[Dreaming]

My G3 iMac is 5 years old. My disk drive is almost 3 years old. I run OS X.1.5 and Classic.

Last week, my hard disk had bad sectors in one of its partitions, so I ran Norton Disk Doctor (media test) and that fixed it. Disk First Aid confirmed that the drive appeared to be OK. It worked fine for a week.

Today, my hard disk was acting the same way it did last week - strange noises, very slow, etc. I ran Norton Disk Doctor and it found even more bad sectors, not only in the same partition as before, but also in another partition (and lots of them). I told NDD to fix it.

I thought bad sectors were a surface problem, so I didn't think they "spread" like this to other parts of the HD. I'm wondering if the read/write head is doing something to the hard disk that's causing bad sectors to appear. If I got a new hard drive, does that mean a new read/write head comes with it? Or is this part of the iMac's interior, and should I have a technician look at it?

Any opinions?

[Detrius]

bad blocks are a surface problem. Once they start showing up, your entire drive is at risk. They don't "spread" so to speak, but you are likely to get more of them. One bad block is enough to replace a drive under warranty. If you have anything on that drive that you don't want to lose, you should replace it.