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Shortly after selecting installation type (full/minimal) and clicking continue the installer freezes and doesn't proceed to next step. The HDD has 91 bad sectors could that be the reason?
I also tried installing to a different HDD using the same iso image and the installer works perfectly

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  • Why are trying to install to a defective drive?
    – user880592
    Jul 8, 2019 at 16:42
  • @GabrielaGarcia 91 bad sectors doesn't necessarily mean it's a defective drive.
    – heynnema
    Jul 8, 2019 at 18:19
  • @heynnema It depends on the increase rate.
    – user880592
    Jul 8, 2019 at 18:22
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    @GabrielaGarcia yes... and if you look at the SMART Data, using the Disks or smartmontools apps, you'll see something called "Pending Relocated Sectors", or similar. That'll give a good clue.
    – heynnema
    Jul 8, 2019 at 18:26
  • Bad sectors aren't increasing at least at the time being. SMART showed at the time of posting: pending 2 sectors, reallocated 89 , uncorrectable 11. Now after following @heynnema's answer i managed to install Ubuntu and there's only 1 pending sector
    – Mido
    Jul 9, 2019 at 13:34

2 Answers 2

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To check your HDD for bad blocks, and to see if that's causing your install problem... Note that these tests will take some time...

Note: do NOT abort a bad block scan!

Note: do NOT bad block a SSD

Note: backup your important files FIRST!

sudo e2fsck -fcky /dev/sdXX # read-only test

or

sudo e2fsck -fccky /dev/sdXX # non-destructive read/write test (recommended)

The -k is important, because it saves the previous bad block table, and adds any new bad blocks to that table. Without -k, you loose all of the prior bad block information.

The -fccky parameter...

   -f     Force checking even if the file system seems clean.

   -c     This option causes e2fsck to use badblocks(8) program  to  do  a
          read-only  scan  of  the device in order to find any bad blocks.
          If any bad blocks are found, they are added  to  the  bad  block
          inode  to  prevent them from being allocated to a file or direc‐
          tory.  If this option is specified twice,  then  the  bad  block
          scan will be done using a non-destructive read-write test.

   -k     When combined with the -c option, any existing bad blocks in the
          bad blocks list are preserved, and any new bad blocks  found  by
          running  badblocks(8)  will  be added to the existing bad blocks
          list.

   -y     Assume  an answer of `yes' to all questions; allows e2fsck to be
          used non-interactively.  This option may not be specified at the
          same time as the -n or -p options.
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I would say: no. Bad blocks are not used and it is the filesystem that takes care of that.

Random crashes are more likely caused by the memory modules. Crashes that appear at the same moment over and over are likely software errors in combination with hardware. Like unsupported features that are asked for by the system or not correctly identified hardware.

You will need to provide that actual error for a more detailed answer.

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    Bad blocks are not used if they are mapped out to an alternate sector in the bad block table, and that only occurs on a WRITE cycle. So, if the installer just happens to be READING from an unmapped bad block, it could fail.
    – heynnema
    Jul 8, 2019 at 18:23

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