Signs of a hard drive failure

In this blog we talk a lot about the fact that hard drives fail but we haven’t as yet looked into some of the key signs to look out for and the key reasons why your hard drive will fail. So I have done some research into this topic this week and the following article should provide you with a a guide as to what you should be looking out for. If you have ever had a hard drive failure, then it might also provide an explanation as to why it might have actually happened to you.

All hard drives crash. It is only a matter of when. When it happens, the pain it causes is directly related to how prepared you are for it and what options you have to rectify the situation quickly. Backup, backup, backup. We say it each week via this blog and via our tweets. If your data matters to you then you need to do something about protecting it.

Warning Signs

These are some signs to look out for that might give you an indication that your hard drive is having a tough time and might just give up on you:

1. Computer freezes often. When it happens, the mouse cursor is unmovable and keyboard input is ignored. Nothing works and a restart is required to recover the computer. This might not be entirely related to the hard drive as sometimes programs on your PC and even your browser can cause this, but you need to look out for it.
2. Files mysteriously disappearing.
3. Your computer locks-up during booting. Look out for a pattern here because as mentioned above, your PC will freeze from time to time.
4. File access slows down dramatically. Saving or openning files simply takes forever.

These are typical warning signs of a pending hard drive failure. When you start to see a noticeable increase in these patterns, backing up your data needs to take top priority. Otherwise you really are playing Russian roulette with your hard drive.

I didn’t just want to leave it here though. Its important to also get an insight as to what actually happens to your hard drive. Here is a little more that I have managed to dig up.

The hard drive isn’t recognized in the BIOS - This could be a problem with the hard drive’s electronics, since the electronics typically are the first point of interaction with your computer’s motherboard. Hard drives also have firmware information on the platters, so you might have a problem with your drive’s read/write heads. This could be the likely reason if your hard drive is displaying the wrong information in the BIOS (i.e. you’ve got a Western Digital 80GB and your computer thinks it’s a Western Digital 500GB).

You might also simply have a problem with your computer’s motherboard. A possible inexpensive solution could be to simply replace the IDE, ATA, or SCSI cable and switch the drive to a different power plug.

Clicking, whirring, and other physical noises – If your hard drive begins to start making clicking, screeching, or otherwise mechanical noises then you you have yet another reason to begin preparing for a crash.  There are several reasons why this could be happening. The heads are either unable to find a particular group of sectors that they’re looking for (this is characterized by an intermittent clicking sound), or they’ve become misaligned and are making contact with the platters (screeching), or they’re locked up against the platters. In either case, you definitely don’t want to continue using the drive. Turn it off and leave it off until you can get it looked at.

Whilst mechanical sounds are a good indication of a physical problem, head crashes can also be caused by electronic issues (and vice versa).

The drive is running extremely slowly – The most common causes of this is that you have too much software running or your operating system or computer in general is struggling under the heavy work load. If your drive is running so slowly that it can’t even open a folder to view files, you might also be having sector corruption issues. Also worth noting is that like with the head crash a PC that has grind to a hault is bet turned off altogether. Running the drive might make the problem worse. If your aren’t already backing up, it might be a good time to start. Copy your files using an external drive or online backup. You might even try using data recovery software as it may pull information more slowly from your drive and avoid causing damage.

The more you you are aware about possible issues and what to look out for the better prepared you will be to take action early action. When your system has had a hard drive crash, it will not be able to boot. You may even get a blue screen of death.

Diagnostics

So what do you do when it happens. Here are a few things to check. Mind you if you aren’t technical, then take it as soon as you can to a PC repair shop. The less you play with the better. If you are technically minded, then the following mind give you a hand.

1. Check to ensure the power cable is properly connected to the drive.
2. Check to be sure the data cable is properly connected to the drive.
3. If it is an IDE drive, ensure the ribbon cable is aligned properly. Red edge of the cable is aligned with Pin 1 of the connector on the drive. Pin 1 is closest to the power plug, typically.
4. Master/slave assignment is correctly set if this is an IDE drive.

Another step worth trying is checking to see if the PC can even see the drive. If this is an IDE drive, go into the computer’s BIOS and have it auto-detect the drive. If it can detect it, then we know at the very least that we have a working connection.

If your anti-virus provider gives you access to a reboot CD (I know AVG does), reboot and run a scan on the drive. The process will check the drive and the boot partition for viruses.

You might also try using a third-party disk management program (eg FDisk) to view the partitions on the drive. If no active partitions are found, then you have a real problem. You can try a data recovery tool to try and get some of the data back or you can take it into to a professional. Trying to re-partition the drive could cause you to lose all of your data. Speak to someone and get some options.

If you had found partitions, you might want to run a ScanDisk or Check Disk on the drive. Allow it to perform a full scan and fix anything it finds.

PLEASE NOTE, IF YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING PLEASE TAKE YOUR PC INTO A PROFESSIONAL RATHER THAN TRY AND SALVAGE WHAT YOU CAN ALONE. TWO MINDS CAN SOMETIMES BE BETTER THAN ONE.

What to do with your new hard drive

Once installed, you will need top reinstall all your software. If you managed to salvage any of your data, you can then restore your data. Some people will tell that you should just throw the old drive away, others will tell you that you should destroy it. If it has anything at all personal on it then totally destroy it. There are apparently miracle workers out there who can retrieve data from dead drives. The last thing you want is for someone to get access to your info.