The hard drive, which plays one of the most important roles in a computer system, like any other equipment, is not immune from the appearance of various kinds of failures and errors. They can appear both in physical and in software terms. Next, we will try to consider the main and frequently encountered malfunctions of the computer’s hard drive and give some recommendations for their elimination. Separately, it will be said about the possibility of restoring the device itself in terms of its operability, and the information that could be present on it, since it is precisely these issues, and not the reasons for the appearance of failures, that are of most interest to the average user.
The main causes of hard drive failure
So, there can be many reasons that can affect the malfunction or failure of the HDD. As already understood, they can be divided into physical and software failures, apart from, of course, the human factor, when the rash actions of the user himself can cause problems even with a perfectly working hard drive.
As for what exactly can cause failures, as the root causes, most experts distinguish the following:
- natural aging of the device;
- failure of microchips and controllers;
- lack of power or excessive voltage;
- incorrect or broken connection;
- physical damage to internal components (spindle jamming, heads sticking to the surface of the plates, scratches on the plates, etc.);
- overheating or hypothermia;
- increased vibration;
- destruction of the magnetic layer;
- the appearance of errors and faulty BAD-blocks;
- logical damage to service information;
- exposure to viruses.
It goes without saying that these are not all the reasons that can affect the operation of a hard drive. Troubleshooting, even if a specific malfunction is detected, may not always be possible (especially if it concerns physical problems). With software failures, the situation is somewhat simpler, but here too, not all methods or specialized applications can be used. And some of them for testing the status and operation of the HDD may be contraindicated in general.
Hard Drive Symptoms
As for the main symptoms, it seems that the majority of users who have at least once encountered similar problems know firsthand about them.
But for a regular user, it can also detect HDD malfunctions by itself paying attention to the appearance of the following situations:
- damage to the hard drive during visual inspection;
- loops are not connected, connected incorrectly damaged;
- the disk does not spin;
- when spinning or during operation, extraneous noise and clicks are heard;
- the device is not detected either in the BIOS or in the operating system;
- the operating system does not boot;
- the computer often reboots itself;
- blue screens of death appear;
- The format of the disk or logical partition spontaneously changes;
- unauthorized formatting occurs (this applies more to external media).
Resolving physical issues
Now we will begin to eliminate some malfunctions of the hard drive of a laptop or a stationary computer and begin with physical problems. By and large, if you do not have the necessary knowledge, doing this yourself is not recommended in any case. It is better to immediately take the disk to a service or repair center. In particular, this applies to all those who, when jamming a disk, try to unwind it on their own in the direction of rotation.
Quite often, you can observe problems with overheating. This may be due to an improper power supply for the drive, and to incorrect functioning of the cooling system. In this case, you need to find out the parameters of the hard drive and select the appropriate related equipment for it. Overheating or excessive cooling can also be eliminated by using some programs.
For example, the AIDA64 application handles such tasks pretty well. Only the upper temperature limit should not exceed 55 degrees, and the lower - 20.
During a visual inspection, you should make sure that the hard drive is connected correctly and the loops themselves are intact, since this is what can cause problems with disk recognition in both the primary and the operating system.
If the hard drive malfunctions are connected with the output of the building of its main components or the malfunction of all kinds of controllers (in general, the entire electronic part), nothing will help except repair or replacing it with a new one.
Identify software crashes with the simplest method
Now a few words about possible programmatic failures. Of course, many will immediately claim with full confidence that they are associated exclusively with bad sectors and errors. Yes, indeed, partly the way it is, but it is not always advisable to apply automatic correction of errors found. How to check the hard drive for malfunction?
To get started, if possible, troubleshoot your hard drive using the standard Windows tool. However, it is better to use command-line tools using the tools of the CHKDSK utility with additional attributes. Please note that even when using the disconnect option of the active volume for the system partition (“/ x”) and additional attributes (“/ f / r”), Windows may indicate that at the moment such operations cannot be performed, and the check will be performed the next time turning on the computer or rebooting. This should be agreed.
You can also use more powerful programs that are designed specifically to perform such tasks (we will dwell on them separately). But here it is important to understand that in case of violation of the logical structure of the hard drive, automatic error correction can be used, but overwriting the found bad sectors is not. In this case, you may get additional problems.
Virus scan
Unfortunately, viruses can also indirectly or directly affect the appearance of hard drive malfunctions (stationary or external). For complete confidence, it is recommended to immediately check the hard drive for threats using portable scanners. Only they need to be recorded not on the hard drive or in the logical partition, but on removable media (for example, on the most ordinary flash drive). Such recommendations are given in cases where the appearance of failures was affected by the combination of viruses and HDD errors.
If such scanners are powerless, you can use programs such as Kaspersky Rescue Disk, recorded on removable devices, from which you can download the antivirus interface instead of the operating system and perform a scan.
Top Disk Checker Utilities
The use of narrowly targeted programs for the timely detection of problems and their automatic elimination has its advantages, since participation in all processes of the user is minimized. But some utilities (for example, Victoria HDD) require special knowledge, so you need to use them wisely. As for the most popular programs, it is best to use such applications:
- CrystalDiskInfo;
- HDDScan;
- Victoria HDD;
- PassMark DIskCheckup.
What if error correction is not possible?
But let's assume that the faults were found, but they were not fully resolved. In this situation, if the disk in the system is detected, it is best to use standard formatting using the command line tools for booting from removable media with the installation distribution or recovery tools. If we are talking about troubleshooting an external hard drive using just this method, you can use the standard tool available in Explorer.
However, if the logical structure is violated, such methods are not suitable. The best option would be low-level formatting using the HDD Low Level Format Tool.
Is it possible to recover a damaged disk and the information present on it?
Finally, a little distracting from troubleshooting the hard drive, we will briefly dwell on the possibility of restoring the hard drive’s functionality using software methods and important information that could be stored on it.
For recovery, the vast majority of experts recommend using the HDD Regenerator application, which although it does not guarantee full recovery, but in about 60 percent of cases out of a hundred, it allows you to achieve the desired result.
As for information recovery, free widely advertised utilities like Recuva should not be used. It is best to turn to programs like R-Saver or R-Studio.
The second utility belongs to the professional class and can find files on media of any type not only after deletion, but also after full formatting.
Brief Summary
Here is a brief summary of everything related to the detection of problems in the operation of the hard disk and the basic (simplest) methods for their elimination. When identifying failures, pay particular attention to physical problems. Trying to disassemble the hard drive or soldering the electronics yourself is not recommended under any circumstances. As for problems of a programmatic nature, it is best to pre-test with special programs. If nothing helps, and the information on the hard drive is of little value to you, feel free to use low-level formatting.