How to detect bad sectors of Mac drive and monitor its health

Why we need to check our Mac drive health status regularly? How to avoid bad sectors in your hard drive? These are some common questions that has been asked or searched by many Mac users. However, Mac machines are pretty good in performance and made of quality hardware and technology that makes it less prone to failure still it demands proper maintenance and care. 

We recommend backing up Mac hard drive in case of bad sectors. Helpful utility Mac hard drive backup.

 

So, we can say that Mac OS X is a pretty solid system, it just require your little attention and awareness towards its health and performance.  There are many things that one can perform to keep his Mac drive running without any trouble.

Things like: optimizing(speedup) Mac performance, partitioning drive, cloning(bootable backup) your Mac disk, checking Mac drive health status etc for maintaining your Mac completely. There are many applications available in market for performing the above mentioned tasks. But, here we will focus on about how to assess your Mac drive health. 

 

The first tool that helps in determining whether your Mac disk is encountering trouble or not is your Mac's own Disk Utility. But it can't fix failing things in your Mac drive. So, basically this inbuilt application checking your volume status if it shows error messages or warnings. 

 

As we know that no one can stop drive crash but can control by proper monitoring and maintenance. There are several reasons of Mac hard drive failure among them bad sectors is the prominent. So, here we will study about causes and types of bad sectors. 

 

Bad sectors is the area on drive which can't be read. Bad sectors can't be repaired but is is experienced that these can't be found in image of drive or volume having bad sectors. Hence, imaging doesn't consist bad sectors. 
 

There are two types of bad sectors – hard and soft

Hard bad sectors or Physical bad sectors:

Hard bad sectors are also called physically damaged sectors which occur due to head crash or in a fixed magnetic state during movement of platter. 

 

Cases when hard bad sectors creates:

1. If your hard disk is exposed to extreme heat while writing data.

2. When the head has comes in contact to the disk surface, a hard bad sector might be created. Please note that hard bad sectors can't be repaired, but they can be prevented.

Soft Bad sectors or Logical bad sectors:

Soft bad sectors are called as logical bad sectors which occurs due to logical errors. 

 

Cases when soft bad sectors creates:

1. If an Error Correction Code (ECC) found in the sector of hard drive that does not match the content of the sector.  
2. Hard drive formatting or logical errors is also a reason of creation of soft bad sectors. Unlike the hard bad sectors, soft bad sectors are repairable. These soft bad sectors can be repaired by overwriting the whole disk with zeros.

Detecting and fixing soft Bad sectors in windows:

If we take the Windows OS, then we find that there has been an inbuilt check disk tool, called "Chkdsk". During booting sometimes a message shown that it is recommended to run check disk for fixing errors. So, it is recommended to run this tool once in a month. It will scan and fix for hard disk logical errors, detect bad sectors, so that it will no longer affect window's hard disk. So, this way it keep away unstability of computer.

Alhough Check Disk takes about half an hour to perform its task. Time taken in check disk depends on many factors, like PC speed, amount of memory occupied on the disk, RAM and disk size. So, it is good to run Check Disk when you don’t need to use the computer for some time.

As we know bad sectors are the area on your hard disk that cannot be read. Not only that but they cause damage or unstability to your drive that may lead to a catastrophic failure. As we have already discussed the cases when they created so it is well known now that these are fairly common with normal computer use after a while. Besides the imperfections of the world we have some perfect tools that help us to detect and avoid hard drive failure due to these. Here I am talking about Mac drive Monitor application.

Now, lets talk about the tool for detecting and avoiding bad sectors in Mac drive.

Unlike 'check Disk' inbuilt tool of windows, Mac doesn't has any inbuilt tool available for detecting bad sectors and monitoring performance of your Mac drive.

But, in my recent search I have found one such tool name Stellar Drive Monitor for assess your Mac drive health.

Important: The above mentioned tool can not purchased as a single tool but it comes by buying “Drive tool box” -­-­-­- which itself a combo of 14 Mac optimization utilities(Drive Monitor is one of its 14 modules).

This tool does following tasks in few minutes:

• Scan your Mac drive for bad sectors
• Give detailed information about your Mac drive/volumes
• It shows performance reports of your Mac drive in order to make you aware and give chance to take any required action before emergency strikes.

This is recommended to take backup or clone of your Mac drive if you suspect that your drive may be failing anytime. Because, technically it is said that the more you use a failing drive or the drive having problem the more you decrease the chances of recovering data that’s stored on it. As this data is becoming completely inaccessible.

Things to be done before upgrading to OS X Mavericks

Mac operating systems are designed in more advanced and easy to use way as compared to other OS. As we know that Apple released its well engineered OS X 10.9 to let you take advantage of technologies to their fullest. So, now, we have Apple’s latest operating system -­- OS X Mavericks. In this post, we’ll take you through the things required before upgrading to OS X 10.9. What are those things that one should keep in before
doing upgradation?
 
First, you should create clone of your data in some external drive in order to protect it. It is essential to take bakup of your entire drive before getting started with the latest version of OS X.

There are numerous tools available for creating backup of your Mac drive. The Apple’s own Time machine is one of the free backup tool. It is easy to use and can backup your data fast one after another.
However, when you go in deep you’ll find some limitations in some aspects which includes cloning, bootable backups and imaging technologies etc. Now the question arises why I need to clone or create bootable backups of my drive.

1. Bootable backup of system prevents your data from being lost if anything goes wrong during upgradation process.
2. It is recommended to create a complete clone of current OS before you upgrade your OS X to Mavericks.

But, in this high tech world we need not worry for these little things. Today in market, there are various reliable and efficient tools available for cloning and imaging your data.
Among various tools you need to elect the best one that best suits your needs and budget. After searching through web we come across follwing tools:

• Superduper
  
• Stellar Drive Clone
  
• Carbon Copy Cloner
  

Being a software analyst I did a deep observation and find Stellar Drive Clone, the best in all respects.
So, this is the one that I am using for my Mac as it also supports windows file formats in my Mac and supports SSD too.
Now, you need to focus on another thing that is whether your Mac machine is compatible for Maverics or not. 
 
Determining compatibility of Mac with Mavericks:
Before installing the latest Mac OS update, you need to check “About This Mac” option. Although it has been said in the announcement for Mavericks that if your Mac can run OS X Mountain Lion then it should run Mavericks.
Check specifications before upgradation OS X 10.9:

• Mac Book Airs from late 2008 or newer)
• mid 2007 or new iMac
• Mac Mini from early 2009 or newer
• Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer)

Although there are some other things that one could do before upgrading OS X but the above mentioned one are must to be done.

Best Mac drive cloning and backup software to protect the entire disk

So, our top pick for Mac drive cloning and backup software is – Stellar Drive Clone application for creating bootable clone and image of drive fast and easily within few clicks.

However time machine is a great inbuilt app of your Mac, used to backup your drive by creating image. But, it has certain limitations, which forces you to go for third party shareware program. Those who can compromise with their data can also take backup using free and unreliable Mac backup applications. But, experts will always recommend you to select best utility which meets your need perfectly.

Although, in the middle section of this post we have given an easy graphical representation and comparison table to let you understand user’s choice.

This Article has been written after analyzing the functionalities of a good number of cloning and backup apps available on the web. We have also gone through many reputed software reviews and discussion site's and on the basis of that we concluded that none is as easy and effective as Stellar Drive Clone application.

Before going into details about this software, we make you aware of the importance of keeping emergency flash drive always. As we know that drive failure can happen anytime due to numerous reasons related to hardware, software and human errors that can cause data loss.

Now, let us come to the process of creating an emergency flash drive:

 

What is an emergency drive?
An emergency drive contains only the essential (default) applications that are needed to boot your Mac and can also run troubleshooting Mac utility such as Disk Utility. Well, the above mentioned feature is only available in an adroit cloning and backup software from Stellar.
'Tools' tab of the interface provides two option:
a) Create Bootable Dvd
b) Minimal system

By selecting Minimal system it gives you a quick clone. As the name implies it copies only the required default files to boot your Mac OS X. One just needs to select destination volume and it also gives you an option if you want it to include some other app. So, in technical terms one can say this emergency drive is a minimal system having copy of Mac OS X installation to a selected partition excluding all installed apps.

Note: I recommend to use USB flash drive rather than optical disc to create emergency drive or minimal system by this amazing software. Flash drives are considered more superior because they work with Macs and you can update them as per your requirement. While today most Mac's are shipped without any optical drive.

One can also create emergency drive by an Apple Recovery Disk assistant using Disk utility but again it is a long and a bit difficult method.

Create Mac bootable disc using professional Cloning app

A bootable Disc is nothing but an optical bootable media that helps you troubleshoot several problems that lead to inaccessibility of the entire Mac system. For this, all you need to do is just boot your Mac with this media and make necessary renovations or reinstall Mac OS X if required.

While working on Mac, you might have come across many issues, a few of which even make your Mac system unable to boot. In case your Mac is unable to boot, there might be some problem in its boot volume that requires to be repaired instantly. In order to repair Mac boot volume, you must have a secondary bootable media (such as a bootable disc or a bootable drive). However, Mac Lion (OS X 10.7) and Mountain Lion (OS X 10.8) users are unable to perform any such operation, as they are not shipped Mac OS X boot disc along with their Mac machines. Instead, they need to download Mac OS X installer app from online Mac App Store after purchasing it.

Even though these Mac installers are available as download packages, one cannot go online and download an installer app every time when it is required. You might be thinking that why one would have to download the same installer app every time when it is required, as he can keep this installer for henceforth usage after downloading it. However, when you download this installer app from Mac App Store, it is downloaded to the /Applications folder and it is removed automatically after being used for Mac OS X installation. In case you need this installer app again, it is no longer available. This apparently means that you would have to download it again whenever it is required.

Alternatively, a physical media (such as a bootable DVD or a USB drive) is more convenient and reliable to be used as the bootable media. Luckily, it is convenient to create Mac bootable DVD using the installer package downloaded from Mac App Store. Following is the process you lneed to track for this:

At the very first step, download the installer app to your Mac. After downloading it, go to the /Applications folder and look for this app. You can recognize it with the name Install Mac OS X <version name>.app, where version name would be Lion or Mountain Lion. When it is located, right click (or control + click) it and choose ‘Show Package Contents’ in the context menu. In this folder, navigate to Contents > Shared Support folder and look for ‘InstallESD.dmg’ file. Now, minimize this window and launch Disk Utility (Applications > Utilities >Disk Utility), and then drag ‘InstallESD.dmg’ file to the left pane of Disk Utility. After that, select ‘InstallESD.dmg’ file at the left and click the Burn button on the Disk Utility toolbar. When prompted, insert a blank DVD and choose or fill required options in the window that pops up, and then click Burn button. As the disc burning process is finished, a message pops up to notify the same.

Advantages of having a bootable disc

Once the bootable DVD is created, you can use this disc to boot any Mac machine that is compatible with this version of Mac OS X.

• Bootable disc facilitates repairing corrupt Mac boot volume.
• Facilitates repairing corrupt permissions of Mac boot volume
• You can even install Mac OS X with this disc.
• If the Recovery HD on your Mac Lion or Mountain Lion is not accessible, you can boot from this bootable disc.
• Eliminates the need for downloading Mac OS X installer package every time when it is required

The aforementioned process for creating a bootable Mac disc, though, is straightforward. However, you need to purchase Mac OS X installer package for this. If you download an upgraded version of Mac OS X, then you can create a bootable DVD using this process because you would not be able to boot the newer Mac with the old bootable DVD. Well, you would be glad to know that you can also create a bootable DVD from your Mac including all installed apps and data, and the process is termed as cloning.

“Hard drive cloning refers to the process that involves replicating a hard drive to another based on a certain criterion.”

Actually, this criterion includes the formal requirements for copy Mac drive. As the name of the process conveys, cloning process requires a secondary hard drive (internal or external does not matter) to be the clone drive.

• Make sure the Secondary drive is larger or at least equal as compared to the Primary drive (i.e. Mac drive or source drive).
• Both Primary and Secondary drives should be formatted as Mac OS Extended (journaled).
• Both Primary and Secondary drives should be using GUID Partition Table as the Partition Map Scheme.
• The Secondary drive should be partitioned into the number of volumes equal to that on the Primary drive.

Once the aforementioned criterion is satisfied, you can initiate Mac drive cloning process. However, if you are using a new hard drive as the Secondary drive, then you will have to satisfy the aforementioned criteria first.

1. Formatting Secondary drive as Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

As you connect the Secondary drive to your Mac, a Disk Insertion message pops up that says, “The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer.” This means that you have to initialize this drive. For this, click Initialize button on this message box that launches Disk Utility.

In the left pane of Disk Utility, select this (i.e. Secondary) drive and go to the Erase tab in the right pane. In the Format dropdown menu, select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and specify a name in the Name text field, and then click Erase button to format this drive.

After formatting this drive on Mac, it is visible on the desktop with the given Name.

2. Choosing GUID Partition Table for the Secondary drive

After formatting the Secondary drive as Mac OS Extended (Journaled), go to the Partition tab in the right pane; make sure the Secondary drive is highlighted at the left. Now, click Options button (i.e. shown beneath the graphical view of the Secondary drive) and choose GUID Partition Table in the window that opens, and then click OK button.

Important: GUID Partition Table enables Intel-based Macs to boot from this drive, whereas Apple Partition Map enables PowerPC-based Macs to boot from this drive. Intel-based Macs can perform data read/write operations on a drive that uses Apple Partition Map, but cannot boot from it. Likewise, Power PC-based Macs can perform data read/write operations on a drive that uses GUID Partition Table, but cannot boot from it. In case you want to upgrade from a Power PC-based Mac to an Intel-based Mac or vice-versa, you will have to alter the Partition Map Scheme used for this drive.

3. Partitioning the Secondary drive

Before initiating the Mac drive cloning process, partition the Secondary drive into the number of volumes equal to that on the Primary drive. For this, click Volume Scheme drop down menu and choose the number of partitions you want to create on the Secondary drive. This partitions your Mac drive into the number of partitions you have chosen. You can also see these partitions in the graphical structure of the hard drive. 
 

For example, if you choose 5 Partitions in the Volume Scheme dropdown menu, then the Secondary drive is partitioned into 5 volumes of equal sizes that you can see in the graphical structure of the hard drive.

Therefore, click one partition and give it a name in the Name text field, choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) in the Format dropdown menu, and specify a size (in GBs) in the Size text field beneath the Volume Information area. Likewise, give Name, Format, and Size to other Mac volumes as well. After that, click Apply button to save these changes.

Now, since the Secondary drive is ready to act as the destination drive for cloning, you can initiate the process to replicate Mac drive in the following ways:

In Disk Utility, select the Primary drive (i.e.Mac drive) in the left pane and simultaneously go to the Restore tab in the right pane. Now, drag the Primary drive to the Source field and the Secondary drive to the Destination field.

Important: If multiple hard drives are installed on your Mac, then make sure that you have chosen the right drives. Besides, since cloning process involves formatting the destination drive before copying data to it, make sure that it contains no precious file.

Apart from Disk Utility, you can also opt for a professional Mac cloning app. For this, download a professional Mac cloning app from the Internet. Based on the cloning app you choose, the steps to copy Mac drive would be changed, but the criterion remains unchanged as discussed earlier. Some advanced Mac cloning apps facilitate creating bootable DVD from your Mac boot volume, which you can use as a bootable media whenever you need to repair Mac boot volume.