Hard drives: When failure strikes

Hard drives are central to any computer. Storing precious data, they are the workhorses of laptops and PC’s around the world and they are often thought of as invincible.

In truth, there’s a lot which can go wrong with a hard drive and the unfortunate thing is that it’s often only when something unexpected happens that any attention is paid to this part of the device.

If you suddenly find your computer won’t boot up when you start it, there’s every chance you’ve got a hard drive problem to resolve. Often it requires data recovery specialists to make a full repair, but here are some tips in case you feel it’s a problem you feel you can tackle yourself.

Freezing your hard drive

The idea of putting a damaged hard drive in the freezer is a topic often raised on IT forums. Whilst some report success, other say it leads to even more problems.

The idea behind plunging your hard drive to sub-zero temperatures is that when you spin the hard drive from a very cold temperature, there’s more of an opportunity to remove data on it before the rise in heat crashes the drive.

The reality is that whilst keeping a failing hard drive cool will mean you may be able to keep it running for a little while longer to start data extraction, if it has failed completely then there’s little which can be done by making it really cold. The science of the scenario also lends itself to showing that a freezer isn’t the answer as once the drive is in the icy depths, moisture ingress begins and you’ll have condensation in the drive – this is just going to exasperate the problem.

If you realise the hard drive is failing, use a desktop fan on it whilst it’s spinning to extract what you can and then talk to a data recovery company.

Flood damage

With all the recent flooding across the UK, there will sadly be many wet home and office computers which have valuable data stored on the hard drives.

If you have a wet hard drive, whether through flooding or simply a drink which has toppled over, there are steps you can take to see if it can be saved. Follow these tips:

-          Power down the drive and allow it to thoroughly dry; remove the power cable completely.

-          Don’t attempt a shut down first, just switch it off.

-          Resist the urge to see if it still works.

-          Gently towel dry the surface water from the hard drive; don’t touch any circuitry.

-          Don’t use a hairdryer because of the severe heat; a desktop fan is preferable if you are in a hurry.

-          Place in a container of uncooked rice or pack with silica gel and close with an airtight lid; leave for 48 hours to draw out moisture.

-          Don’t put it in the freezer; this will add more moisture through water particles.

-          When you are sure it is dry, test carefully; any unusual sounds – stop the power immediately and call a specialist.

Hard drives may look like well-protected items and for the main part they are; full of fragile components though, extreme situations can cause them to fail so be aware when you may have a problem and be ready to take preventative action as much as you can.