Hard Drive Failure - How Does One Deal With It?

Unfortunately, hard drive failure is a fact of life for a computer owner. The circle of mechanical life and death does not skip over any hard drives. Even if yours has lasted for a decade, it is just as susceptible to immediate and catastrophic failure as any other drive. Protecting your drive from the causes of hard drive failure is important, but you must also learn to recognize the signs of a failing drive and know what to do. Or, more importantly, what to avoid doing.So what are the signs of a hard drive failure? The most common signs of a failed hard drive are the strange noises coming straight from the drive. If yours is making an abnormal noise, it is highly advised that you take time to backup all your files. If your operating system is within the drive, you may also want to entirely remove it and reinstall your OS so you can avoid an even bigger potential headache.But whatever you do, do not attempt to fix the problem yourself. Some people think they might be able to correct whatever is wrong if they just open the drive up. This is especially true for new drives, which people cannot imagine are failing already. But the second you open that hard drive, you have taken the situation from bad to much, much worse. Assembled in clean rooms, hard drives are susceptible to damage from even the smallest microscopic particles. Opening the case is just asking to completely ruin the drive.If you backup your files on a regular basis, then a failed hard drive may not really be a big issue. All you have to do is replace the drive and put all data back on. In cases where no data back up was made, there are several remedies. Some specialists may be able to help you recover all information inside your drive. Just keep in mind; however, that this may not always be a very affordable process and that, this does not happen overnight. It needs a clean room, a very knowledgeable person and a set of specialized tools.If you are ever tempted to try the home remedies that are said to work with damaged hard drives, stop. For one, don't freeze your hard drive. That "solution" has no basis whatsoever and can only aggravate the problem. The same can be said about troubleshooting it yourself. If your hard drive suddenly stops, your best course of action is to send it off to a technician that specializes on data retrieval. Typically, these hard drives will no longer be functional again. But purchasing a new hard drive is actually a minor problem than the thought of losing one's important files, personal documents, music collection, family recipes, and treasured photos altogether. Make sure this never happens to you by backing up your computer data.Even if  hard drive failure is extremely annoying, it is entirely avoidable. Still though, it's important to have a backup plan so you don't experience any data loss. Visit the site to find out more about online backup services such as Carbonite online backup.