Hard Drive Failures
Introduction Hard drive crashes are one of the most frustrating experiences one can have with a computer. The inability to read data off of the hard drive can render a computer useless. Even if the OS can run, the data may be inaccessible or damaged. The only way to recover from such a failure is to typically restore data from a backup onto a new drive with all the software installed from scratch. If no backup is available, then the data is either lost or will cost a lot for recovery services to retrieve. This article is going to take a look at what causes hard drive failures, if failures are becoming more frequent and what steps one can take to try and avoid problems in the event of a failure. Hard Drive Basics Before understanding what can cause a failure, it is important to know the basics of how a hard drive functions. A hard drive is essentially a large device with magnetic storage media that is encased on rigid platters.
