Computer hard drives crash every once in a while, due to reasons such as heat, manufacturer faults and lots more which we explored in great details in a previous article.
We are now diving deeper into the mistakes or common errors that people make when their hard drive crashes. If your hard drive has crashed, calm down and avoid the following;
1. Do not panic or rush into things
Most people rush into trying out quick fixes especially when they didn’t have their information backed up.
You need to evaluate the possible every decision you are going to make and prepare for a worst-case scenario that might happen.
The best practice when your hard drive crashes is to shut down your computer, remove storage external media and peripherals like phones and mp3 players and think through the process.
Homemade repairs can result in home harm than good such as completely rendering your drive unrecoverable.
2. Performing tasks beyond your capabilities
A simple google search could reveal a simple fix such as removing and re-fixing your hard drive.
Some tasks especially those requiring opening your computer should be carried out by a professional and in a clean environment to keep contaminants from damaging the internal components.
3. Re-creating partitions
Deleting a partition does not delete the data on that partition. What it does is make the data inaccessible.
The data is still there; it just can’t be recognized by the computer’s file system. It is similar, in some respect, to accidental deletion. The proper action is to use a software program to retrieve the files to a new location.
While this might not require a data recovery specialist, it might be good to consult someone who knows what to do.
Unfortunately, some people mistakenly believe that if they just re-create the partition in this area, the data will become accessible again.
However, the re-creation process can overwrite the files, making data recovery much harder.
Must read: 6 common reasons why a laptop’s hard drive may crash and their fixes
4. Formatting the drive
Hard drive crashes often reveal error messages that are somewhat generic and a simple google search can reveal suggestive solutions that can do more harm than good.
An error may pop up suggesting you format your drive but this might not be a viable solution.
A formatted hard drive might be difficult to perform data recovery on and your data might be lost forever most types of failures with nothing physically wrong with the drive simply require a software recovery solution so DON’T FORMAT YOUR HARD DRIVE when it crashes.
6. Re-saving recovered files back to the same hard drive or media card
Well as the data might be recovered from the hard drive with a simple data recovery software, it is not advisable to save the data back to the same hard drive or media card.
The hard drive may still have unresolved issues and saving the data back to it may cause the file further damage.
The file system may consider the lost data area as free for reuse. Your lost files may be overwritten before they are salvaged. Because of this, it’s better to save salvaged files to a secondary drive.
Some examples are an external drive or other media drives, including DVDs, CDs or flash media.
Therefore, when a hard drive crashes, don’t re-save recovered files back to the same hard drive or media card.
Related:
7 things to consider when buying a hard drive
6 common reasons why a laptop’s hard drive may crash and their fixes
