Troubleshooting Hard Drive Failure Issues
An improperly performing hard drive is like a dying refrigerator – a repository for countless, perishable, and invaluable items that see immediate use in one's day-to-day life. Just like a blackout can cause panic from the loss of foodstuffs, a malfunctioning hard drive is an emergency worth solving as soon as possible. Users who act responsibly and quickly can reduce their chances of losing any files or software that they don't have backed up – although, hopefully, anything worth saving is on a backup on another device.
As a general good practice, users should maintain up-to-date drivers for all hardware. Doing so will mitigate potential problems and conflicts before they can happen. However, hard drives are an exception: most hard drives 'just work' after a proper installation and lack traditional driver dependencies. Therefore, there usually is less of a need for micromanaging their driver software. Windows users who have any reason for believing that driver updates are necessary should open the Device Manager application and click the Properties option after right-clicking their hard drive (in the 'Disk drives' section). The Driver tab includes version and date details and an Update option.
More typically, corrupted data sectors are the most common cause of hard drive failures. Data corruption may occur from a hard drive reaching its end of life, experiencing electrical surge damage, or having power failures during essential processes. In many but not every case, users may repair bad sectors with specialized utilities. Windows includes several. For example, open Explorer, right-click the problem hard drive and choose Properties. The Tools tab displays an error checker that finds and repairs hard drive errors. Below is the defragmentation or 'defrag' tool. This utility can optimize hard drives that experience excessive data fragmentation over time, although many users feel it's unnecessary and out-of-date – for SSDs, especially.
Users also may want to familiarize themselves with other recovery features that pertain to hard drive problems. For instance, the SFC – System File Checker – replaces damaged system files. To use it, enter the command 'sfc /scannow' in PowerShell or the Command Prompt (admin permissions could be necessary; right-click the program and choose 'Run as administrator'). DISM or the Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool repairs a Windows 10 image and runs the same way as the SFC, but with this command: 'DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth.' After using this command' repeat it, but replace the last phrase with 'ScanHealth' for more detailed information. Finally, repeat it a third time, but with 'RestoreHealth' for starting the restoration process. DISM will download any necessary components from Windows Update.
In rare cases, threats such as Trojans, viruses, or worms may cause hardware damage. A classic example is a botnet-connected, cryptocurrency-mining Trojan that overheats hardware by mining too many coins without the user's consent. Users who suspect that illegal or unwanted software is the cause of their hard drive's erratic behavior should run through the traditional precautions immediately. Disconnect from the internet and any local networks and remove all unnecessary peripheral devices. Run a full scan of the system with a dedicated anti-malware tool. Users encountering interference with this last step may need to restart in Safe Mode, which blocks most non-essential software, including many Trojans and similar threats. Before initiating a scan, check for the product's threat database's being up-to-date. Out-of-date databases are a primary cause of false positives and threat-detection failures. Note that Windows also provides built-in anti-virus features for users who don't want third-party protection.
As the most important part of any computer, the hard drive is the home of all data. Protect it just like you would your homestead, and you'll find that problems with its behavior will not come knocking on your door too often.