Hard Drive Problem Warning Signs
http://www.irepairedit.com/articles/41471/1/Hard-Drive-Problem-Warning-Signs/Page1.html
By John Dow
Published on 09/9/2011
Sometimes you need to listen to your hard drive, it may be telling you there’s a problem And if you don’t take some corrective action, you will get punished
Sometimes you need to listen to your hard drive, it may be telling you there’s a problem. And if you don’t take some corrective action, you will get punished. It pays to be alert for any hard drive warning signs and you can make a pre-emptive strike on replacing it before it dies. It’s a whole lot easier to deal with replacing your hard disk before it’s totally gone, trust me on this.
Like any computer component that has moving parts, hard drives will fail sooner or later. Any electronics with moving parts, like platters spinning at high speeds, have even a higher failure rate due to the fact that there will be wear and tear. But there are a few signs that many hard drives will provide before the final bell tolls. Here’s a list of signs that your drive is about to die:
·There are clicking sounds or whirling signs when you turn on your computer but then it stops. This can often be the arm that moves the heads over the platters.
·Sometimes you a boot up message that it can’t find an operating system or similar message.
·Your computer starts freezing up (both bad RAM and hard drive can cause this) while working.
·Sudden reboots (this can also be a power supply problem).
If any of these things occur, you may still have time to do a backup and replace the unit. But don’t wait for anything else to happen since your drive may not hold up for long. Often many hard drives will not fail immediately but it could happen. There are a few things you can try that may solve the problem (but I would only use this for a temporary situation) if there is no real physical damage to your drive.
Shut down your computer and check all the connections, you might even want to remove and replace each one to confirm a good connection. In the heating and cooling cycle of on and off some connections can work their way loose over a period of time.
Run a software utility from the properties menu of your hard disk that will check your drive for errors. Click on My Computer, find your hard drive (usually C), right click and select properties, and then on the tab labeled tools. Click on the button labeled check now. This will find and fix or mark any bad areas on your hard disk. This can take a long time on large drives.
At the first indication of trouble from your hard drive, you should never ignore it and immediately do a backup of important data. Once you have a backup (actual test that the files are OK), then try to do the basic triage methods mentioned above. Most computers these days have the restore information on the drive in a hidden partition. You’ll want to definitely make a copy of that so you can transfer it to any replacement hard drive you install.
Many of the replacement hard drives may have software included to copy the old information to the new drive. If you check the manufacturer’s website for software, they often have a free utility that can make the process pretty easy and painless. Of course you need to do this before your current drive fails.
The most important thing is to take some kind of corrective action when you find out you may have a problem. Do not ignore the warning signs that something is not normal. Backup first, try the suggested remedies, and if you determine that there is a serious problem, go ahead and replace your hard drive before disaster strikes. Ignoring the warning signs will guarantee you will have a much bigger fiasco to deal with on replacing your hard drive.
Like any computer component that has moving parts, hard drives will fail sooner or later. Any electronics with moving parts, like platters spinning at high speeds, have even a higher failure rate due to the fact that there will be wear and tear. But there are a few signs that many hard drives will provide before the final bell tolls. Here’s a list of signs that your drive is about to die:
·There are clicking sounds or whirling signs when you turn on your computer but then it stops. This can often be the arm that moves the heads over the platters.
·Sometimes you a boot up message that it can’t find an operating system or similar message.
·Your computer starts freezing up (both bad RAM and hard drive can cause this) while working.
·Sudden reboots (this can also be a power supply problem).
If any of these things occur, you may still have time to do a backup and replace the unit. But don’t wait for anything else to happen since your drive may not hold up for long. Often many hard drives will not fail immediately but it could happen. There are a few things you can try that may solve the problem (but I would only use this for a temporary situation) if there is no real physical damage to your drive.
Shut down your computer and check all the connections, you might even want to remove and replace each one to confirm a good connection. In the heating and cooling cycle of on and off some connections can work their way loose over a period of time.
Run a software utility from the properties menu of your hard disk that will check your drive for errors. Click on My Computer, find your hard drive (usually C), right click and select properties, and then on the tab labeled tools. Click on the button labeled check now. This will find and fix or mark any bad areas on your hard disk. This can take a long time on large drives.
At the first indication of trouble from your hard drive, you should never ignore it and immediately do a backup of important data. Once you have a backup (actual test that the files are OK), then try to do the basic triage methods mentioned above. Most computers these days have the restore information on the drive in a hidden partition. You’ll want to definitely make a copy of that so you can transfer it to any replacement hard drive you install.
Many of the replacement hard drives may have software included to copy the old information to the new drive. If you check the manufacturer’s website for software, they often have a free utility that can make the process pretty easy and painless. Of course you need to do this before your current drive fails.
The most important thing is to take some kind of corrective action when you find out you may have a problem. Do not ignore the warning signs that something is not normal. Backup first, try the suggested remedies, and if you determine that there is a serious problem, go ahead and replace your hard drive before disaster strikes. Ignoring the warning signs will guarantee you will have a much bigger fiasco to deal with on replacing your hard drive.