Hard Disk Drives - What Can Go Wrong

by: jameswalsh
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Word Count: 761

Though it is widely held that hard drives will soon become obsolete, the fact remains that today far more people are using hard drives then ever before.

Reasons for Popularity of Hard Drives

Hard drives command a high popularity because they fulfill most of the criteria expected of a good storage media. They have a relatively low cost as compared to other storage media and easily fit into the budgetary allocations of most of the individual and organizational users. Infact hard drives offer the most reasonable cost per gigabyte of storage.

Hard drives unexceptionally have a high storage capacity and are available in capacities ranging from 40GB to 320GB. It is quiet easy to access the data stored on a hard drive and it happens to be a high speed storage media so far as processing, retrieval and storage of data is concerned. Hard drives are quiet durable though often being bulky and heavy. The number of hard drives in a computer can be increased or decreased depending upon the requirements of the end user.

Are Hard Drives Fairly Dependable

The fact is that hard drives are not as dependable as most of the users expect them to be. Though hard drives happen to be a technological marvel, they are bound to crash or fail at some time or other in their lives. A hard drive is basically a mechanical device that consists of various mechanical, electronic and software components such as case, read/write heads, platters, logic board, etc.

Simply speaking, hard drives behave like your car. As your car is bound to go out of order at sometime in its life span, similarly a hard drive is bound to fail any time. In fact experts believe that every 15 seconds a hard drives fails somewhere in the world. It will become really easy for us to comprehend the fragility of a hard drive if we take a look at its internal configuration.

How do Hard Drives Work

The internal configuration of a hard drive is quiet delicate. A hard drive contains a number of hard round platters that are coated on either side with a magnetic material. Data is stored on both the sides of these platters in Binary Notation i.e. in combination of 0s and 1s. The platters are placed on a spindle that makes them rotate at a very high speed varying from 5400 RPM to 7200 RPM. These platters are approached by some electromagnetic read/write components called heads. The heads perform many important functions such as reading and writing the data on the platters and interacting with the rest of the computer. The read/write heads float over the platters at just a microscopic distance above them.

Various Types of Hard Drive Problems

A hard drive may malfunction or fail owing to any of the following defects:

a) Mechanical Failure

Mechanical failure occurs due to some damage to the internal components of a hard drive. The most common type of mechanical failure is called hard drive crash in which a read/write head gets dislocated and lands on a platter resulting in etching off of the data storing magnetic layer.

b) Electronic Failure

All hard drives have an electronic controller board fixed at their bottom that happens to be the brain of a hard drive. Any damage to this controller may lead to hard drive failure.

c) Logical Error

A logical error is basically a software problem that occurs due to some damage to a file system, that may leave that file system in an inconsistent state.

d) Firmware Corruption

Firmware is a software code that is embedded in a hard drive. In case this firmware gets corrupted, the data stored on a hard drive may become inaccessible.

How to Take Care of Hard Drives

Certain procedures if followed can go a long way in prolonging the life span of your hard drive. Always install efficient antivirus software in your hard drive and take care that it is updated on a regular basis. Never move, shake or mishandle your hard drives while they are being used. Check that the cooling system of your hard drive is working properly. Always shut down your computer properly. Avoid exposing your hard drive to an environment charged with static electricity. Never try to fix your hard drive on your own in case of a crash. Above all, always backup your data on a regular basis.

About the Author

James Walsh is a freelance writer and copy editor. For more information on computer crime and Computer Forensics see http://www.fieldsassociates.co.uk

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