The number of hard drive crashes has come down thanks to better technology. However, the problem is far from eliminated. Almost every computer specialist will advise you of the steps that you need to take to avoid hard drive problems.

However, despite your best efforts, hard drives can either crash or develop logical errors. It is therefore essential that you understand the causes of hard drive malfunction and take preventive or corrective action as the case may be.

Hard disks are sensitive pieces of machinery. They need to be operated in a cool, dust-free environment, assembled or dissembled with care and run on stable power supply. Dust particles can scratch the magnetic platters that spin inside the drive and make them defective. Similarly, if you drop or jerk the drive, you run the risk of damaging the platters and losing data. As for power, sudden surges are known to cause considerable harm to the disks.

Viruses are also a very important cause of data loss. They can make large chunks of data inaccessible and create a lot of trouble. These sort of errors are called logical errors and do not necessarily mean that your disk has been harmed.

While it is always good to know what causes harm, it is always more important to now when a disk is heading for trouble, so that pre-emptive measures can be taken. The signs and symptoms to look out for are: frequent error messages, garbled information about the disk when it is analyzed, clicking and whirring sounds and not showing start up.

You must take recourse to any one of these actions when you notice the above mentioned symptoms. The first is take back ups. This will ensure that even if your disk crashes your information is safe.

Next, scan for viruses. In fact it is a good idea to do this every time you boot your computer. This kills the problem at the root level.

You can also use the easy to operate, recovery software. But you should use it only if the problem is not too serious, and you know how hard drives function. However, if you are not confident, the best thing to do is reach for the yellow pages. Employing the services of an expert is always the best option.

Remember, if you keep your hard drive healthy, you keep your data happy. So pay attention to your machine.

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