How to Know if Your Hard Drive is Going to Fail?

Many of the systems come with solid state hard drives,and after a while they fail. It is important to back up your data and be prepared. In this blog, we have given a list of tools, updates, and options to find out if check engine light is on with your hard drive. Before starting with any of these tests, verify your backup. If your drive is unreliable, these tests can push it over the edge.

Computer Manufacturer Diagnostics

When you are playing with the startup settings, you may see a diagnostic test. Each of the companies will offer a unique way of conducting the test. In several instances, you will have a short test that lasts only for a short while. Check for only the smart errors and then you will notice a lengthy and random test that can last for an hour. If all the tests pass, your hard drive is most probably alright.

SMART Startup

Most drives come with Self Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology capabilities (SMART). The device is capable of checking the drive before it boots up. For some unusual reasons, many systems have with that feature turned off. You have to figure out how to access the manufacturer’s UEFI or BIOS startup screen. In the hard drive settings, turn on the SMART monitoring. It is possible for the build-up and company to differ. You will need to research and find out if your device supports that setting.

Hard Drive Diagnostics

If you have changed the system or upgraded it, the warranty will be regarding the manufacturer of the drive, rather than the system. If the drive’s warranty is still valid, then that is when you will run their diagnostics as they are not likely to replace the drive without output of that test. You still can download testing tools from the manufacturer website even if your drive has not failed.

Portable Tools

If your drive is suspicious, the last thing you would like to do is add more stuff to it. This is where the portable programs are convenient. These programs run USB Flash drive. One of the most popular apps in the tech industry is the Crystal Disk Info as it loads quickly and offers an instant review. Red or yellow indicates a problem while blue signifies that everything is well. Although it doesn’t conduct any high-level testing, it just reads some data from the drive.

Does it Pass the Sniff Test?

Even when these tests reveal that your drive is alright, that doesn’t really mean that the hard drive is working properly. Unreliable drives unreliably fail. Even if many drives pass, they still can’t read or write data reliably. They randomly lock up for no reason. If your drive is more than three years, it is possible that the drive is failing, but it is not visible to the software tools. You can conduct additional tests, but at one point or the other you will understand that the cost of the drives is not greater than the value of data.

Always Backing Up

Before you run any of the tests, you must save a copy of your data. These tests can lead to a failure of the hard drive. If you don’t trust your drive, then get another one. Use cloud-based solutions las well as the tools built into Windows.

John Smith is a self-professed security expert; he has been making the people aware of the security threats. His passion is to write about Cyber security, cryptography, malware, social engineering, internet and new media. He writes for Norton security products at www.norton.com/setup

Source : Norton.com/setup