Detecting and Fixing Bad Sectors

1. Detecting Bad Sectors

The badblocks command scans storage devices.

sudo badblocks -sv /dev/sdX

sudo badblocks -wvs /dev/sdX

2. Saving Bad Sectors

Save the bad sectors to a file:

sudo badblocks -o badblocks.txt /dev/sdX

3. Creating a Filesystem

Create a filesystem excluding bad sectors.

sudo mkfs.ext4 -l badblocks.txt /dev/sdX1

sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdX1

4. Mounting and Testing

sudo mount /dev/sdX1 /mnt

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/mnt/testfile bs=1M count=100

sudo umount /mnt

5. Monitoring Bad Sectors

sudo badblocks -sv /dev/sdX

Recommendations

• Replace devices with many bad sectors.
• Regularly back up your data.