wrote:
 > On Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:31:18 +0100, Grünewald Michaël 
<michaelgrunewald at yahoo.fr> wrote:
 >> Starting the machine by other means, I found that the hard-drive is
 >> installed on has bad sectors. I am looking for advices on how to
 >> recover from this, if possible.
 >
 > If there's data on the disk you want to get back, first
 > make a dd copy of the drive or the partition in question.
 > Use an accurately working disk as the target.

I have backups of the data contained in the broken, so the data on this 
disc are not a concern. I have however a question: How do I verify that 
a hard-drive is accurately working if its firmware will hide the bad 
sectors as long as possible?

 >> Basically the question is: shall I discard my hard-drive with bad-
 >> sectors, or can I continue using it?
 >
 > Discard it. Hard disks are cheap today, and bad sectors may
 > have the habit to multiply. Don't take that risk.

As the other contributors join their voices
to yours, I will replace the faulty disk ASAP.
-- 
Thank you a lot,
Michaël