Arch Linux

PrimoTurbo

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Registered: 2008-06-26

Posts: 109

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How would I fix a bad block on a partition?

I've been trying to resize a Western Digital 250GB drive that has Windows XP on the primary /dev/hda partition. PartitonMagic reports "Error 1529 while executing batch" & "Error 1529: Information mismatch in directory entry" I've read it up and the solution is supposed to be running "chkdsk /f"but I've run "chkdisk /r & /f" multiple times and I still get this error.

I also tried to partition form a gparted cd, it tells me that there is at least 1 bad block and it cannot continue. It suggested chkdsk and running ntfsresize with --bad-sectors. I did this with "ntfsresize -b -s182880MB /dev/sda1" it seemed to have worked but when I logged in to Windows I noticed that while my C: was resized to 182GB, no unallocated space was created. (Not sure if I missed a step in this process) So partition magic and other apps show a 250GB+ drive with no unallocated free space. While my C:\ shows up as 182GB.

I also tried Ultimate Boot Disk, with qtparted & simplyMephis liveCD with qtparted. UBD just said there were errors, simplyMephis said there was at least 1 bad block on the drive. I tried running badblocks commands from Mephis but it looked like it would take days to complete at the speed it was doing it.

Any more ideas? Has anyone else come across these problems?

Cilyan

Member

From: Toulouse (FR)

Registered: 2006-08-27

Posts: 97

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Re: How would I fix a bad block on a partition?

You may try to launch a "cfdisk" from a live CD to see if the partitions are set up correctly and maybe write a proper partition table. Be warned, this is a formatting tool, so you can loose all your data if manipulated incorrectly.

Moreover, partitionning a drive while the system uses it is not a good idea. Always prefer doing this from a live system (that uses only RAM).

rooloo

Member

Registered: 2008-07-09

Posts: 218

Re: How would I fix a bad block on a partition?

If it was me doing the work on that HD. I'd copy everything I wanted to a new drive and hard format the drive. Then start over.

PrimoTurbo

Member

Registered: 2008-06-26

Posts: 109

Website

Re: How would I fix a bad block on a partition?

Yeah a format solved this problem for now. But appears my Windows XP cd no longer works so I am stuck with arch >:D