Signs That Your Hard Drive Might Be in Trouble

Having a Hard drive crash or begin to fail is never a good experience, but with a little know how, you can do your best to prepare for the worst.

The best thing you can do to prevent data loss is to back up your important files and data on a regular basis. You should back this up to either an External Hard drive or online back up software. By backing up your data, even if your hard drive should go Kaput!, your data will still be safe. Data Recovery on a non-working hard drive can be done but usually only by Professional companies. The cost usually is at least $1000.00 depending on the status of the drive.

The worst sign you can hear from your Hard Drive is a clicking or clucking sound. This can also be a ticking, or a whirring sound. If your PC does not boot up and you are hearing sounds like this, your hard drive is probably dead. There is still a chance for Data Recovery but as mentioned above it will be very expensive. In Mechanical failures such as these even Data Recovery may not be possible. Hearing your Hard drive click and cluck indicates the drive has had a crash of some sort. This could be physical damage to the platters themselves where your data is stored. By the time this happens it is usually too late to back up your data. You are most likely looking at a new Hard Drive and Fresh Reinstall of Windows or a Factory Restore and a new Hard Drive.


Another coming sign of doom for your hard drive is if you notice your PC is having trouble doing the simplest of tasks such as opening a folder. Or even deleting or creating documents. Some viruses will slow down your PC to a crawl. One way to tell the difference between these two is with a Virus and slow operations, you will see your CPU (processor usually maxed out). This can be seen from Task Manager. With a Hard drive that is having trouble writing the CPU should be running at a pretty normal speed. The good thing about the slow writing is you still may have time to back up your data. You should immediately get anything off the Hard drive that you can. Use either your own back up system or an online back up.

If your hard drive is not seen when you start your PC, this could mean a lose cable inside the machine. It could also mean an infection has gotten into your Windows system files and corrupted the Drive. You can check the cables on your hard drive by opening up your PC case and examining the wires. Unplug them and plug them back in to see if that resolves your issues. If it does not you will probably need to have your PC serviced by a professional. When it comes to hard drives, the average user does not have many options. Hard drive problems are usually best left to the professionals.

Replacing a hard drive cost wise is not very expensive. Depending on the size of the drive, it shouldn't cost you too much. Where you can run into some expenses is in the Re-install of Windows. Hard drive issues are usually going to mean replacing the drive or Windows and this will result in a loss of data. The best thing you can do with a bad situation such as this is to BACK UP YOUR DATA.

Hard drive failures will happen eventually due to time and wear and tear. Backing up your data is your safeguard to avoiding a catastrophe when your Hard drive decides it has had enough.

Thanks for reading and have a great rest of the week.

Steve

www.zolexpc.com