5 Signs Your Hard Drive Lifetime is Ending & What to Do

In today’s world, we have all our files saved on our hard drives. Have you ever thought about what would happen if all those files were gone? After all, hard drives only last about 5-10 years. Here are some hints that your hard drive is failing:

1) Slowing down of computer, blue screen, frequent freezes.

 These things can happen because of a million different things. But it is better to be safe than sorry. It is very important to back up your hard drive!

 

2) Corrupted Data

When files begin to fail to open or are corrupted for no apparent reason(s), your hard drive could be failing. There are a number of reasons why these files could be corrupted, even if they were saved without any errors.  You want to make sure that your hard drive is backed up in order to save your precious data.

 

3) Accumulation Of Bad Sectors

Bad sectors are areas in the hard drive that do not maintain reliability. They are hard to identify because they are automatically masked by the system.

 

You can run a manual disk check to identify errors that Windows has not spotted.

• In Windows 7, go to >START>Computer and right click on the disk you wish to check.
• Select >Properties. In the window that opens switch to the >Tools tab and click >Check now…
• In the Checking Disk Window place a checkmark next to >Automatically fix system errors and for an attempt of bad sectors and >Scan for an attempt recovery of bad sectors.

 

4) Strange Sounds

Do you hear strange sounds coming from your hard drive? This could mean that it is already too late for your device. Noises that sound like screeching could indicate that parts of the hardware are failing.

   

5) S.M.A.R.T. Data

Did you know that there are tools on your computer that try to predict hard drive failure? It does this by reading the S.M.A.R.T. ((Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology). This is usually not reliable because it might already be too late before it starts to read S.M.A.R.T.

 

In sum, be sure to back up your data! Whether it be using an external drive or an online platform like iCloud or Carbonite. Need help? Contact us! We’re here for you.