850 Gigabytes of Bad Clusters?!

[Decidetto]

I hope this is the proper subforum to post this in!

(The amounts of clusters are not completely accurate; they don't translate to the amounts of disk space accurately, but it is what I remember from the heat of the moment. Hopefully it's close enough.)

I've got a huge problem.

So I bought a laptop about a month ago. It is a Lenovo IdeaPad Y580 with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.
I had been experiencing some problems with Firefox not starting lately, so I decided to run a checkdisk. Because I was slightly worried, I ran a full checkdisk (so I rebooted and did it in DOS (if that is even what Windows 7 boots from)).
During all 5 of its steps, this checkdisk detected no problems at all. No damaged files, nothing bad. So I was happy.
After completing the disk check (at the point where it shows the results), checkdisk notified me of there being about 220,900,000 clusters of free space on the hard disk. About 905 gigabytes (out of the 946 gigabytes total).
However, it also reported that it had found 220,600,000 bad clusters and that it was currently putting them in the register for bad clusters (or something like that). This took quite some time (almost 10 minutes).
I found it rather weird that over 90 percent of all free space consisted of bad clusters, but the real horror came when Windows finished booting (in its usual, quick way). When I clicked "Computer", I was greeted by a horrifying red bar under my C: drive.
It only had 13.5 Gigabytes left!! So that means that over 850 gigabytes just disappeared because of these damaged clusters!

So, completely stressed out, I started Googling and found some pages calling bad clusters "broken beyond repair" and others listed possible causes, like power surges or rough handling of the device. I treat my (NEW!!) laptop with utter care, and have never experienced anything out of the ordinary like power outages or something, so I really am at a loss at what to do here.

I do not have any illegally downloaded software on my computer, if knowing that would be of any use.


Does anyone have any idea of what could have happened and if/how this can be solved (or maybe someone has experienced this before)? My computer is new and I am always very careful with it.

Lots of thanks to anyone who takes the time to read this and even more thanks to anyone who takes the extra time to respond

[Shrooblord]

Maybe perform a virus scan? This is very odd. Try a disk defragmentation and see what that does. But really, go see someone in the store you bought it from, I guess. If it's brand new, they're bound to have some arrangement that allows you to ask for their help for free.

[Decidetto]

Thanks for your time, Shrooblord

I hope that I can arrange something in the store!

The disk fragmentation tells me that the fragmentation is 0%?!?!

[Shrooblord]

I read that this problem may be caused because your hard disk has broken down. It would be saddening if this is the case, since it's new, but you never know where factory errors can pop up - but, since it's new, the company you bought it from will surely be more than happy to replace it. And if they're not, I'm sure you'll be more than happy to sue them for it.

[Master]

If it's brand new, isn't it covered by Warranty?

[Decidetto]

The D: partition, which previously had a fragmentation of about 4% now has 0% too (though this one is not crammed to the brim with bad clusters).
Strange, isn't it?

[Adsolution]

Eh, this happens sometimes. Try reformatting it three or four times consecutively to see if that removes any of the clusters. If not, then I guess you're going to either have to somehow unscramble the index controller chip or just buy a new hard drive. They've gotten incredibly cheap lately though, it wouldn't be a problem picking up two terabytes for 80 euros. It's definitely worth the money.

Though that's excluding warranty. See what the hard drive manufacturer has to say.

[Decidetto]

Thanks RayFan.
All this sounds horribly complicated. I have seen the word "reformatting" a few times while googling, but this controller chip stuff is waaaay outside my cognitive abilities I'm afraid.

I think I'm first going to do a regular McAffee (don't judge me; it came with the computer ) virus scan and after that possibly do some with MalwareBytes' Anti-Malware and Spybot-Search & Destroy. If nothing works, I'll turn to the warranty.

I have also read that after manufacturing, hard disks are checked for bad sectors and repaired if they have any, so maybe this one was not repaired or something?

EDIT: Okay, I'll be starting the virus scan, so I'll be away for some time

[Master]

Good luck and all the best.

[Decidetto]

McAffee just finished scanning (I did a full scan) and found no problems.

Thanks for the support so far everyone

I'll phone McAffee for some support tomorrow with the Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and Sybot - Search & Destroy scans, because they've helped us earlier with it when my stepfather's PC was infected with some virus. I thought I would be completely fine in doing it myself, but my stepfather said we should call McAffee just to be safe, so I'll do that

[Adsolution]

I highly doubt a virus scan is going to do anything, but if it does, then heh, alright.

Reformatting is a pretty simple process and its function is simple: it completely wipes the hard drive clean of anything and everything, like a blank (however it isn't considered a real blank until it's been reformatted seven times in a row). Back up everything you care about onto a flash drive or another computer, then all you have to do is plunk in your Windows 7 CD, turn off the computer, turn it on, and it should automatically ask you to boot from the CD (instead of into Windows). It should then enter what looks like a Windows 7 setup, and it should say "Windows is preparing for setup" (not that, but something like that). When it finishes loading, just keep hitting 'OK' and such until it shows a list of your hard drives and what you want to do with them. Select your main drive and click the reformat option; it should only literally take a second or two, then you can proceed to install Windows on it again.

Don't worry about supposedly messing anything up, because the only repercussion is losing data, and that's not an issue at all if you have it backed up. Just plow forward, fearlessly and carelessly. That's my only advice if you've never done it before. It's very straightforward; it literally holds your hand through the process.


--If it doesn't ask you to boot from the CD automatically, then I'll tell you how to make it do that.

[Decidetto]

Your advice is really comforting; I feel slightly more relaxed now. Thank you

I do not have a Windows 7 CD, sadly. The laptop came with it installed (even though I bought the DIY version). Can the reinstalling be done any other way then?

I did the virus scanning in order to be sure that the problems could not have been caused by viruses (because if they were, then the warranty probably wouldn't hold).

Also, now that you explain "reformatting", I realize I have known it as just "formatting" for all my life. But is it really true that you have to reformat SEVEN times in order for the disk to be really empty?

[Adsolution]

I guess the only way to do it if you don't have the CD is to download a copy off the web. Just burn the ISO to a disc and do the same. This torrent is pre-activated and flawless, I've been using it for two years straight. Obviously you'd want to install Ultimate x64.

Well, technically the data is gone after a single reformat, but it takes seven to actually remove every last smidgen of it, since data can still be stuck way down in the eighth layer of hard drive hell, only recoverable by the CIA until the seventh reformat.

[Decidetto]

Eek! No-thank-you. Sorry, but that's just not my cup of tea
I'll use it if all else fails, so whenever that may be the case: thanks so much! (Does it cause any problems with Microsoft Genuine Advantage, or does the fact that it is pre-activated circumvent that)?

[Rulez]

Eek! No-thank-you. Sorry, but that's just not my cup of tea

[Adsolution]

That torrent I sent you includes every version of Windows 7 on one CD, so if you reinstall the one you currently are using, it's perfectly 100% legal. Just make sure to grab your current product key (using WinKeyFinder) - write it down - so that you can activate Windows after you reinstall it.

Actually, Windows may automatically start as genuine when you install it but after a few days it will ask you to activate it. Sometimes it asks you right away but sometimes it only asks you hours, days, or even weeks after you install it. Don't worry, there's nothing illegal about this.

[Decidetto]

Oh thank goodness
Then it's a bit like ROMS and emulators. If you own the original game and system, then it's 100% legal.

And I won't have to worry about anything virus related? That's actually my main fear of torrents and such. Not really the pirating aspect of it (though if it is something I like, then the developer has earned my money), but the possible viruses.

Nice picture by the way Rulez I recognize Nyan Cat, but is that guy some other character?

[Adsolution]

"That other guy" is the bassist for Your Favourite Martian.

And no, don't worry about viruses like that. There are far, far fewer viruses lingering around torrents than people think. If you pick a random hundred torrents to download, probably just one of those will have something funky in it. And then of course it's also pretty simple to learn what to avoid and what to take.

[Decidetto]

Like the "Very Important Pirates" and "Trusted" form The Pirate Bay?

[Adsolution]

Those guys are guaranteed to be without any sort of scam in them. Even with the regular uploads, by far most of them are genuine. Windows 7 is very hard to corrupt anyways; the worry of viruses was far more prominent in the XP era.