Your Hard Drive Might Not Be Fried
For most people with limited to average technical skills any computer problem that can’t be remedied by simply turning the unit off and then on again is way beyond their pay grade. The mere mention of the words “hard drive” or the notion that one might have a fried hard drive is enough to send most of us into panic mode. After all, the hard drive is the central nervous system of your computer. And while that may or may not be technically true, one thing for sure is that the hard drive is where we store everything from pictures and documents to music and links to vital information. To think that what took years to accumulate can be erased in a matter of minutes or seconds is just cause for panic.
But fear not. Your fried hard drive may not be crisped at all. If you fear that your hard drive may be corrupted or damaged the first thing you should do is determine if this is indeed the case. There are many other computer woes that could be affecting the performance, or lack thereof, of your PC so try to isolate the problem before you panic.
One way to accomplish this is to remove the hard drive entirely from your computer and hook it up to another computer as an alternate drive. If you are able to review your data from this computer while accessing your hard drive, you’re problem isn’t the hard drive at all and your precious files are safe and sound. On the other hand, if you’re data doesn’t appear after your ever-so gently double click on the icon for it on the other computer, you probably do have an issue with your hard drive. However, catch your breath and try not to overreact because believe it or not, you may still be able to recover data from failed hard drives. It’s just a matter of how to go about it and how much do you want to spend. In other words, how much is the data worth to you.
Basically there are two ways in which your hard drive might’ve failed. These are defined as logical failures and mechanical failures. A logical failure occurs when the components of your hard drive are fine but for one reason or another it is unable to navigate, or read the data. This can occur through accidental formatting or a corrupted file system, or both should a nasty virus infect your system. The data is still there, but your computer can’t read it. A mechanical failure is one in which your drive has damaged parts that are preventing it from functioning properly. Once again, the data could be fine but the drive is unable to get the data from the drive to your anxious eyes and ears on your monitor.
Diagnostic software can help to pinpoint the hard drive problem. You simply install the program, select the defective drive and then choose the folder that will receive the information. However, you can be waiting a long time because these scans can take quite a while to run, sometimes even days.
If you don’t have that kind of time, or if you are experiencing mechanical failure of your hard drive you may want to send it or bring it to experts, who in most cases can get to the crux of the problem quickly. In addition, these technical savvy fellows can also help you with recovered data that might not look the same once it has been affected by a damaged hard drive.
To know more about Data Recovery please browse Data Recovery and Hard Drive Recovery.
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