It’s fairly common to hear people say something about the computer working yesterday or before rebooting. Unfortunately, electronics can fail at any time, even while the computer is running. Often the failure only becomes apparent when the computer fails to start or the hard disk is not detected.
There is a perception that computers or other electronic equipment tends to only fail when we are in a hurry, which can lead to people making panicked decision when it happens. It is important to remember that your data is valuable, so any injudicious attempt to recover your data could put your files at risk. When a hard disk fails the best option is to send it for professional data recovery, as any repeated attempts could result in additional damage occurring.
Watch for Warnings
In most cases of failure, there will be warning signs which give a clue that a failure is imminent, but these are overlooked fairly too often. The most obvious warning sign is strange noises, such as scraping or clicking noises from the hard disk or the fans.
Another very noticeable sign is a slowdown when accessing the hard drive, such as files being slow to open a document. There are many software utilities available for monitoring the health of your computer, but these should not be ignored, otherwise they are not worth installing.
Power Failure and Surges
Despite the electricity supply being reliable, the occurrence of power surges is still fairly common, although it is unusual for these to cause any issue, but any increase in their frequency may indicate an impending problem with the power supply. Most power surges are the result of a power cut, in many cases as the result of a lightning strike.
While most modern power distribution boards and motherboards have built in surge protection, they may still be unable to protect against the most severe power spike. The most vulnerable component within a computer tends to be the hard disk drive.
Data Recovery Issues
Many hard disk failures arriving at DiskEng for data recovery tend to happened unexpectedly, with little or no warning. When a failure occurs suddenly, the file system will often suffer little or no damage. If the underlying problem has however existed for a long time before the eventual failure, there could be quite a lot of damage.
If your computer system fails, the best option is to seek professional advice from a data recovery company. It is inadvisable to attempt to recovery the data yourself, especially if your files are important, as you may suffer severe data loss.
