Watchguru58 wrote:
maui_freek,
This is a great idea for a forum. I think my biggest problem with computers is hard drives crashing. My wifes recently crashed and we lost almost everything. Do you have any recomendations or ideas on how to prevent this from happending and also what is the best way of dealing with the problem once it has happened? Thanks in advance for any suggestion/advice that you have.
T The most common cause of hard drive failure is HEAT. Many of the systems on the market don't allow for much airflow. This is exacerbated when the computer is in a confined area like a cabinet. I have external fans as well as the internal fans and keep my system in the open air. I suggest you monitor the heat buildup, with a freebee utility such as "Speedfan" and check the temperatures against the Manufacturers specs. The other cause of heat buildup is dust. You should regularly CAREFULLY vacuum the inside of your system and check for dirt buildup on the air intake.
To anticipate a hard drive failure I make regular "mirror" copies of my hard drive. Programs such as Acronis, HDDHealth, and the "mirror system state" utilities built into many operating systems do this quite well. The costs of external hard drives have dropped considerably, Pick one up that is at least as big as your internal drive and only plug it into the system and turn it on when you are making your copy (or worst case when you need to restore a hard drive) I personally like the Western Digital BOOK shelf series for aesthetics, but any major brand will work fine.
After a catastrophic Hard drive crash there are data recovery businesses which will do their best to recover the "lost" data, they are pricy so it depends on how critical your data is. Also after a crash replace the drive , it may take a re format and work for a while but it will crash again (usually there are bits of the recording magnetic coating loose in the drive and will snowball the effects of a crash)
Hope this helps
