Claude spotted failing HDD from SMART data, insisted on backup — drive died right after

Disastrous_Friend1 · reddit · 2026-08-22

A Reddit user working with Claude (Opus 5-extra) on a project noticed the model unpromptedly flagged unusually slow disk writes, dug into SMART data and journals, and found bad sectors climbing from 16 to 216 — a strong signal of imminent drive failure. The user brushed it off, but Claude pushed back and insisted on an immediate backup. During copying, 20% of the previous week's files turned out corrupted and the prior day's writes were 100% corrupted; right after the backup finished, the drive stopped responding entirely. Claude then used git history and session history to repair the corrupted project files.

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