Hi,
I recently had an issue with my external hdd partition and I could not figure out how to scan and repair disk for errors... So i plugged my external disk to my Macbook air m2, ran disk utility, and ran first aid to check the disk...It scanned and repaired the disk immediately...
I didn't find similar feature in Gpart or other app that can run first aid to scan & repair disk for errors... if there's any, pls let me know...thanks
Linux can do this with the Disks utility.
Hit the Windows/Super key, type disks, then click on it.
Select the drive to be scanned on the left side column.
Then click on the three dots in vertical formation on the top right.
Scan smart test will be found there.
When You open ''Disks'', and choose Your Drive and then Click on the Menu-Button left beneath the min/max/close Buttons, You have there a SMART-Test Option:
hi,
thanks for sharing...that is amazing... I hbe a querry though-
My external hdd (1 tb) that has 7 data partition. On left side of "Disks" it shows 1 tb hard disk & and in volume section it displays each data partition.
My question - Does it scan the whole 1 tb hdd at one time with all the SMART attributes values listed below..if yes, then how to scan only individual partition which has problems. As in MacOS, disk utility, i can see each partition on the left side, so i can select any individual partition to run first aid check...
Secondly, does the SMART Data self test scan & repairs the disk error...Or, it only scans and shows the problem...
Thirdly, In this scan test of 1 tb hdd - the assessement says " Disk is OK, 89 bad sectors". So has it repaired the bad sectors or is it telling me the problem and I have to fix the bad sectors - pls clarify
hi,
thanks for your help... and i have replied my queries to startreker
We use a journaling File system which will skip identified bad sectors.
Sectors cannot be repaired. There is no means of doing so on any system. If an application claims to "repair" sectors, what it really means is that those sectors are quarantined.
If enough bad sectors build up, the hard drive can fail. A 1tb drive will have 1024 cubed x 2 sectors so: 2147483648 sectors in total.
In Ext4, identified bad sectors are quarantined.
Hello David!
89 bad sectors doesn't sound good. Am I reading correctly, this is an HDD? That would make sense then, mechanical drives always develop bad sectors.
On the main Disks page, select the drive on the left side column you want to repair the file system on, then select the partition on the box on the right. Then click the 
cog icon, and you will see check file system, and repair file system.
Aravisian is right though, if you have bad sectors, there is not a darn thing you can do to fix that. But a file system repair should be able to move data information to other parts that don't have damaged sectors.
At the end of the day, if you are seeing bad sectors, that is a surefire sign, your drive is dying, and it won't get better, it will only get worse. The more bad sectors mount up, the more the drive will lag, until 1 day its too late, and it stops booting into the OS.
I've experienced many dead hard drives, its one of the reasons why I don't use them anymore, except for in a personal NAS box, for data storage. But even now, thinking about it, it wouldn't be a bad idea to purchase a large SSD drive, to transfer the data too.
I think it would be a good idea to back up your data, and buy a SSD drive. I wonder how much longer mechanical hard drives will continue to be sold these days. Most data centers have moved on to SSD drives these days. And some high end data centers, are now using NVME based storage, for sheer speed.
