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Thread: Exactly what caused bad sector of hdd?

  1. #1
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    Exactly what caused bad sector of hdd?

    Was it the manufacturing defects or caused by improper shutdown? But it seems to be a myth that improper shutdown would caused bad sector

  2. #2
    Right turn Clyde Nokia's Avatar
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    The most common cause of it is moving/knocking a computer when it is still on.

    An improper shutdown if anything will cause loss af data, settings you have changed, things you were working on etc but i dont think it would cause a bad sector alhough its not impossible i suppose!

  3. #3
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    Hi,

    Well I go back to the days when you had to give a command line entry to park your HDD heads

    An improper shutdown, per se, should not damage the HDD............like the "vulcan nerve pinch" (ctrl+alt+del)..........

    My favourites:

    1. PC power supply on the way out.
    2. Mains power spikes.
    3. Heat & lack of airflow around the HDD
    4. Subwoofer too close to the HDD (thud, thud, thud?)
    5. EMP from other equipment (they don't like magnetic pulses)
    6. Impact, whilst in use (HDDs are pretty robust when shut down)
    7. Frost and humidity (left in trunk of car in midwinter )
    8. Dust and crap (ever done a job on a pig farm?.........the dust from the feed kills CDs, floppies and HDDs...............garages and engineering works are as bad......oily fumes?)

    Just a few suggestions............OK all HDDs have some surface flaws, but these are quarantined at time of manufacture.............I am talking degeneration and catastrophic failure here.

    Cheers

  4. #4
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    Good Day,

    Just couldn't pass this by, especially after Nihil mentioned parking our HDDs at the command line. (Don't we still do that?) So here's 2 cents worth from the ole school.

    Hard Errors are problems with the disk surface itself, in that it cannot record your data on that area. Nihil mentioned some good examples of things that create a “Hard Error”. Most of them are caused by abuse after the manufacturer. And obviously there are some HDDs that left the factory with bad areas. Those areas have already been cordoned off and marked as bad and data will not be recorded there.

    Soft Errors are problems that occur when your data on the HDD has faded to the extent that it can no longer be read. I haven’t experienced any “Soft Errors” yet, but format would redraw the sectors for you and you would need to re-install your OS afterwards.

    cheers
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  5. #5
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    Originally posted here by nihil
    Hi,

    Well I go back to the days when you had to give a command line entry to park your HDD heads

    An improper shutdown, per se, should not damage the HDD............like the "vulcan nerve pinch" (ctrl+alt+del)..........

    My favourites:

    1. PC power supply on the way out.
    2. Mains power spikes.
    3. Heat & lack of airflow around the HDD
    4. Subwoofer too close to the HDD (thud, thud, thud?)
    5. EMP from other equipment (they don't like magnetic pulses)
    6. Impact, whilst in use (HDDs are pretty robust when shut down)
    7. Frost and humidity (left in trunk of car in midwinter )
    8. Dust and crap (ever done a job on a pig farm?.........the dust from the feed kills CDs, floppies and HDDs...............garages and engineering works are as bad......oily fumes?)

    Just a few suggestions............OK all HDDs have some surface flaws, but these are quarantined at time of manufacture.............I am talking degeneration and catastrophic failure here.

    Cheers
    Acts of God like lightning, or improper handling of hdd like knocking of banging the hdd, or with strong magnetic field around the hdd + heat problems

  6. #6
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    hummmm,

    Just an observation, however, isn't that what Nihil had said:

    Nihil: power spikes
    You: like lightning

    Nihil: Impact, whilst in use
    You: improper handling of hdd like knocking of banging the hdd

    Nihil: EMP from other equipment
    You: magnetic field around the hdd

    Nihil: Heat & lack of airflow around the HDD
    You: heat problems



    cheers
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