PHYSICAL REASONS FOR HARD DRIVE FAILURE
Hard drive crash or failure can be caused by many
things that are indicative of a
physical problem with the disk. A new hard drive can be just
as prone to failure as
an older drive. Physical hard drive failure can be caused by
the following:
SCORED OR SCRATCHED
PLATTERS
The circular
shaped platters inside the hard disk that contains all of the data
on the
drive are susceptible to scratching or
scoring caused by debris, dust, fingerprints,
or contact with other
internal parts of the disk.
ELECTROSTATIC DISCHARGE
The circuitry
on the drive is vulnerable to electrostatic discharge. This is
why you
will find that hard disks are shipped in
an anti-static bagl. The user should always
ground
themselves before handling a hard drive in order to prevent
such discharge.
FRICTION OF INTERNAL
PARTS
There can be
friction of the internal parts of a hard disk. This can cause
scoring
of the platters or cause other parts to be
misaligned.
READ/WRITE ARM
FAILURE
A failure in
the read/write arm of the hard disk can cause a "clicking" noise.
It is
caused by the read/write heads on the
arm trying to find the information needed.
If the information
is not found, the heads can crash onto the surface of the
platter
causing data loss at that location and a need for a
read/write arm replacement
at the very minimum.
HARD DISK MOTOR
FAILURE
Sometimes the
motor can fail in a hard drive. It causes the drive to give
out- the
platters stop spinning and the drive shuts
down.
PARTS DETERIORATION
Any of the
physical components inside the hard disk can deteriorate causing
hard disk failure.
TEMPERATURE CHANGES
A hard drive is at
risk for sudden temperature changes including overheating and
condensation. A sudden change in temperature
that causes condensation inside
the hard drive can cause the
material on the platter to evaporate which causes
the read/write heads to stick to the platter and stop it from rotating.
Overheating
can also be an issue. Overheating can cause the
platters to expand- which makes
the read/write heads travel farther
to read the data. The expansion of platters can
cause friction which can lead to a head crash.
POWER SURGE
A power surge
can at the minimum burn the circuitry on a hard drive and at the
maximum could destroy all of the data on a
hard drive. To protect against power
surges, connect your
computer using a high quality power strip or UPS system.
Of course to receive maximum protection against
lightning strikes you should
unplug your system during
such storms.
HEAD CRASH
A head crash
is when the read/write heads crash onto the surface of the platters
instead of the parking zone. A head crash can damage the
surface of the platters
causing data loss.
WATER DAMAGED HARD DRIVE
A hard drive
can suffer water damage as a result of flooding from storm surge or
water leaks. Never apply power to a water
damaged pc. If you are able to remove
a water damaged hard
drive from a system, do NOT power up the drive or attempt
to dry the drive with a hairdryer. Doing this will cause the
debris inside the drive
to stick to the surface of the platters or
scratch the platters destroying the data.
If the data on the
drive is important, the drive should be placed in a container to
keep it damp while a data recovery company is contacted.
FIRE DAMAGED HARD DRIVE
Sometimes the intense heat from a fire can melt the platters
which will destroy
all the data residing on the platters. In most
cases however, fire damage to a drive
causes the electronic
circuitry of the drive to be destroyed. In this case, the
circuitry
will need to be replaced in a clean room before the data can be
retrieved.
DROPPED HARD DRIVE
Due to the portability of hard drives, there
is an increase
in the number of incidents
of drives
being dropped while transported. This can cause the
interior components
to become damaged rendering the
drive nonfunctional.
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