Maximum PC

Ok so the other day I restarted my pc to do some windows updates and when it tried to boot it refused to. All I got was the blinking cursor after the bios. So I downloads ubuntu and did live usb. Started up gparted and it said the hard drive has a bad sector from physical damage. How do I fix this? Is there a way to map around it or something?

I doubt Linux distros have a tool to fix this, as this would require modifying an NTFS partition (which is of course, "non-free").

You're going to have to go into the Windows Repair Environment. If this is Windows Vista/7, press F8 after POST until you get a menu, then select "Repair This Computer". Once in the recovery environment, open up Command Prompt and figure out where the C:\ partition is (it's not C:\, just type in "dir [partition letter]" until you find it). Once you find it, type in "chkdsk /f /r [letter of partition]:\". So if the C:\ partition ended up as E:\, you would type "chkdsk /f /r E:\" (without quotes, obviously).

If this is Windows XP, you'll need the install disk.

Yea tried chkdsk and it did not fix it.

Are you sure it was with the /r /f flags? /r checks for bad sectors.

If you are sure, then the hard drive's dying.

is it chkdsk /r /f C: or chhdsk /f /r C:

chkdsk /f /r [whatever letter windows is on]:\

If you do this in the recovery environment, your Windows install may not be on C:\. Double check that it is.

If your HDD has a bad sector you should back it up and replace the drive. If it is under warranty make an RMA claim.

BACK UP before doing any of the following!!!! You did not provide a HDD maker but several HDD makers provide a free diagnostic app on their support download page that will attempt to do a non-destructive repair on their HDDs. Download the bootable version if available, burn the ISO file to a CD or USB flash and boot it up. Do the diagnostics, write down any error code generated and then if it offers to repair say yes. [Note Hitachi's DFT is a little too eager to wipe the drive so be careful what you say yes to.] Seatools for DOS will attempt to repair even non-Seagate/Maxtor drives if you ask it, but I would only do that if your drive maker's app did not try.

Note, even if it reports back repaired and it now tests good I would not trust that drive again. Once a sector(s) starts to fail on a ATA drive it is likely only a matter of time. The drive might work reliably the next ten years or it might fail while you are testing/repairing.

I really think the meat is all in the original post and needs more discussion. It's a Windows machine. It didn't BOOT but did in fact POST to see the cursor blinking back.

What is sticking out here is that Ubuntu Live was used far before other more sensible actions were done. It's just sticking out at me, but you can't fix Windows issues with Linux. I'd at least hit the restart button a couple cycles and hope Win gives me some options. And you mention "after the BIOS". Can you enter the BIOS or are you just talking about the splash screen? If you get that splash screen, hit DEL and go into the BIOS and turn it off. You're hiding data that is useful for troubleshooting instead and just allowing them to advertise for about 3 seconds (also called "silent"). For what it's worth, you could have a corrupt BIOS that can be easily be fixed as well.

But in all, a bad sector in a drive isn't bad at all. This happens a lot and is nothing important really. What sucks is that this may be in the MBR of the drive and you need to rebuild it. Google/Bing/whatever rebuild MBR and leave that Linux disc out of the picture for now. You had a simple update, you swear you did nothing else, and now it won't start...it's fixable as long as you don't get hamfisted.

I feel a blinking cursor is actually promising as it's doing something instead of nothing. A blinking cursor isn't fun, but it's doing something and is a window (no pun intended) into what's going on.

Whatever you do, don't give up and just re-install out of frustration...I hate that generic reply. It's not that it's bad, but you're not prepped correctly generally. Something as simple as SpinRight can get your data corrected.

This is Free clinic stuff as it's help requested. We talk about how awesome the next hardware in 2015 will be here usually.

Oh I turned off the splash screen the first time I booted up the machine as its a custom build. I used linux to see what gparted would tell me not to fix it and also to see if I could browse the drive which it won't let me. No it doesn't give me a blinking cursor now it says insert bootable media and press any key to restart. It started that after I rebuilt the mbr and used chkdsk /f /r C:

You are correct, this would be better if it were transferred to the Free Clinic (moderator?).

Bad sectors are always bad news on ATA drives.

I wouldn't let that ancient Spinrite in my house much less my PC. Even Gibson expresses surprise people still clamor for it. It was awesome in MFM days when tracks strayed. It is useless on ATA drives as sectors are scanned/tested and rewritten during idle times by the drive itself (and dangerous in data recovery situations where writes are the last thing you want to do).

If it is a corrupted MBR then Testdisk can help (and is on Parted Magic as everything else is). And Linux is an important resource for Windows rescue, recovery and repair---actually it is always the last resource too as it can succeed when Windows OS disk, recovery disk and BartPE/WinPE fail. Though it is true you should always first backup a drive image if possible. And then ID the problem before ANY write attempt (including a repair) is attempted. It is also true the data is almost always still there as long as you don't overwrite it. Whether you can get it off the disk or not for free is another question.

I noticed several zombie threads resurrected quite recently by Mr. Chumley. Please stop.

I used parted magic to see what the problem is and it said with every test I did read error. Also gparted said there was 82 bad bloacks or sectors(forgot which).

The underline I added pretty much says it all, you have physical damage of the hard drive....probably the platters because you show bad sectors....so the short of it is a new hard drive is in order. That is the only way to fix physical damage...sorry

Nasty

Ok well I deleted a bunch of crap and made about 40+GB of free space on the drive in parted magic. Then I used fixboot in parted magic utility and a few other commands, rebooted and the OS actually showed up in the list when you use the repair disc. I used bootrec /fixboot among others and startup repair twice then it actually booted but a lot of things were not working right like the windows wifi service. So I formated my other HDD(was corrupted) and install windows on it and just kept all my stuff on my other drive. So I guess its fixed now.