I've got a 2TB WD Passport Ultra I'm supposed to fix. Its got bad sectors and has had its partition delete so it is RAW. I did a full (not quick) format, keeping the computer on for 30+ hours. No luck. How can I fix this? I'm on Windows and Linux.
Got it as in recover the data or just make it usable.?
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if the BAD sectors are Hardware related you cant fix it.
Otherwise if its software related you can use fsck under Linux. i did this last month.
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Make a image of the whole drive as fast as possible. Then disconnect it so it isn't running.
Mount the image so you can use a data recreation tool like testtools to recreate what can be saved, then scrap the drive.
Once a mechanical drive starts bad sectoring, it's a very good indication that it's about to die, and only more bad sectors will appear from now on.
if Linux, (which you should be anyways ;)
Open up gparted live (from a usb) and make your partitions and off you go, What's the big deal?
If the harddrive is showing bad sectors, it's bad, and the harddrive will most likely be deteriorating at a fast pace from now on with data loss, and so on. It may work when using a SSD, but if a mechinical drive, it's bad, just bad, and you need todo an emergency data extraction and save what can be saved.
On a SSD a bad sector is just a bad cell, and maybe you will loose abit of information, but on a mechanical drive it causes the read head to Fk up when it passes the bad sector(s), potentially creating more bad sectors, since the mechanical precission required to read/write is redicules compared to what a SSD has todo.
I'll wager you that more, and more bad sectors are going to show up from now on, it's like driving a car with a flat tire, nothing good comes from it, and you may be able todo so for a while, but the longer you drive, the more bashed up the car gets.
Sorry I guess I skimmed the op to fast and didn't realize. thought he was having issues making a partition.
I understand how mech/ssd's work, but a few bad sectors on a mech should be marked as bad in the firmware and ignored. in Everyday use, sectors that go bad, the drive will attempt to pull the data off the bad sector and move it, while marking the part as unusable.
a few bad sectors doesn't render the drive unuseable entirely, but I wouldn't trust it for any length of time either.
If it's just a matter of recreating the MBR/GPT what ever it is called then gparted, or fsck should be quite capable of doing so, if not chkdsk in windows. But my point stands if the disk has bad sectors, and is mechanical, and since it is a 2TB disk im guessing it is so, then it's time to back up the content.
Logistically the bad sectors are placed in the end of your harddrive span, by the whole S.M.A.R.T frame work, but physically it can potentially create more bad sectors, every time the read head passes the sector(s), and at 5400/7200rpm(im guessing), that's alot of passes.
The whole problem may be as simple as the MBR/GPT table just being messed up.
Id advice trying to actually connecting the drive to your MOBO rather then USB, it may even be as simple as a power problem, then rerun chkdsk/fsck on the drive, and if it still turns up bad sectors. get rid of it, nothing good will come from it from now on. Even if you segment the bad sectors inbetween partitions, it's not good.
I've also seen instances where the table that holds the bad sectors gets to be to big that it starts overwriting the firmware, corrupting that. Unlikely here but it can happen in some drives. OP can lookup the specific drive and look for common issues with the drive and the related fixes. (taking the hdd out and looking at the PN)
Make it usable
I'll be away this week but thanks for the answers and I'll try to fix it soon.
I agree with everyone else. Bad sectors and trouble with getting the drive to operate means (to me) that it is on it's way out. I get drives in all the time. First I always backup all the data then I test the drive. Even if it passes but is at a high usage or still acts weird it gets marked for recycling.
Drives are not cars. You can't just slap some new tires on them and say it's good to go. Sometimes the best option is to just start over with a new one.
In that case. Throw it out.
It's failing. If it's got bad blocks it's just going to get more. 2tb hard drives are pennies there's no reason to put data at risk using a failing drive.
Since they probably won't listen to you. Give them the drive and this link and tell them have fun. (Because when you fix it and it fails it'll be your fault)