If your disk is working its way towards its end or more probably has already crashed, it will not really make any sense for me to advise you at this stage on the importance of taking backups. What we really need to be more concerned about is the next step that we ought to take. Disk crashes can drive any of us mad. I hope you have really not reached the extent as in the case of my friend, who threw the computer off the window when his screen went blank.
Why do Disks Fail?
Do not be surprised, if I tell you that parts within a hard drive rotate at several thousand revolutions per minute. And, for the same reason, they are subjected to extensive wear and tear. A hard disk has an average life span at the end of which it dies without notice.
The Symptoms - How to Recognise Disk Failures beforehand?
A tricky question about disk failures is not to ask if your hard disk will ever fail. Rather, you need to question yourself as to when will your disk fail. All that you need to watch out is for the occurrence of the following situations:
- The first and foremost symptom of disk failure is when you notice that your computer slows down while opening or saving files. You might have the hourglass spinning indefinitely.
- More than frequently, you might observe that your computer hangs up and that you might need to reboot your system.
- Whenever you boot your computer, you get an error message which reads, “One of your disks needs to be checked for consistency”, be sure to expect a disk crash shortly.
If you witness any of the above situations, it is always a better idea to have your data backed up immediately.
What Follows after a Disk Crash?
In case you encounter a disk crash that is quite unprecedented, do not panic. There is still a 90 percent chance that all your data can be recovered. Just follow the below mentioned steps:
1. Determine Type of Crash: Hard drive crashes are primarily of two types: software malfunction or physical damage. In case of a software malfunction such as an OS crash, it is easier to recover the data files. On the other hand, if it is a physical damage to the hard drive or any of its internal components owing to wear and tear, the data recovery process is quite complicated.
Damages due to software malfunction can be easily recognised. You usually tend to get a blue screen and a physical dump of memory error in case of Microsoft Windows.
Physical damages can be noticed when your hard drive goes undetected during the boot process and starts making those unusual noises. It is usually not advisable to let the drive run under such circumstances as it can cause further damage to the platters present within the drive. If it is a software malfunction, proceed to step two or else proceed to step three.
2. Fixing a Software Malfunction Issue: In the case of a software malfunction, a repair installation of the operating system using the OS CD can restore the hard drive back to its normal state.
If you are not able to fix the software malfunction issue by doing a repair installation of your OS, you can go ahead and use data recovery software. Though not widely recommended, you can go ahead to use a data recovery software to recover data from your hard drive. This is the method that I shall recommend to people who are really computer-savvy.
3. Handling Physical Damages: In the event that you are not able to access your hard drive and suspect the damage to be more of physical in nature, you can always use the services of data recovery companies. Today, in the market, there are numerous companies that offer data recovery services. You can approach one of them and hand over your hard drive. They will test your hard drive and provide you with an evaluation report on the possibility and the extent to which data can be recovered. If that sounds fine with you, you can go ahead and ask them to recover the data.
The Last Word
Drawing a conclusion, I would rather suggest that you use the services of data recovery professionals instead of going about fixing things yourself. I strongly believe in the age-old adage that half-knowledge is a dangerous thing.