Bad Blocks

[mtofias]

Dave and Friends,

Drive Genius has found 20 "bad or suspect" blocks on the external drive that I use for my SuperDuper! clone. SD has never complained so I assume the bad blocks aren't involved with any data corruption. I'm not sure what to do next.

Should I use Drive Genius to spare the bad blocks? Do I wait until SuperDuper "hits" a bad block one day and then repair or get a new drive? Or should I just get a new drive now?

Thanks for any and all advice.

[dnanian]

Well, that's certainly not good. I'd try an erase-then-copy backup, and keep a close eye on the drive.

[mtofias]

Would it help to blow out the partition in Disk Utility? And then recreate it again?

[dnanian]

No, that would not remap any bad sectors or blocks.

[mtofias]

Thanks Dave, the $30 I spent on SD! a decade ago (more?) has to be among the best things I have ever purchased.