Your Hard Drive Failed? Don’t Panic

Hard drive failure is a part of life in the computer age. Whether due to that underbelly of research and development known as planned obsolescence or just due to the fact that things with working parts will eventually wear out and not work anymore, if you spend any time on a computer, at some point, your time will be spent lamenting potential data loss.

When you lose your computer files to a black screen, a scrambled one, or an “On” button that will no longer do its job, there are plenty of ways to soldier on and recover your data. In fact, data recovery is such a common need that panic rarely needs to enter into the equation. Data can survive a hard drive failure and so can you.

What Kind of Failure?

When a computer quits working, a number of things could have gone wrong, but two very different problems are more common:

• Physical Hard Drive Failure. If the hard drive itself has failed, it means your computer is allright, but the place it stores all your information is not. It’s as if one of the rooms in your house just suddenly went missing. Your house is ok, but where is the bathroom? With this kind of failure, you will know it by the noises it makes. A malfunctioning hard drive will click, cluck, grind and whir. A faulty cooling fan will, too, so be sure the bad noises are coming from the drive. If your drive has just started to make these noises, the end may be near. Back up your data now!
• Logical Hard Drive Failure. This version of computer crashing occurs when your operating system fails, and it can happen for a number of reasons: viruses, human errors, faulty software that interacts poorly with your system and more. If this is the kind of failure you’re facing, it’s as though your house has lost all the doors that would let you enter it. Your house is still there, and it seems fine, but how do you get in?

How Data Survives a Hard Drive Crash

It may seem impossible—if the computer won’t turn on, if the data looks like it’s gone, how is the opposite true? Unless data is corrupted, a hard drive’s failure is either a mechanical issue or a software-related one. It’s kind of like having valuable papers inside a storage container whose lock will no longer accept the key. The papers are still inside the storage box, it’s just getting at them that has become difficult, but options remain.

What to Do to Recover Your Data

If you’re like most computer users, the inner workings of our daily bouts with technology are infinitely mysterious. When those inner workings cease to work, the mystery deepens and brings up feelings of helplessness and despair. Thankfully, data recovery services abound, and oftentimes, you can utilize their services yourself—without the assistance of an on-site professional. Here are some ways to go about recovering your data:

• Check cabling. While it isn’t often the case, every now and then, the problems with a computer have to do with the wires that connect it to itself and its power supply.
• Remove the hard drive. If you’re savvy enough to get into your PC and remove the hard drive, do so and connect it to a different computer. If the new computer reads it fine, you may have a problem with your computer’s motherboard.
• Enlist Data Recovery Software. By far the easiest thing for a non-savvy user to do is to enlist the help of data recovery software. Plenty of services exist, and they can help you choose which service fits your problem.

Beat the Failure to the Punch

Because computers, software, hardware and hard drives will inevitably fail, it’s best to have a solid and regular backup plan in place. From regularly updated cloud storage solutions to an external hard drive that you use to back up data, the most important piece of data recovery is not needing to recover it, and the only way to ensure that is to have your data in more than one place at all times. Ideally, you should have your data backed up to two storage devices that are separate from your computer.

When your computer fails, it can feel like the end of the world. Thankfully, data recovery services exist that can access your valuable data for you. Regardless of the reasons for the failure, the chances are good that hope—and data— are not lost. 

About the Author: Joseph Collins is a contributing writer. He works as an IT customer service specialist.