Hard Drive Question

[Martin_89]

ive got a question here that i know someone will be able to answer for me .

How does a hard Drive Develop bad Sectors?

[rangeral]

Geometry of the platter as in defective, stress or expansion and contraction would ruin a sector, no lowlevel format will repair that.

[Martin_89]

can it develop them by switching the machine off without shutting down?

im just curious to know because im trying to build on my knowledge.

[deldd]

I think switching the pc on and off, will develop corrupt files. The underlying affect of using your drive constantly (as in playing hard drive intensive games) will make it degrade faster. Also, as rangeral said a defective platter. Nowadays compared to about 7 years ago, hard drive manufactures use cheaper parts, which is why they give less of a warranty. So unless you buy a highend drive with a three year or greater warranty, you can expect the everyday drives to start going to crap in about two- three years.

[Ponch]

Most electric/electronic devices are developed to be turned "on and off", not "off and on" (I mean directly off and on without waiting a few seconds). It might sound stupid but it's true. You can ruin a device by turning it on/off/on/off/on/off. I've seen that with HDD too. It has to do with physical position of parts, and with discharging sequence (order) of components.

[athi]

another common cause of platter damage is jarring the hdd/pc when it is on. this cause the read/write head to crash into the platter, causing physical damage to the platter.

[Martin_89]

i know the head can crash into the platter by switching it off without shutting down.

[deldd]

I didn't know that. I'll keep it in mind.

[Martin_89]

well so my computing teacher told me at school.

i think new drives have protecction against it.

they way my computing teacher told us it was that the disk is spinning fast so the head is hovering on a pocket of air and when you switch the computer off properly it returns to its possition at the side of the disk but when you turn it off by the switch the drive slows down and the head crashes onto the platter.