Home > Disk Management Questions > Can I Fix Bad Sectors by Formatting
My computer ran into some issues, and I tried to fix it with the CHKDSK command. Then, I noticed that there were bad sectors on my hard drive. What is the bad sector, and can I fix it by formatting the drive? Appreciate for any help!
Best Answered by
Oliver· Answered on May 31, 2024
Generally, formatting a drive cannot fix bad sectors on the disk.
The bad sector is a cluster of storage on your hard drive that's damaged that cannot be used to store or read data. There are two kinds of bad sectors: logical (Soft bad sectors) and physical (Hard bad sectors).
If your disk encounters physical damage, then unfortunately, the only way to fix it is to replace a new one.
If there are logically bad sectors on your disk, you can try fixing themwith the CHKDSK command line.
Step 1. Press "Windows" + "R" to open the Run box.
Step 2. Enter CMD to open Command Prompt.
Step 3. Input chkdsk c: /f/r/x (replace "c" with the letter of the corrupted drive) and hit "Enter."
It should be able to repair bad sectors on your disk after the process. However, the CHKDSK command doesn't always work well. If you find it has trouble fixing the bad sectors, you should resort to a professional disk management tool. One of the most reputed software is EaseUS Partition Master.
Windows 11/10/8/7100% Secure
This tool provides powerful features to automatically check and repair hard disk partition errors for free. You can follow the instructions below to scan bad sectors and repair them:
Step 1. Launch EaseUS Partition Master.
Step 2. Right-click on the disk with bad sectors and select "Surface Test." This tool will mark all bad sectors as red.
Step 3. Then, right-click on the drive and select "Advanced" > "Check File System" to repair the bad sectors.
