"Bad sectors" on MBP harddrive - confirm that I'm not being taken for a ride

[essex]

I had my 1.5 year old MBP in for repairs yesterday and as part of their "normal diagnostics" they told me that they found that my hard drive has a number of "bad sectors" and that it is at risk of failing completely. (The issue it was in for had nothing to do with the hard drive). They told me that the hard drive is nearly full so this means the bit that is gets used more and then can begin to fail like this (this was their lay description for me).

I have now Googled this, and it seems like what they have told me is legitimate, but I just wanted to confirm with you guys. Does what they have told me seem plausible? I have backed everything up, but just wanted to double check before I get a whole new hard drive put in. (Obviously it can seem a bit suspicious when it goes in for one thing and then something else is "wrong.")

Thanks!

 

[GGJstudios]

I had my 1.5 year old MBP in for repairs yesterday and as part of their "normal diagnostics" they told me that they found that my hard drive has a number of "bad sectors" and that it is at risk of failing completely. (The issue it was in for had nothing to do with the hard drive). They told me that the hard drive is nearly full so this means the bit that is gets used more and then can begin to fail like this (this was their lay description for me).

I have now Googled this, and it seems like what they have told me is legitimate, but I just wanted to confirm with you guys. Does what they have told me seem plausible? I have backed everything up, but just wanted to double check before I get a whole new hard drive put in. (Obviously it can seem a bit suspicious when it goes in for one thing and then something else is "wrong.")

Thanks!

Yes, it sounds plausible. I understand your concern (it happens a lot with auto mechanics), but if you took it to Apple, I wouldn't worry; in the vast majority of cases, their service is excellent.

 

[mikeo007]

Ask them how many bad sectors they found. That will tell you whether or not they're trying the take your money.

All hard drives have some bad sectors on them, even fresh out of the box.

Unless they give you a number in the 100,000s, your drive is probably ok for a while. A disk utility will also mark these bad sectors so they're not used. You won't have to worry about writing bad data to them.

 

[essex]

Thanks for the quick replies. It is an Apple authorized repair place rather than Apple directly and they also gave me the option of getting a larger hard drive put in instead (at significant cost) so I guess those two things made me want to check it out first. Glad it is plausible. It is covered under warranty apparently so all it is going to cost me is a few days with the laptop and a bit of pain dropping it off and picking it up, so I might as well trust them on this one I guess.

Thanks again for the replies!