How the Hard Disc could be damaged?

Answer 1

did you bump the computer when it was "thinking"?
was there a power surge?
also I don't know what kind of computer you have.
if the hard disc is physically damaged then you have to take it in and get the disc replaced. they can usually get the data off there if you need it.
However, sometimes this alert can come on even when the hard disk is still okay but it's just corrupted or there are errors. There are many programs out there to try to fix this and can run off the CD so you don't need the hard drive. For Mac, Diskwarrior is fantastic. I don't know about windows but there is undoubtedly something. good luck

Answer 2

Shutting down or rebooting [hard boot or forced shut down] the PC during some type of application operation can also create bad sectors on a hard drive.

Michael D.
Supreme Center Hosting
http://www.supremecenterhosting.com

Answer 3

wear and tear. discs like any mechanical device with moving parts is subject to wear and tear - eventually that wear and tear could start leading to problems with the drive which could eventually lead to drive failure.

Magnets can affect disk drives as well as they store the data magnetically and therefore any magnetic will corrupt that data.

Power fluctations can put extra strain on the hard drive and surges can lead to disk failure as they can be quite sensitive to voltage changes this is why attaching your plug to a ups or surge protector is important.

Answer 4

Adding too many programs reaching beyond its capacity is certainly one way.