How do we know that a hard drive is having problems and could fail soon?

Is it possible to diagnose a failing drive or data recovery before its too late?

The answer to this lies in your knowledge and knowing the signs. Backups are the best solution to a data recovery but what if there is no backup. How do we diagnose data loss? As the hard drive is a mechanical device it should be expected to fail, manufacturers are actually reducing their warranty periods as they know that the drives lifetime depends on many factors. When we spot a problem we should act fast the windows of opportunity are often very small. If we drop a hard drive then yes we know there is obviously going to be a problem, if a user walks past a PC and knocks it while running they will not think to power it down, but that is what should be done (we have no idea what the heads did when the PC was knocked as experts we do have an idea). These are just common sense approaches but what if the problem is not something we can be sure of.

Have you ever booted your PC only to find that some files were missing or corrupted? How many people ignored that and found problems later on. This is one sign often missed, if I restart my computer the files may come back! Wrong the chances are you will lose more.

Error messages appearing for no reason and that cannot be located on the Microsoft database should be perceived as a warning of possible disk failure.

• Missing or disappearing files.
• Corrupt or damaged files.
• Duplicated files.
• Clicking, bleeping or grinding noises from the hard drive
• Operating system shutting down

Failure to boot ¬ Likely error messages like “No Fixed Disk Present” or “DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER”

• Computer freezes without explanation.
• Drive is not recognized in BIOS
• Drive shows in BIOS but as garbage or family name
• Drive size is 0 Bytes
• Blue Screen Errors (BSOD ¬ Blue Screen of Death)
• Strange smells (burning) ¬ You should check the PCB

These problems could be signs of logical, physical or electrical failure and we would need to analyze the disk further to diagnose the problem correctly. For analysis we may have to use multiple tools from software to hardware. Take for example the OS not booting, this problem could be related to the motherboard. The files replicating or disappearing could be virus related or even due to a software bug.

We must always carry out further tests before we try to recover the data.

Hard Disks are used to store information. All information on computers are stored in files on a hard or removable disk. Electricity and shock often result in failure or the loss of valuable data.

List of Hard Drive Error Codes
• I/O Error
• 1700 Disk Read Error
• 1701 Fixed disk general POST error
• 1702 Drive/controller time-out error
• 1703 Drive seek error
• 1704 Controller failed
• 1705 Drive sector not found error
• 1706 Write fault error
• 1707 Drive track O error
• 1708 Head select error
• 1709 Error Correction Code (ECC) error
• 1710 Sector buffer overrun
• 1711 Bad address mark
• 1712 Internal controller diagnostics failure
• 1713 Data compare error
• 1714 Drive not ready
• 1715 Track O indicator failure
• 1716 Diagnostics cylinder errors
• 1717 Surface read errors
• 1718 Hard drive type error
• 1720 Bad diagnostics cylinder
• 1726 Data compare error
• 1730 Controller error
• 1731 Controller error
• 1732 Controller error
• 1733 BIOS undefined error return
• 1735 Bad command error
• 1736 Data corrected error
• 1737 Bad track error
• 1738 Bad sector error
• 1739 Bad initialization error
• 1740 Bad sense error
• 1750 Drive verify failure
• 1751 Drive read failure
• 1752 Drive write failure
• 1753 Drive random read test failure
• 1754 Drive seek test failure
• 1755 Controller failure
• 1756 Controller Error Correction Code (ECC) test failure
• 1757 Controller head select failure
• 1780 Seek failure; drive 0
• 1781 Seek failure; drive 1
• 1782 Controller test failure
• 1790 Diagnostic cylinder read error; drive 0
• 1791 Diagnostic cylinder read error; drive 1

If you ever notice any of these signs, please contact us for a FREE no obligation evaluation and quotation.