You may notice other symptoms of bad sectors in an HDD, SD card, or USB driver such as A disk read error has occurred, You are unable to read or write an SD card, etc.

What causes bad sectors were encountered during the format?

Some of the reasons why your hard drive may develop bad sectors during the format are:

Virus or malware infection – Sometimes, the bad sectors may show up due to a virus or malware attack on the drive or the computer itself. Outdated hard drive – The bad sectors were encountered during the format error may also show up if the drive is old and worn out, Multiple device usage – Have you used the same drive on multiple devices? That could be one of the reasons behind the bad sectors on hard drive. Mishandling of the drive – If you have been inserting and ejecting the drive incorrectly, or turning off the smartphone or camera, it can lead to bad sectors. Sudden power failure or system shutdown– It could be possible that during the format, the system shut down all of a sudden, or there was a power outage. Low-quality SD card – Check if you are using a poor-quality SD card causing the bad sectors encountered during the format error. Damaged drive – If the drive or the SD card is damaged, or has accumulated dust, or moisture, it could give arise to bad sectors.

How do I fix bad sectors on my hard drive on Windows 11?

You should try a few preliminary checks to rule out any major issues:

Restart your PC and check again. Run an virus scan to quarantine your PC. Make sure you are not using the drive on multiple devices. Check for any power outage and wait till it’s back.

If none of the above methods help you to fix the bad sectors were encountered during the format issue, you can jump onto the below methods to repair the drive.

1. Run the CHKDSK utility

Once done, restart your PC and Windows will allow the CHKDSK utility to fix any errors related to the hard drive.

2. Format the drive on a different PC

Now, wait while the process is completed, and once done, the drive should be formatted to NTFS and ready to use.

3. Use the Windows built-in troubleshooter

3.1 Use System Maintenance troubleshooter

Now, close the troubleshooter, reboot your device and check if you still come across the bad sectors were encountered during the format error. SPONSORED

3.2 Run the Hardware and Devices troubleshooter

You can now close the troubleshooter, restart your PC and check if the bad sectors on hard drive are fixed.

4. Run the DISM command

Once done, restart your PC, and now, you should not see the bad sectors were encountered during the format error anymore.

5.Use the built-in properties tool

Now, reboot your PC and try formatting the drive to check if any bad sectors are still present or if the issue is resolved. But if the drive is completely damaged and unrepairable, it’s recommended to replace it with a healthy one. Alternatively, you can reset your Windows device to its factory settings while keeping your data intact. This will help you to get rid of the error, bad sectors were encountered during the format. However, if all of the above methods fail to fix the issue, you can perform a system restore to revert your PC to a previously working state. For any other queries related to hard drives, do leave a message in the comments section below.

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