[Bug-ddrescue] Can creating an image of a hard drive cause damage?

[ST]

Hello,

Can creating an image of failing hard drive cause damage by scratching
the platters' surface?

I once opened a hard drive that was dropped and I saw a circle scratch
on platters. It seems that because of the mechanical shock during the
fall the read heads got twisted and were scratching the platters while
the drive was running. This removes the magnetic layer and obviously
causes total data loss.

Is it theoretically possible that ddrescue shows progress while creating
an image of a dropped drive, but at the same time the heads are
permanently damaging the drive (e.g. by scratching it)? Which means it
is better to replace the heads instead of trying to image the disk in
such a case?

Thank you!