I remember reading somewhere, Seagate's help pages? That (SeaTools?) some tools for S.M.A.R.T. can, or are able to do what scandisk used to. Basically lock down the bad sectors, essentially clearing the hard drive for general use again, at least until more bad sectors crop up, or you fill the drive. I realize this is ussually a bad practice as a drive that is suddenly croping up with bad sectors SHOULD be replaced ASAP, however it would, at least in my mind, accessing recoverable data that much easier.
I know in my experience, some hard drives, (recent ones) start to crash, or bog down a computer ONLY when its accessing certain sectors. You could copy/rescue 500GB of data, but the moment you access 500.01GB of data, it bogs you down, until you get through it. Or, you have to randomly try different folders etc to move data, hoping you dont come across one of those 'bad' sectors.
For example, I have, 2 seagate drives (SV35.5 series) that seem to be problematic on their best days. Thankfully they are under warranty until 2016, but before they go back, there is at least 600GB of data that needs to be pulled from them. Trial and error, with a production system, or even a test computer, can be trying and frustrating.
On so many levels I wish there was a way to tell a OS to ignore the bad sectors when accessing the data, even if it means a file ends up corrupt, perhaps it could note what file, (I seem to remember the old scandisk did this) for further attempts, on a smaller scale later. (scandisk itself hasnt existed in Microsofts consumer products since Windows XP when it was removed).
I realize this isnt in the perview of PC-Doctors toolset at the moment, but I am sure many might find it useful.
Just some thoughts maybe the development team might want to perhaps consider?
Just an example of some of the data I've gotten on a recent drive, a WDC Drive..
PC-DOCTOR SMART ATTRIBUTES UTILITY LOG - 4.0.1868.12
Model Number: WDC WD3200BEVT-22ZCT0
Revision Number: 11.01A11
Serial Number: WD-WXT0A49Y0171
ID Attribute Name AT TH WV Flags Raw Data
-- ------------------------------ --- --- --- ------ ------------
01 Read Error Rate 200 51 200 FO---- 0000000001C9
03 Spinup Time 186 21 186 FO---- 00000000067A
04 Start/Stop Count 98 0 98 -O---- 000000000BAF
05 Reallocated Sector Count 125 140 125 FO---- 000000000254
07 Seek Error Rate 197 0 194 -O---- 000000000047
09 Power-On Hours 93 0 93 -O---- 00000000166D
0A Spinup Retry Count 100 51 100 FO---- 000000000000
0B Recalibration Retries 100 0 100 -O---- 000000000000
0C Power Cycle Count 98 0 98 -O---- 000000000A41
C0 Power Off Retract Count 200 0 200 -O---- 000000000051
C1 Load/Unload Cycle Count 141 0 141 -O---- 00000002B69B
C2 HDA Temperature 115 0 95 -O---- 000000000020
C4 Reallocation Event Count 186 0 186 -O---- 00000000000E
C5 Current Pending Sector Count 200 0 200 -O---- 000000000012
C6 Uncorrectable Sector Count 100 0 253 ------ 000000000000
C7 UDMA CRC Error Count 200 0 200 -O---- 000000000000
C8 Write/Multi-Zone Error Rate 100 51 253 F----- 000000000000
Heading Flag Bits
-------------------------- --------------------------------
ID - Attribute ID F - Pre-Failure Advisory Bit
AT - Attribute Value O - Online Data Collection Bit
TH - Threshold Value M - Performance Attribute Bit
WV - Worst Attribute Value E - Error Rate Attribute Bit
C - Event Count Attribute Bit
S - Self-Preserving Attribute Bit
SERVICE CENTER 7.9 4.0.1868.12 SYSTEM TEST LOG
================================================
System Board Name: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
HDD-0: WDC WD3200BEVT-22ZCT0 / 11.01A11
ODD-0: HL-DT-STDVD-RAM GH22NP20 / 1.03
Testing Started 07/06/2012 11:58:59
HDD-0 Controller........................PASSED
Testing Completed 07/06/2012 11:59:04
Testing Started 07/06/2012 11:59:14
HDD-0 Funnel Seek.......................PASSED
Testing Completed 07/06/2012 12:04:23
Testing Started 07/06/2012 12:05:59
HDD-0 Random Seek.......................PASSED
Testing Completed 07/06/2012 12:06:12
Testing Started 07/06/2012 12:06:28
HDD-0 Random Seek.......................PASSED
HDD-0 Linear Verify.....................
Read verify error occurred at sector 496793344.
(Reason: Status: 51 / Error: 40)
Read verify error occurred at sector 497234560.
(Reason: Status: 51 / Error: 40)
Read verify error occurred at sector 497235456.
(Reason: Status: 51 / Error: 40)
Read verify error occurred at sector 497237632.
(Reason: Status: 51 / Error: 40)
Model: WDC WD3200BEVT-22ZCT0 / SN: WD-WXT0A49Y0171 / Rev: 11.01A11
HDD-0 Linear Verify.....................FAILED 07/06/2012 14:34
HDD-0 Random Verify.....................PASSED
HDD-0 SMART Status Check................
Threshold(s) exceeded.
Model: WDC WD3200BEVT-22ZCT0 / SN: WD-WXT0A49Y0171 / Rev: 11.01A11
HDD-0 SMART Status Check................FAILED 07/06/2012 14:34
HDD-0 SMART Self-Test Short.............
Previous self-test failed - cause unknown.
Model: WDC WD3200BEVT-22ZCT0 / SN: WD-WXT0A49Y0171 / Rev: 11.01A11
HDD-0 SMART Self-Test Short.............FAILED 07/06/2012 14:36
HDD-0 SMART Attribute Check.............
The following Attributes(s) are approaching their Threshold value!
Reallocated Sector Count (05)
Threshold Index used: 1
Model: WDC WD3200BEVT-22ZCT0 / SN: WD-WXT0A49Y0171 / Rev: 11.01A11
HDD-0 SMART Attribute Check.............FAILED 07/06/2012 14:36
HDD-0 SMART Conveyance Test.............
Previous self-test failed - cause unknown.
Model: WDC WD3200BEVT-22ZCT0 / SN: WD-WXT0A49Y0171 / Rev: 11.01A11
HDD-0 SMART Conveyance Test.............FAILED 07/06/2012 14:41
HDD-0 Inner/Outer Read Surface Scan.....
DMA read error occurred at sector 606419909.
(Reason: Status: 51 / Error: 40)
DMA read error occurred at sector 606422204.
(Reason: Status: 51 / Error: 40)
DMA read error occurred at sector 606424618.
(Reason: Status: 51 / Error: 40)
DMA read error occurred at sector 606425383.
(Reason: Status: 51 / Error: 40)
Model: WDC WD3200BEVT-22ZCT0 / SN: WD-WXT0A49Y0171 / Rev: 11.01A11
HDD-0 Inner/Outer Read Surface Scan.....FAILED 07/06/2012 16:15
HDD-0 Read Surface Scan.................
DMA read error occurred at sector 496793346.
(Reason: Device Timeout)
DMA read error occurred at sector 497234589.
(Reason: Status: 51 / Error: 40)
DMA read error occurred at sector 497235556.
(Reason: Status: 51 / Error: 40)
DMA read error occurred at sector 497237641.
(Reason: Status: 51 / Error: 40)
Model: WDC WD3200BEVT-22ZCT0 / SN: WD-WXT0A49Y0171 / Rev: 11.01A11
HDD-0 Read Surface Scan.................FAILED 07/06/2012 21:52
HDD-0 Spin Down/Spin Up Test............PASSED
Testing Completed 07/06/2012 21:53:37
SERVICE CENTER 7.9 Copyr 2011 PC-Doctor, Inc. 21:57 7/6/2012