11/1/2020
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`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/
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`Patent Owner, Bot M8 LLC - Ex. 2012, p. 1
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`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
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`Patent Owner, Bot M8 LLC - Ex. 2012, p. 1
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`11/1/2020
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`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” —
`
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`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.
`
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`Bad Sectors Explained: Why Hard Drives Get Bad Sectors and What You Can Do AboutIt
`
`Data Loss and Hard Drive Failure
`
`The reality of bad sectors brings homea chilling fact — even if your
`hard drive is otherwise working properly,it’s possible for a bad sector
`to develop and corrupt someof your data. This is another reason
`
`why you should always back upyour data — multiple copies are the
`only thing that will prevent bad sectors and other issues from ruining
`yourhard drive's data.
`
`RELATED: Howto See If Your Hard Drive Is Dying with S.M.A.R.T.
`
`Whenyour computer notices a bad sector, it marks that sector as
`bad and ignoresit in the future. The sectorwill be reallocated, so
`reads andwrites to that sectorwill go elsewhere. This will show up
`
`as “Reallocated Sectors” inharddriveSMA.R.T.likeanalysistools
`
`CrystalDiskInfo. If you had important data in that sector, however,it
`maybe lost — possibly corrupting one or morefiles.
`
`A few bad sectors don't indicate that a hard drive is about to fail —
`
`they can just happen. However,if your hard driveis rapidly
`developing bad sectors,it may be a sign that your hard drive is
`failing.
`
`Computer Accessories
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`
`Howto Checkfor and Repair Bad
`Sectors
`
`RELATED: Howto Fix Hard Drive Problems with Chkdsk in Windows
`
`7,8, and 10
`
`Windowshasa built-in Disk Check tool — also known as chkdsk —
`
`that can scan your hard drives for bad sectors, marking hard ones as
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`Patent Owner, Bot M8 LLC - Ex. 2012, p. 4
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`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
`
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`11/1/2020
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`Bad Sectors Explained: Why Hard Drives Get Bad Sectors and What You Can Do AboutIt
`
`CHRIS HOFFMAN
`Chris Hoffman is Editor in Chief of How-To Geek.
`
` interviewed as a technology expert on TV stations
`
`He's written about technologyfor nearly a decade
`
`and was a PCWorld columnist for two years. Chris
`
`has written for The New York Times, been
`
`like Miami's NBC 6, and had his work covered by
`newsoutlets 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 FULLBIO »
`
`The abovearticle may contain affiliate links, which help support How-To Geek.
`
`How-To Geek is where you turn when you wantexperts to explain technology. Since we launchedin
`2006,our articles have been read morethan1billion times. Want to know more?
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`Patent Owner, Bot M8 LLC - Ex. 2012, p. 6
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