Why old hard drives die

It might be today, tomorrow, but at some point, your hard drive will die. There are a few different reasons why your old drive dies. This is why it’s very important to always backup your data system regularly. Someday, your hard drive will develop problems.

According to a Philadelphia Data Recovery company Hard drives die due to hardware failure, including electrical failure, head crash, media failure, or controller problems. Also because of software corruption. This category includes problems from improper software configuration, damage caused by diagnostic or repair tools, and failed backups. 2 percent of hard drives die because of a computer virus or other malware. Infected files, boot sectors, can eat up and erase data in a most malicious manner.

Natural Disasters account for 3 percent of hard drive failures. Hard drives can be lost due to fires, floods, and power surges. Hard drive failures are also due to human error. People who drop a drive by accident or somehow damage the drive in a traumatic way.

A standard hard drive is made up of three components: the platter, the head and the controller. Any kind of shock to the hard drive can cause the heads to crash into the platter, scratching the surface and possibly causing the magnetic coating to be ruined.

If you set your system down too hard (or drop it) while it’s not running, the hard drive will often be fine. If the system is running when it hits, the read/write heads can bounce off the platter and corrupt the data stored there, even with a sudden motion sensor. The platters have a lubricating coating that help protect against the casual bump here and there, but this won’t prevent the shock of a drop from damaging the drive. You should always either shut down your laptop or put it to sleep before moving it to reduce the risk of a head crash.

Condensation can also ruin a hard drive. It is believed that a hard drive is completely sealed and air tight, but this is not accurate. There is a tiny air hole on the drive’s case (usually marked with a label that says “Do not cover”). Its purpose is to stabilize the pressure and humidity inside and outside the drive. For more details on Hard disk drive failures read the wikipedia entry.