|
Maximizing
the life of your hard drive
If I asked you the
question: which part of your computer is the most fragile, what would
you say? What if I asked: which part is most important to you?
Often, the answer to both of these questions is your Hard Drive.
Your hard drive is likely one the most important things you own. It contains
work data, school data, emails, photos, music, movies, tax information,
etc… Incidentally, the hard drive is also one of only two moving
components in your computer (the other being your optical drive). The
following is a list of important maintenance and monitoring techniques
you can use to maximize the life of your hard drive and prevent data loss.
Hard drives
are physically fragile – handle with care
- Statistics show that 25% of lost data is due to a failure of a portable
drive. (Source: 2001 Cost of Downtime Survey Results)
Contrary to its seemingly rugged appearance, your hard disk is a very
delicate device that writes and reads data using microscopic magnetic
particles. Any vibration, shock, and other careless operation may damage
your drive and cause or contribute to the possibility of a failure. This
is especially relevant for notebook users, as they are most at risk of
drive failure due to physical damage, theft, and other causes beyond their
control. That’s why we recommend regular backup of notebook hard
drives, as often as possible.
Possible solutions include external USB or Firewire drives (although these
are prone to the same risks), desktop synchronization, or backup at a
data center through the web.
Hard drives
write data in a non-linear way forcing it to become fragmented.
When files accumulate on your hard drive, they do not just get written
in a linear fashion. A hard drive writes files in small pieces and scatters
them over the surface. The fuller your hard drive becomes and the more
files you save and delete the worse file fragmentation can be. Hard drive
access times increase with fragmentation since your drive must work harder
to find all the pieces of the files. The more fragmented your data is,
the harder the actuator arm has to work to find each piece of a file.
A case in point: Disk fragmentation is a common problem for users of Outlook
Express and database software. Each time outlook saves new mail, it does
so in a different physical location from the previous time. This results
in extreme fragmentation, causing longer access times and forcing more
strain on the actuator arm.
Finally, in the event of a total crash, a fragmented drive is much more
difficult to recover then a healthy defragged drive.
Luckily, Windows makes it remarkably easy to defrag your hard drive, simply
launch the Disk Defragmenter utility (Start > Programs >
Accessories > System Tools), choose which disk or partition
you’d like to defragment and set it to work overnight or while you
are not actively using your computer. Defragmentation will speed up your
computer and ensure a longer life for your hard drive.
A small power
surge can destroy your hard drive
Another little-known fact about the fragility of your hard drive is its
susceptibility to electrical failure. An electrical failure can be caused
by a power surge, lightening strikes, power brown-outs, incorrect wiring,
a faulty or old power supply, and many other factors. If a power surge
enters your computer, it may do an unpredictable amount of damage, including
destroying your hard drive’s electronics or crashing the heads and
possibly resulting in total data loss.
The best way to protect your computer from such dangers is to use a highly
rated protected power bar or an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS). Although
these devices won’t eliminate the chances of a crash, they will
serve as effective protection in most cases. Also, you can minimize the
danger of an electrical problem and reduce wear of your hard drive by
turning off your computer or using power-save modes whenever possible.
It’s a known fact that 100% of drives fail, the question is when
will it happen and will you be prepared?
*Make sure to come back soon or sign up for our Newsletter
to check out the upcoming article discussing power options and a more
detailed explanation of how power affects your drive*
Be SMART,
monitor the health of your drive to prevent unexpected crashes
All modern hard drives have a self-monitoring technology called SMART
(Self Monitoring Analysis & Reporting Technology). What most people
don’t realize is that the majority of hard drive failures do not
have to be unexpected. Most failures occur as a result of long-term problems
which can be predicted. By regularly monitoring disk health and performance,
you can know about potential hard drive problems before you lose any of
your data.
Several excellent utilities are available, including DiskView and Stellar
SMART for standard IDE and SATA desktop drives. Also available are tools
that monitor the health of SCSI drives and full RAID Array systems. Ariolic
Software offers a great utility called ActiveSMART.
*Come back soon or sign up for our Newsletter to check out the upcoming
article in which we will review tones of great software, including the
above titles!*
The only
fool-proof way to prevent data loss is: Backup!
If you only take one of the suggestions here to heart, let it be this
one: always back up your important data. After all the monitoring and
all the prevention measures are in place, one fact still remains: all
hard drives fail. Backing up regularly will ensure that you’re never
caught without your critical data. For individuals, the simplest solutions
include external portable hard drives, dvd’s, and online storage.
For businesses, we recommend renting space at a secure data centre and
implementing a disaster recovery plan, regardless of the size of your
business.
*Come back soon or sign up for our Newsletter
to check out the upcoming article in which we will review tones of great
software, including the above titles!*
Alex Bezborodov
Technical Writer
Accurate Data Recovery
www.a-datarecovery.com
|
|