Diagnose a Failing Hard Drive
by: Sal Cangeloso
Many times before a hard drive goes completely bad there are signs foreshadowing its demise. If these signs are observed and recognized there is a good chance that the data on the drive can be saved. The window of time in which action any will be useful is quite small but if the proper precautions are taken there is a chance than a real problem can be avoided.
Like any other piece of hardware which has moving parts and requires serious precision, if a hard drive is used long enough it will fail. The inevitability of disk failure is why backing up and data recovery is so important. The number one reason for hard drive failure is mechanical, so despite any action taken to save the drive chances are something inside will be the culprit. The chance of a head crashing, a chronic problem long ago, is no longer really a problem so long as a computer is kept stationary while the drive is spinning. Sometimes the motor just plain wears out or an acculmulation of bad sectors which will lead to data loss and even corruption.
What are the signs to look out for? While there are few sure-fire signs of impending disk failure there are some warning signals that give us the hint. Watch out for: disappearing files, very long wait while accessing files, files/folders whose contents appear to be strangely scrambled, reoccuring error messages while moving/copying/deleting/creating files, and strange but frequent crashes of your OS. A telltale sign is any loud, low, irregular, clicking, or grinding sound which is emitted from the drive.