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I have used badblocks to check for bad blocks, then formatted the disk using the badblocks output through mkdosfs

I just want to ask does this make these sectors bad and does Windows 7 just not use them or does the effect just cover Linux?

Also is there any tool for Windows that formats partitions and avoids bad blocks using an input file?

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Will blocks diagnosed as bad by Linux badblocks command be marked as "bad" in Windows?

In theory they would not. The command badblocks assembles a list of bad blocks that can be used by a command that creates a partition and can take a list of bad blocks as input. One such command is mke2fs.

However all this applies only to older disk drives that do not perform automated background sector testing and relocation. Absolute majority of drives that can be bought today will not show their badblocks to badblocks. Instead they would silently relocate badblocks away until they run out of reserved capacity. When the reserved capacity gets depleted many consumer and some enterprise drives will stop responding to any external stimulus coming through their control interface.

Will badblocks test an existing windows partition?

Yes, it will. The command works on the level of a block device where there is no difference between filesystems. However the data would mainly be useful as an indication of drive wear and the risk of a loss of data.

Again modern drives hide their problems from programs like badblocks but show them on S.M.A.R.T.

What are tools to check a disk for errors that can be used on Windows or linux?

Very detailed reports can be obtained with mhdd or Victoria. These utilities are normaly run from a bootable CD or a bootable USB flash drive.

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  • thanks man you have been very helpful i had used all my spare sectors so now i used mkdosfs and made my hard as usb one and it works pretty good P.S mkdosfs can be fed with badblock list by -i command :)
    – user1515425
    Oct 2, 2012 at 23:12
  • @user1515425 thank you for your comment. I overlooked the -l switch in mkdosfs manual.
    – Dima Chubarov
    Oct 3, 2012 at 3:45
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Don't use the badblocks output. On every modern disk, that output is obsolete by the time you get it. The bad blocks have already been remapped (or will be as soon as you write to them).

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  • ok but that if the spare block is still usable but if the bad blocks more than the spare blocks ? what shall i do ? and if mkdosfs has madded bad sectors does windows will read them as bad or try his own way and ignore that ?
    – user1515425
    Oct 2, 2012 at 7:57
  • If the number of bad blocks is greater than the number of spare sectors on a modern drive, throw it out.
    – David Schwartz
    Oct 2, 2012 at 8:09

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