‘Hard Disk Crash’ – What Does it Really Mean?

By James Walsh

Consumers are increasingly demanding hard drives with better performance and data storage abilities. While technology advancements have indeed made hard drives perform better, they have also made the hard drive more complex. Some of the miniature hard drives have extremely delicate internal components which function with extremely complicated mechanism. If this mechanism is even slightly disrupted, the hard disk can crash.

What is a Hard Disk Crash?

When a hard disk stops performing normally due to a malfunction, it results in a hard disk crash. A hard disk crash can make the data inaccessible to the user. Hard disks crashes can be severe or moderate. Since hard drives consist of extremely delicate internal components including complicated circuit boards, the problems related to hard disk crash mostly need to rectified using professional data recovery services.

You will know that your hard disk has crashed when you hear a clicking sound from the hard disk or if you receive an error message saying that the hard disk is undetectable. There are also times when your computer screen will suddenly turn blank.

How can a Hard Disk Crash?

Much as we would like to appreciate and think of a hard disk as an invincible device, a hard disk is prone to damage like any other electronic device. Hard disks can fail anytime during the normal course of computer usage.

Whereas some users experience a hard disk failure without doing anything out of ordinary, there are others who like to ask for trouble. Hard disks can crash very easily when they are subjected to a sharp impact. Therefore, if you have been careless enough to drop your laptop, prepare yourself to bear the brunt of the pain you may have caused your hard drive in the process.
Hard disks can also crash when exposed to heat, humid temperature, water, or high magnetic waves. We will discuss some of the most common reason for a hard disk crash in our following section.

Electronic Failure

An electronic failure can cause the hard disk to fail because problems arise in the controller board of the hard disk. The main culprits of electronic failures are power spikes or surges. These power fluctuations create problems in the controller board, which subsequently makes the hard disk undetectable to the BIOS. Electronic failures usually do not result in severe data loss problems.

Firmware Corruption

There is a software code that is embedded in the physical hard drive. This code is called a Firmware. Firmware is an integral part of the hard drive because it controls the various activities such as configuration and interaction between the components of the hard drive and the system power on/off function.

The hard disk loads the data from the firmware into the RAM at the time of the system start-up. This allows the hard drive to report its status. If the hard drive has been damaged, it will report a status saying that the hard drive is undetectable. Experts believe that a firmware corruption may not directly lead to data loss. Therefore, it would best if users try to avoid accessing their data to avoid any complications. Once the firmware problem has been resolved, the data can be accessed from the hard drive.

Mechanical Failure

A hard disk is most at risk due to this type of failure. Mechanical failures are more serious in nature than electronic failures or firmware corruption. Therefore, the chances of you losing your data are much higher when your hard disk encounters a mechanical failure. A motor problem or a head crash may cause a mechanical failure. A head crash is more severe in nature because it can damage the hard disk along with the read-write heads of the hard disk.

Logical Errors

When a hard disk crashes due to logical errors, the nature of the problem is usually not very severe. The hard drive encounters no physical problem due to a logical error. Therefore, some logical problems can be easily resolved using data recovery software.


Protect Yourself from Hard Disk Failures

Most people fail to understand the importance of creating timely data backups. Hard disks can fail anywhere and at anytime. Therefore, it is imperative that you create continuous and regular backups of your valuable data. This way, even if the hard disk fails, your data will remain intact. It is important to choose a backup plan that best suits your requirement.


About the author:
James Walsh is a freelance writer and copy editor. If you are concerned about data loss and would like more information on Data Recovery see http://www.fields-data-recovery.co.uk
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