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I've tried the Google-verse and can't find the specific answer I need.

A friend of mine asked me to look at her laptop which only boots to a non-responsive desktop after a power issue. I booted to a Linux USB and it shows the HDD as failing.

My query: is it even possible for a power issue to cause 2k+ bad sectors on a HDD?

Cheers!

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  • What kind of power issue?
    – gronostaj
    Aug 5, 2022 at 11:38
  • Yes, absolutely. However, what exactly is showing the HDD is failing how exactly? This could be the topic for another question.
    – Daniel B
    Aug 5, 2022 at 12:30
  • Power cut during a series of storms. There may have been brownouts, as well. I had a look at the HDD via a Linux Mint USB and used the Disks program. It reports over 2k bad sectors. I've used this before and it's always been very accurate. My friend wants to claim it on insurance for a replacement laptop, but I'm not sure if they'll consider a 5 yr old HDD w/bad sectors as being caused by a power issue? Hence, I'm trying to determine, for her benefit, IF it could be possible or not.
    – Tracy LF
    Aug 5, 2022 at 12:44
  • It is possible (as already noted) , but you (almost for certain) cannot trace the actual HDD damage to the specific power cuts.
    – John
    Aug 5, 2022 at 12:56
  • The cost of a replacement HDD is normally MUCH less than the deductible on MANY insurance policies.
    – John
    Aug 5, 2022 at 13:12

2 Answers 2

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My query: is it even possible for a power issue to cause 2k+ bad sectors on a HDD?

No, this is not possible.

When there's a power outage, we talk about sudden loss of power. This means, the computer will not be able to continue what it was doing. For a harddisk, this means that at worst, it cannot complete a write operation it was doing at that time which results in one or more files being corrupted depending if more than one files are being written to at the same time.

Even though the file is corrupted, it does not cause for bad sectors to happen.

A powerspike is another form of power failure which results in delivering more power in a short time than is good for the device. This kind of problem will damage chips but not damage platters on a harddisk, although it could do damage to an SSD. It would however also do damage to other system components.

If something creates a strong electric magnetic pulse, that pulse could cause a powerloss, but could also cause the magnetic field of platters to give bad sectors. It would however damage a lot more than just your HDD.

So it is very likely the HDD is already bad, because usage is one way to get bad sectors. In any case, it is time to replace the disk.

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  • For a hard disk the worst case scenario is actually that it can't park the head in a safe position and it crashes into the platter.
    – gronostaj
    Aug 5, 2022 at 12:32
  • @gronostaj that's actually a fair point. Even though that would still not cause for bad sectors though.
    – LPChip
    Aug 5, 2022 at 13:40
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is it even possible for a power issue to cause 2k+ bad sectors on a HDD?

It is possible, but it does not seem at all likely. It will not be more clear than that.

Your test with another OS shows the drive to be failing, so get a new drive, install it and reinstall the operating system.

The drive could have started to fail before the power loss and the power loss possibly caused more issues. This is more likely.

It may be possible to recover documents from the old drive by booting with another OS and searching for the documents.

Note: @OP asked (a) can the damage be traced to the power outs (brownouts)? Exceedingly unlikely and (b) can it be claimed on insurance? Also exceedingly unlikely (cost of drive less than deductible).

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