I'm looking for a tool to hopefully mark some bad scectors on a disk with an XP NTFS partition on it.
The usual suspects and the recovery console only go so far but I think if I can get the bad ones marked, I might be able to save some more data.

I've got tools to lift the data off one file at a time but because of the bad bits, it chokes every time.

Anybody aware of anything before I just zap it (not mine so not that bothered but would be nice to recover the in-laws data!)...?

 

You could adapt the MS Resource kit utility "Robocopy" for this job.
It's actually intended for sending files across unreliable network links. By default it will retry 99,999,999 times before failing but there is a command line option to let you change this, if you set it to only attempt once then it will fail and go onto the next file.

It's in the NT4 resource kit, which you'll need to search the MS site for.

 

Thanks but I've got robocopy but it's at a much lower level I'm having problems. Any OS I try, hangs when trying to read the data so I want the bad sectors marked as bad so it doesn't try.

BTW the newer version or robocopy is much improved and handles a number of things (especially long paths) even better.
Oh, the default retry is 1,000,000 with a wait time of 30 secs which is about a year to wait!!

 

why not just go to the web page of the HDD maker and download the software to repair it

 

Agreed - maxtor do a whole low level utils disk that you have to download and run before returning drive for replacement, should be the same for most manufacturers.

 

Hitachi's (nee IBM) tool is called DFT - Drive Fitness Test.

 

Not sure what low level tools will do for you.
Most hard drives these days have reserved space, and silently remap bad sectors without you knowing. If you are actually seeing bad sectors it's because this space is full and it's safe tosay the drive has had it and should be replaced.

Have you tried one of the linux on a CD/floppy based solutions such as Knoppix of TomsRTBT to get the stuff copied off?