Data Recovery Digest

Hard drive failure is a common occurrence, especially since so many people have computers. Fortunately, hard drives are in good supply with most of your local or online tech stores. Unfortunately, many of the problems with hard drive failures arise before you have the chance to swap out the failed drive with a brand new hard drive.

If your hard drive crashes, there a quite a few dos to complete, but we are only going to cover the few donts that so many commit when they see the dreaded “blue screen of death.”

Do NOT Keep Using the Computer

One of the worst things you can do once your hard drive fails is to try and continue using it. When you turn on your computer and the only response you get is a clicking noise followed by a harsh grinding sound, chances are that your hard drive is dead and you need to remove it and bury it with honors. If you continue to try and use your computer you are asking to lose your stored data. If your hard drive is a HDD (magnetic disk drive) the clicking and grinding noises you’re hearing could possibly be something rubbing against the magnetic disk in the hard drive. The more it rubs, the greater the chances of losing everything you’ve stored on the hard drive. Remember, just because the drive has failed doesn’t mean your data is gone. Data recovery is possible if you know what to do or where to take it for data recovery.

Do NOT Give Up

Never give up. Never surrender. Just because your hard drive fails doesn’t mean your whole computer is dead. The hard drive is a single piece of hardware that can be replaced. If you know what you’re looking for, you can purchase a replacement hard drive and install it without much trouble.

Steps to computer resuscitation: remove the failed hard drive, recover the data, install a new hard drive, transfer the recovered data, and go back to doing whatever it was you were doing before the hard drive failed.

How do I recover the data, you ask? Data recovery really is its own separate topic, and you can find an article we wrote on it {{ http://recovering-lostwindowspartition.datarecoverydigest.com/|here}}

Do NOT Get Caught Unprepared

Hard drive failure isn’t something that can be planned, but it can be expected since all hard drives will eventually fail. Recovering data (pictures, files, music, movies, etc…) can be time consuming and frustrating. To save yourself the trouble of dealing with data recovery after hard drive failure you should back up your data by using data restoration software like R-Drive Image, or copy it to an external hard drive, upload it online via the cloud, or copy it to a handheld USB device. These are relatively inexpensive and can literally fit in your pocket. If your data is safe and sound, you can remove the hard drive and just be rid of it – no messy recovery measures required.
There really aren’t many donts associated with hard drive failure. When it comes to what NOT to do when your hard drive fails commonsense and basic computer knowledge are your best friends.