Da_Banig

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Apr 10, 2006
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I have a question bout HD, let's say that a HD have 4 platters and 8 heads. Will the HD work if one platter and one head is dead? My assumption is that it will still work but maybe slower?
 

fishmahn

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Jul 6, 2004
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It depends on the type of 'dead'. If the drive's firmware can detect the it and there's enough redirection blocks (or whatever its' really called) available (I doubt it), or a scandisk-type program properly marks all 25% of the drive as bad (rare but possible), then yes, it will still work.

Mike.
 

Codesmith

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Jul 6, 2003
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Platters have two surfaces. Each surface gets only one read/write head.

All the read write heads move in sync and data is stored by cylinder. That is files are writtinen to sector x of track y on all surfaces.

If one head were to quit working then you would lose 1/8th the capacity of the drive and not in one chuck. Every 8th sector would be dead through the entire drive.

Hard drives use spare sectors to cope with unpreventable surface defects, but not enought reserve capacity to remap 1/8 of the entire drive.

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All this is largely academic as it assumes that read write had is electrically defective when 99.99% of the time its mechanical.

The head crashes onto the surface at 7200 RMPS scraping off a cloud of magnetic dust which then floats arround the drive coating random surfaces.

The drive starts making click of death noises and the show is over.
 

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