11/1/2020
`
`Bad Sectors Explained: Why Hard Drives Get Bad Sectors and What You Can Do About It
`
`How-To Geek
`
`Bad Sectors Explained: Why Hard Drives Get Bad
`Sectors and What You Can Do About It
`
` @chrisbhoffman
`CHRIS HOFFMAN
`UPDATED JULY 5, 2017, 6:13PM EDT
`
`A bad sector on a hard drive is simply a tiny cluster of storage space
`— a sector — of the hard drive that appears to be defective. The
`sector won’t respond to read or write requests.
`
`Bad sectors can occur on both traditional magnetic hard drives and
`modern solid-state drives. There are two types of bad sectors — one
`resulting from physical damage that can’t be repaired, and one
`resulting from software errors that can be fixed.
`
`https://www.howtogeek.com/173463/bad-sectors-explained-why-hard-drives-get-bad-sectors-and-what-you-can-do-about-it/
`
`1/6
`
`Patent Owner, Bot M8 LLC - Ex. 2012, p. 1
`
`
`
`Bad Sectors Explained: Why Hard Drives Get Bad Sectors and What You Can Do About It
`
`How-To Geek
`
`Bad Sectors Explained: Why Hard Drives Get Bad
`Sectors and What You Can Do About It
`
` @chrisbhoffman
`CHRIS HOFFMAN
`UPDATED JULY 5, 2017, 6:13PM EDT
`
`A bad sector on a hard drive is simply a tiny cluster of storage space
`— a sector — of the hard drive that appears to be defective. The
`sector won’t respond to read or write requests.
`
`Bad sectors can occur on both traditional magnetic hard drives and
`modern solid-state drives. There are two types of bad sectors — one
`resulting from physical damage that can’t be repaired, and one
`resulting from software errors that can be fixed.
`
`https://www.howtogeek.com/173463/bad-sectors-explained-why-hard-drives-get-bad-sectors-and-what-you-can-do-about-it/
`
`1/6
`
`Patent Owner, Bot M8 LLC - Ex. 2012, p. 1
`
`
`
`11/1/2020
`
`Bad Sectors Explained: Why Hard Drives Get Bad Sectors and What You Can Do About It
`
`Types of Bad Sectors
`
`There are two types of bad sectors — often divided into “physical”
`and “logical” bad sectors or “hard” and “soft” bad sectors.
`
`A physical — or hard — bad sector is a cluster of storage on the hard
`drive that’s physically damaged. The hard drive’s head may have
`touched that part of the hard drive and damaged it, some dust may
`have settled on that sector and ruined it, a solid-state drive’s flash
`memory cell may have worn out, or the hard drive may have had
`other defects or wear issues that caused the sector to become
`physically damaged. This type of sector cannot be repaired.
`
`A logical — or soft — bad sector is a cluster of storage on the hard
`drive that appears to not be working properly. The operating system
`may have tried to read data on the hard drive from this sector and
`found that the error-correcting code (ECC) didn’t match the contents
`of the sector, which suggests that something is wrong. These may
`be marked as bad sectors, but can be repaired by overwriting the
`drive with zeros — or, in the old days, performing a low-level format.
`Windows’ Disk Check tool can also repair such bad sectors.
`
`Causes of Hard Bad Sectors
`
`Your hard drive may have shipped from the factory with bad sectors.
`Modern manufacturing techniques aren’t perfect, and there’s a
`margin or error in everything. That’s why solid-state drives often ship
`with some defective blocks. These are marked as defective and are
`remapped to some of the solid-state drive’s extra memory cells.
`
`On a solid-state drive, natural wear will eventually result in sectors
`becoming bad as they’re written to many times, and they’ll be
`remapped to the solid-state drive’s extra — or “overprovisioned” —
`
`https://www.howtogeek.com/173463/bad-sectors-explained-why-hard-drives-get-bad-sectors-and-what-you-can-do-about-it/
`
`2/6
`
`Patent Owner, Bot M8 LLC - Ex. 2012, p. 2
`
`
`
`Bad Sectors Explained: Why Hard Drives Get Bad Sectors and What You Can Do About It
`11/1/2020
`memory. When the solid-state drive’s extra memory runs out, the
`drive’s capacity will start to drop as sectors become unreadable.
`
`On a traditional magnetic hard drive, bad sectors can be caused by
`physical damage. The hard drive may have had a manufacturing
`error, natural wear may have worn part of the hard drive down, the
`drive may have been dropped, causing the hard drive’s head to touch
`the platter and damage some of the sectors, some air may have
`entered the sealed area of the hard drive and the dust may have
`damaged the drive — there are many possible causes.
`
`Causes of Soft Bad Sectors
`
`Soft bad sectors are caused by software issues. For example, if your
`computer suddenly shuts off due to a power outage or a pulled
`power cable, it’s possible that the hard drive may have shut off in the
`middle of writing to a sector. In some cases, it’s possible for sectors
`on the hard drive to contain data that doesn’t match their error-
`correction code — this would be marked as a bad sector. Viruses and
`other malware that messes with your computer could also cause
`such system issues and cause soft bad sectors to develop.
`
`https://www.howtogeek.com/173463/bad-sectors-explained-why-hard-drives-get-bad-sectors-and-what-you-can-do-about-it/
`
`3/6
`
`Patent Owner, Bot M8 LLC - Ex. 2012, p. 3
`
`
`
`11/1/2020
`
`Bad Sectors Explained: Why Hard Drives Get Bad Sectors and What You Can Do About It
`
`Data Loss and Hard Drive Failure
`
`The reality of bad sectors brings home a chilling fact — even if your
`
`hard drive is otherwise working properly, it's possible for a bad sector
`
`to develop and corrupt some of your data. This is another reason
`
`why you should always My;your data — multiple copies are the
`
`only thing that will prevent bad sectors and other issues from ruining
`
`your hard drive's data.
`
`RELATED: How to See If Your Hard Drive Is Dyi_ng with S.M.A.R.I
`
`When your computer notices a bad sector, it marks that sector as
`
`bad and ignores it in the future. The sector will be reallocated, so
`
`reads and writes to that sector will go elsewhere. This will show up
`
`as ”Reallocated SectorS' inWyflflm
`
`erstalDisklnfo. If you had important data in that sector, however, it
`
`may be lost — possibly corrupting one or more files.
`
`A few bad sectors don't indicate that a hard drive is about to fail —
`
`they can just happen. However, if your hard drive is rapidly
`
`developing bad sectors, it may be a sign that your hard drive is
`
`failing.
`
`Com puter Accessories
`
`Ad We've got you covered w
`shipping.
`
`Best Buy
`
`Shop Now
`
`How to Check for and Repair Bad
`
`Sectors
`
`RELATED: How to Fix Hard Drive Problems with Chkdsk in Windows
`
`_7,_8, and 10
`
`Windows has a built-in Disk Check tool — also known as chkdsk —
`
`that can scan your hard drives for bad sectors, marking hard ones as
`https:llwww.howtogeek.coml173463Ibad-sectors—explained-why—hard—dn‘vesget—bad—sectorsand—wnat—youunooabout-it/
`
`4/6
`
`Patent Owner, Bot M8 LLC - Ex. 2012, p. 4
`
`Patent Owner, Bot M8 LLC - Ex. 2012, p. 4
`
`
`
`Bad Sectors Explained: Why Hard Drives Get Bad Sectors and What You Can Do About It
`11/1/2020
`bad and repairing soft ones to make them usable again. If Windows
`thinks that there’s a problem on your hard disk — because the hard
`drive’s “dirty bit” is set — it will automatically run this tool when your
`computer starts up. But you’re also free to run this tool manually at
`any point.
`
`Other operating systems, including Linux and OS X, also have their
`own built-in disk utilities for detecting bad sectors.
`
`Bad sectors are just a reality of hard disks, and there’s generally no
`reason to panic when you encounter one. However, you should
`always have backups of your important files just in case a freak bad
`sector strikes — and rapidly developing bad sectors can certainly
`suggest oncoming hard drive failure.
`
`Image Credit: Jeff Kubina on Flickr, moppet65535 on Flickr
`
`READ NEXT
`
`› How to Change Your Status on Discord
`
`› How to Write in Text Boxes Using Your Apple Pencil on iPad
`
`› How to Quickly Resize the Dock on Mac
`
`› How to Sign up for Apple One on iPhone and iPad
`
`› How to View 3D Halloween Characters in AR Using Your Phone
`
`https://www.howtogeek.com/173463/bad-sectors-explained-why-hard-drives-get-bad-sectors-and-what-you-can-do-about-it/
`
`5/6
`
`Patent Owner, Bot M8 LLC - Ex. 2012, p. 5
`
`
`
`11/1/2020
`
`Bad Sectors Explained: Why Hard Drives Gel Bad Sectors and What You Can Do About It
`
`CHRIS HOFFMAN
`Chris Hoffman is Editor in Chief of How-To Geek.
`
`He's written about technology for nearly a decade
`
`and was a PCWorld columnist for two years. Chris
`
` interviewed as a technology expert on TV stations
`
`has written for The New York Times, been
`
`like Miami's NBC 6, and had his work covered by
`
`news outlets like the BBC. Since 2011, Chris has written over 2,000
`articles that have been read more than 500 million times—and that's
`
`just here at How-To Geek. READ FULL Blo »
`
`The above article may contain affiliate links, which help support How—To Geek.
`
`How-To Geek is where you turn when you want experts to explain technology. Since we launched in
`2006, our articles have been read more than 1 billion times. Want to know more?
`
`https:llwww.howtogeek.coml173463/bad—sedorsrexplained—why—hard—drivesget—bad—sectorsand—what—youcandoabout—it/
`
`6/6
`
`Patent Owner, Bot M8 LLC - Ex. 2012, p. 6
`
`Patent Owner, Bot M8 LLC - Ex. 2012, p. 6
`
`
Accessing this document will incur an additional charge of $.
After purchase, you can access this document again without charge.
Accept $ Charge
Still Working On It
This document is taking longer than usual to download. This can happen if we need to contact the court directly to obtain the document and their servers are running slowly.
Give it another minute or two to complete, and then try the refresh button.
A few More Minutes ... Still Working
It can take up to 5 minutes for us to download a document if the court servers are running slowly.
Thank you for your continued patience.
This document could not be displayed.
We could not find this document within its docket. Please go back to the docket page and check the link. If that does not work, go back to the docket and refresh it to pull the newest information.
Your account does not support viewing this document.
You need a Paid Account to view this document. Click here to change your account type.
Your account does not support viewing this document.
Set your membership
status to view this document.
With a Docket Alarm membership, you'll
get a whole lot more, including:
- Up-to-date information for this case.
- Email alerts whenever there is an update.
- Full text search for other cases.
- Get email alerts whenever a new case matches your search.
One Moment Please
The filing “” is large (MB) and is being downloaded.
Please refresh this page in a few minutes to see if the filing has been downloaded. The filing will also be emailed to you when the download completes.
Your document is on its way!
If you do not receive the document in five minutes, contact support at support@docketalarm.com.
Sealed Document
We are unable to display this document, it may be under a court ordered seal.
If you have proper credentials to access the file, you may proceed directly to the court's system using your government issued username and password.
Access Government Site
