Hardware : Strategies to maximize the life of your hard drive

If you ask me the question: what part of your team is the most fragile, what would you say? What if I asked what part is most important to you?
Often the answer to both questions is your hard drive.


Your hard drive is probably one of the most important things you possess. It contains work data, school data, emails, photos, music, movies, tax information, etc ... Indeed, the hard drive is also one of only two moving components in the computer (the other is your optical drive). The following is a list of maintenance and monitoring techniques you can use to maximize the life of your hard drive and prevent data loss.



Hard disks are physically fragile - handle with care
Statistics show that 25% of data loss due to a failure of a portable unit. (Source: 2001 Cost of Downtime Survey Results)
Contrary to its rugged appearance appearance, the hard drive is a very delicate device that writes and reads data using microscopic magnetic particles. Of vibration, shock, and other negligent operation may damage the unit and cause or contribute to the possibility of failure. This is particularly important for notebook users, as they are at increased risk of drive failure due to physical damage, theft and other causes beyond its control. Therefore we recommend regular backup of laptop hard drives, as often as possible.
Possible solutions include external USB or Firewire drives (although these are prone to the same risks), desktop synchronization, or backup to a data center via the web.



Hard drives write data in a nonlinear forcing it to split.


When files accumulate on your hard drive, not just get written in a linear fashion. A hard drive writes files into small pieces and scatter over the surface. The most complete of its hard disc and becomes the more files you save and delete the worst of the fragmentation of files can be. Hard drive to increase access times to fragmentation and the unit must work harder to find all the pieces of the files. The more fragmented the data is, the harder the actuator arm has to work to find each piece of a file.

An example of this: Disk fragmentation is a common problem for users of Outlook Express and the database software. Each time you save the prospects for new mail, it does so in a different physical location of the previous time. This translates into extreme fragmentation, causing hard drive and access times, and forcing more tension in the head. This variety can lead to a crash, and often, which means an almost irretrievable drive.Finally, for a total accident, a fragmentation unit is much more difficult to recover a healthy defragged drive.

Fortunately, Windows makes it easy to defragment your drive, simply start the Disk Defragmenter utility (Start> Programs> Accessories> System Tools), choose which disk or partition you want to defragment and put to work at night or while they are not actively using your computer. Defragmenter will accelerate the team and ensure a longer life of your hard drive.



A very small power can fry a hard drive - use a UPS and shut down your computer when you can

Another little known fact about the fragility of the hard drive is its susceptibility to electrical fault. An electrical failure can be caused by an increase in power, lightning, power brown-outs, incorrect wiring, faulty or an old power supply, and many other factors. If a power comes into your computer, you can make an unpredictable amount of damage, including destruction of the hard drive electronics or heads crashing and possibly resulting in total loss of data.
The best way to protect your computer from such threats is to use a power bar or a nominal protected Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS). Although these devices do not eliminate the chances of an accident, will serve as an effective protection in most cases. Also, you can minimize the danger of an electrical problem and reduce the wear on your hard drive by turning off the computer or using the methods of saving energy whenever possible. It is a known fact that 100% of the units, the question is when will happen and will be ready? Be sure to check the base of the section of our website for more detailed information on how electricity affects their team.



Be smart, monitor the health of your drive to avoid unexpected accidents

All hard drives have a self-monitoring technology called SMART (Self Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology). What most people do not realize is that most hard drive failures need not be unexpected. Most failures occur as a result of long-term problems that can be predicted. By regularly monitoring the health and performance of disk, you can know about potential hard drive problems before losing any of your data.

Several excellent services are available, including the stellar DiskView and SMART standard IDE and SATA desktop drives. Also available are instruments that monitor the health of the SCSI RAID array and complete systems. Ariolic software offers a great utility called ActiveSMART.



The only foolproof test to avoid loss of data is ... Backup!

If only one of the suggestions here to heart, it is this: Always back up your important data. After all the monitoring and prevention measures are in place, the fact remains: not all disks. Regular backups will ensure that you're never caught without their critical data. For individuals, the simplest solutions include portable external hard drives, dvd's, and online storage. For businesses, we recommend renting space in a secure data center and implementing a disaster recovery plan, regardless of the size of your business.

I hope that the above techniques give you an idea of the importance of hard drive maintenance and provide some ideas of how to protect yourself from data loss.