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Many people have gotten used to keeping private documents on their computer hard drives these days. While this is not a problem, it’s important to remember that every hard drive has a lifespan, and they can occasionally malfunction. In such an event, data loss may occur and that can be quite the disaster.
It is unfortunate, however, that hard disk failures exhibit certain symptoms before the disaster eventually happens. This is a good thing because you can pay attention to these signs and take preventative action in advance, thus helping you avoid data loss brought on by hard drive failure.
We’ve put this two-part guide together for this sole purpose; to show you how to recognize an impending hard drive failure and teach you what to do about it if it does happen.
- What is Hard Drive Failure?
- Signs of Hard Drive Failure: Routine System Crashing and Screen Freezing
- Signs of Hard Drive Failure: Failure of Files to Open or Entirely Missing Files
- Signs of Hard Drive Failure: High Number of Bad Sectors
- Signs of Hard Drive Failure: Excessive Loading Time for Files Use the SMART Monitoring System
What is Hard Drive Failure?
Hard drive failures can be divided into two categories: logical and physical. When a hard drive physically fails, it means that it—or one of its components— has become physically harmed or has ceased to function at all. This could cause Windows to have trouble starting up and cause data loss.
In the case of logical hard drive failure, the internal hard disk is unaffected; nevertheless, the file system or other software on the hard drive may be damaged, causing it to malfunction improperly or unsatisfactorily. A logical hard disk failure could result in files being lost or not being able to be accessed. In other situations, the operating system of the machine might have been harmed.
Regardless of the category, there are several ways to recognize a hard disk failure on your device, and we’ve discussed them below.
Signs of Hard Drive Failure:Routine System Crashing and Screen Freezing
Your hard disk may be to blame if you notice that your computer routinely freezes and crashes. Also, if you notice this happening after a brand-new installation, it is almost certainly the result of defective hardware, perhaps including a failing hard drive.
Computer freezes and crashes can have a variety of causes, but they are most likely an early sign of a failing hard drive. If you’re lucky enough to notice this and pay attention, make sure to copy your crucial data to an external hard drive in case your hard disk fails eventually accidentally. This way, your important data is kept safe and you don’t have to deal with data loss.
Signs of Hard Drive Failure:Failure of Files to Open or Entirely Missing Files
Files abruptly disappearing or failing to open is another of the most common indications of a failing hard drive. You should be on guard and take action if you discover that some files won’t open on your device, and are corrupted despite the fact that they were saved without problems. Also be on the lookout for any files that mysteriously vanish.
If you notice this happening, immediately retrieve the data on the failing hard disk and move it to a secure location, preferably a tested-and-trusted drive.
Signs of Hard Drive Failure:High Number of Bad Sectors
A failing hard disk may also show signs of increasing bad sectors. A bad sector is a disk sector that has sustained long-term damage on a disk storage device. All of the data kept on a damaged sector will typically be gone.
Hard drive failure is typically indicated by accumulated faulty sectors, which are difficult to spot. You can however check for faulty sectors on your hard drive using the free edition of the MiniTool Partition Wizard, an all-in-one partition manager that is very dependable and trustworthy.
We’ve described the process below:
- Download the MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition. To access the primary interface, open it after installing it on your computer.
- Choose the target disk you want to examine. Following that, choose Surface Test in the left action panel.
- To start the disk surface test, click the Start Now option. The software will then do an automatic test on the disk surface and show you the results.
- You can check your hard disk to see if there are any faulty sectors after it is finished. Red will be displayed for bad sectors. If there are no errors discovered, click OK to close the program.
- Select the desired partition, then select Surface Test to continue if you only want to inspect a single partition.
Determining whether a hard drive has faulty sectors is quite easy with the method we described above. Data stored on your drive has a high tendency of coming to harm if you notice any bad sectors in the drive.
So, even if your hard drive currently appears to function normally, if it has a lot of faulty sectors, expect it to crash pretty soon. You’ll therefore need to replace the disk and transfer all your data to the new one as soon as possible.
Signs of Hard Drive Failure:Excessive Loading Time for Files
Hard drive failure is also indicated by an extremely long waiting time for accessing folders and files. This is typically caused by the failing portions of the hard drive necessitating multiple read attempts before successful access.
Having to wait for so long before accessing files on your device is a typical symptom of hard drive failure, but it can also be brought on by a variety of other computer problems. Whatever the case may be though, make sure to copy your important data from the hard drive in case this is an indication that it’s failing.
Use the SMART Monitoring System
With the S.M.A.R.T monitoring system, you can also view your hard drive’s health by checking S.M.A.R.T. status. Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology, also known as S.M.A.R.T., is a monitoring system that is built into computer hard disk drives (HDDs), solid-state drives (SSDs), and eMMC drives. It allows each device to monitor its internal status.
Here are specific instructions for using SMART to find hard disk failure:
- To open Command Prompt , type cmd into the Windows Cortana box and select the best match.
- Enter wmic and then hit Return .
- Enter the command diskdrive get status.
- You will receive an OK message if your hard disk is in good condition.
- Keep an eye on your hard drive or think about replacing it if it displays other statuses, such as Bad , Caution , or Unknown . Even while your hard disk may not necessarily fail right away, you still need to take precautions.
Next: How to fix hard drive failure in your PC .
Author:Joan Agie
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If you’ve stumbled on this article, then it’s safe to assume that you’ve already done some troubleshooting, and you’ve confirmed that your hard drive is failing for sure.
Seeing as hard drive failure will inevitably result in data loss, it’s necessary to do something about it, but what exactly is to be done?
In this guide, we’ll teach you all the right things to do to protect your data, and ensure that hard drive loss doesn’t ultimately mean data loss.
Getting your Data Off a Failing Drive
When dealing with a dead or dying hard drive, looking for a fix doesn’t necessarily mean you’re trying to fix the hard drive itself.
What is most important is the data on the hard drive, and this is what you need to protect. As such, you should remove any crucial data you haven’t yet backed up from your drive right away if it is failing but hasn’t totally done so yet.
You might need to try booting to a live Linux or Windows installer DVD and attempting to move only the crucial files off your drive.
- Simply boot up your PC using the Windows installer disc or Linux live CD. The hardware of the computer is still functional if it launches from the disc and takes you to a Linux desktop or a Windows installation environment.
- You can connect an external hard drive or a USB stick and copy important files to the removable media device if all you want to do is recover the files. The files on the failing hard drive will thus be saved.
Even if your computer is unable to boot up and run its operating system from the disk without crashing, you might be able to retrieve some files thanks to this method.
Another option is to remove the hard drive and connect it to a different computer. You could copy a few crucial files off the drive if it has partially failed. A program like Piriform’s Recuva, which promises “recovery from damaged disks,” might also be useful to you in this situation. However, if the drive is genuinely irreparably damaged, this will most likely not work.
Keep in mind that if the drive is failing, keeping it powered on could lead it to fail more quickly or sustain more harm. The best course of action is generally to cease using the drive and take it to a reputable data recovery agency. This is if you have truly important data that you are prepared to pay a significant sum of money to restore.
Fix Hard Drive FailureUsing Professional Data Recovery Services
In all likelihood, you won’t ever require a data recovery service because an easy solution can be found for a dead hard drive if you have reliable, recent backups. Simply purchase a new hard drive for your computer, reinstall Windows, and then restore your data from the backup. In a few hours, you’ll be operational.
However, things get much more difficult if you don’t have current backups. The drive will need to be opened in a clean room environment by a professional data recovery provider, who will then try to recover your data using the new head by replacing the one within the drive.
As you might expect, these services are quite expensive, and there is no assurance that your data will be returned. However, they are your only choice if you have critical business data or something irreplaceable that you can’t remove from your drive. Additionally, you can use these services to recover deleted data.
Alternative Fixesfor Hard Drive Failure
As stated earlier, simply contact a reputable data recovery provider if you need to retrieve important data.
Note that there are some things you can do if you’ve given up on the disk entirely and need your data back but don’t want to pay for expert data recovery. Some people claim that freezing the drive—physically freezing it in the freezer—helps.
If this does work, solid-state drives won’t be affected; only mechanical drives would be. According to some reports, letting the drive cool down can temporarily stabilize it. This might make sense given the mechanical processes taking place inside the drive.
To avoid condensation building up within the hard drive if you choose to freeze your hard drive, be sure to wrap the drive in two top-notch freezer bags.
Alternatively, you may just turn off the computer and return to it later. If the drive is unstable, it might work sometimes and not work other times, and it might work long enough for you to recover some crucial files. However, if the drive is genuinely failing, the more damage it can sustain if you continue to use it.
In conclusion , It is impossible to stop hard drives from failing. The best you can do is regularly create backups, which will enable you to restore your crucial data from another location in the event that a drive ever fails.
You can simply take a cue from all our suggestions to recover your files from a failed/failing hard drive. If you’ve found this article helpful, don’t forget to recommend it to your friends and loved ones.
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