Do laptop hard drives really fail? Several computer users have asked themselves these question and more other questions about there laptops. Here are some facts about computers and their components.

Facts

1.    One in Five computers suffers a fatal hard drive crush during their lifetime!

2.    A computer hard drive crashes after every 15 seconds.

3.    25% of lost data is due to the failure of portable drive.

4.    15% or more of laptops in Kenya only suffer hard drive failure!

These facts and others sound an alarm on how we should take care of our beloved machines especially laptops, and in deed they answer the question” Do laptop hard drives fail”. But how do you know when your laptop hard drive has actually failed?

This question is quite related to another hypothetical question such as “how do you tell when a living thing is dead?” well, I am sure that every one has a handful of answers to that question. But it’s the same thing with a laptop that has a failed hard drive. When you boot your machine and there on your screen you see a blue screen of death is one symptom of a dead machine. Another scenario is when your system displays fatal errors such as “No boot device, Primary hard drive not installed or Operating System Not fond”,

These are common errors that are displayed when your hard drive is dead or is a bout to fail. Note that the last three errors could be as a result of poor connection of the hard disk.

Some times we boot our laptops and the only thing we hear is some funny noise produced by the laptop. The cause of such noise is a failed hard drive or a failing hard disk. What produces the noise is usually the read/write head of the hard drive that is having difficulty in reading from corrupt sectors of the platters.



Thanks to Eugene Eshitemi for contributing this article to our Data Recovery blog:

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Here are another seven signs of eminent hard drive failure. If your hard drive is having any of these seven symptoms then you must take immediate action to backup your files…

“Back up my hard drive? How do I put it in reverse?” ~ Unknown

While doing regular backups is very important, sometimes people believe that backups are some kind of magic bullet so they let themselves get over confident and let bad hardware issues get out of control. By paying attention and seeing if your machine is experiencing any of these seven signs of eminent hard drive failure, you may be able to save yourself hours of wasted time and an expensive repair bill.

Sign 8 - Disappearing files and folders

As a drive goes bad it will often display subtle indications of trouble. One of the most overlooked are “vanishing” files or folders. If you notice that you can never find your files anymore or that folders you “know” were there are now gone, then your hard drive maybe slip sliding away.

Sign 9 - Folder and file names that have been scrambled and changed

A related issue is that you can find the folder or file you want…or at least you think you have. The filename is messed up but when you open it, it’s the letter you were looking for. But you have a set way of labeling your files it is way wrong. A sign of things going badly quickly.

Sign 10 - You experience really loooong waits to access folders and files

Another related issue. You can find the file fine but you notice that over the last little bit, it’s been taking practically forever to open folders or files. Once you click on a file, you can get up, grab a coffee, and read the front page of daily paper before it opens up. Just joking, but accessing files are noticeably slower.

Sign 11 - The System locks-up during boot up, repeatedly

Okay, even the best of machines, even brand-new-outta-the-box ones will misbehave by locking up occasionally. Occasionally… If you start have lockups every other time you boot up your machine, the drive can be having lots of read/write errors that overwhelm it. Time to go shopping.

Sign 12 - ScanDisk or a third-party utility shows bad sectors

Windows’ drive diagnostic tool Scandisk if one of my faves. By running it and setting it to “automatically fix” errors, you can see if your drive has physical bad “spots” or sectors on the disk platters. You can also use a third-party program. All the major hard drive manufacturers have free utilities on their websites.

Sign 13 - Error message: Disk can’t find the Windows Master File Table (MFT) or Master Boot Record (MBR)

You may have a bit of luck with this one. The good news, a virus or piece of spyware has taken over your drive and rewritten or “hidden” the MFT (on Windows 2000 and later) or MBR (Windows 98/Me and earlier). You may be to repair this with some technical help. The bad news, is that the MFT/MBR files rarely get corrupted or become infected, so this is almost a sign of drive gone bad.

Sign 14 - The drive is running hot

This one sign you probably will never notice since, it requires that the case be removed from your computer. Instead of sign this should actually be classified as a more of a test. If you notice any of the other problems mentioned above, then you can pop your PC case and lay your hand on top of hard drive while in operation. It should be warm but not hot to the touch. A hot device is positive physical sign of early failure.

Your PC is having any of the above issues then you must backup your files, as completely as possible as soon as you can. Even with these danger signs, hard drives have been known to fail without warning, so backup frequently.



Thanks to Chancer Reese for contributing this article to our Data Recovery blog:

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I’m very tight on my budget right now and i want to know how to take good care of my laptop so it won’t be damaged ? How can i prevent a laptop hard drive crash ?

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My hard drive recently crashed and I lost everything, including probably close to 200 dollars worth of music downloaded from Itunes. Is there a way I can get back this downloaded music? Like is there a way to log into my Itunes account and have my old music be there still? Will apple reimburse me for this lost music?

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