| Maximizing the life of your hard drive | | | | you are not actively using your computer. |
| If I asked you the question: which part of your | | | | Defragmentation will speed up your computer and |
| computer is the most fragile, what would you say? | | | | ensure a longer life for your hard drive. |
| What if I asked: which part is most important to you? | | | | A very small power surge can fry a hard drive - use a |
| Often, the answer to both of these questions is your | | | | UPS and turn off your computer when you can |
| Hard Drive. | | | | Another little-known fact about the fragility of your |
| Your hard drive is likely one the most important things | | | | hard drive is its susceptibility to electrical failure. An |
| you own. It contains work data, school data, emails, | | | | electrical failure can be caused by a power surge, |
| photos, music, movies, tax information, etc... Incidentally, | | | | lightening strikes, power brown-outs, incorrect wiring, a |
| the hard drive is also one of only two moving | | | | faulty or old power supply, and many other factors. If a |
| components in your computer (the other being your | | | | power surge enters your computer, it may do an |
| optical drive). The following is a list of important | | | | unpredictable amount of damage, including destroying |
| maintenance and monitoring techniques you can use to | | | | your hard drive's electronics or crashing the heads and |
| maximize the life of your hard drive and prevent data | | | | possibly resulting in total data loss. |
| loss. | | | | The best way to protect your computer from such |
| Hard drives are physically fragile - handle with care | | | | dangers is to use a highly rated protected power bar |
| Statistics show that 25% of lost data is due to a | | | | or an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS). Although |
| failure of a portable drive. (Source: 2001 Cost of | | | | these devices won't eliminate the chances of a crash, |
| Downtime Survey Results) | | | | they will serve as effective protection in most cases. |
| Contrary to its seemingly rugged appearance, your | | | | Also, you can minimize the danger of an electrical |
| hard disk is a very delicate device that writes and | | | | problem and reduce wear of your hard drive by |
| reads data using microscopic magnetic particles. Any | | | | turning off your computer or using power-save modes |
| vibration, shock, and other careless operation may | | | | whenever possible. It's a known fact that 100% of |
| damage your drive and cause or contribute to the | | | | drives fail, the question is when will it happen and will |
| possibility of a failure. This is especially relevant for | | | | you be prepared? Make sure to check out the |
| notebook users, as they are most at risk of drive | | | | knowledgebase section of our website for more |
| failure due to physical damage, theft, and other causes | | | | detailed information on how electrical power affects |
| beyond their control. That's why we recommend | | | | your computer. |
| regular backup of notebook hard drives, as often as | | | | Be SMART, monitor the health of your drive to |
| possible. | | | | prevent unexpected crashes |
| Possible solutions include external USB or Firewire | | | | All modern hard drives have a self-monitoring |
| drives (although these are prone to the same risks), | | | | technology called SMART (Self Monitoring Analysis |
| desktop synchronization, or backup at a data center | | | | & Reporting Technology). What most people don't |
| through the web. | | | | realize is that the majority of hard drive failures do not |
| Hard drives write data in a non-linear way forcing it to | | | | have to be unexpected. Most failures occur as a result |
| become fragmented. | | | | of long-term problems which can be predicted. By |
| When files accumulate on your hard drive, they do not | | | | regularly monitoring disk health and performance, you |
| just get written in a linear fashion. A hard drive writes | | | | can know about potential hard drive problems before |
| files in small pieces and scatters them over the | | | | you lose any of your data. |
| surface. The fuller your hard drive becomes and the | | | | Several excellent utilities are available, including |
| more files you save and delete the worse file | | | | DiskView and Stellar SMART for standard IDE and |
| fragmentation can be. Hard drive access times | | | | SATA desktop drives. Also available are tools that |
| increase with fragmentation since your drive must | | | | monitor the health of SCSI drives and full RAID Array |
| work harder to find all the pieces of the files. The | | | | systems. Ariolic Software offers a great utility called |
| more fragmented your data is, the harder the actuator | | | | ActiveSMART. |
| arm has to work to find each piece of a file. | | | | The only fool-proof way to prevent data loss is... |
| A case in point: Disk fragmentation is a common | | | | Backup! |
| problem for users of Outlook Express and database | | | | If you only take one of the suggestions here to heart, |
| software. Each time outlook saves new mail, it does | | | | let it be this one: always back up your important data. |
| so in a different physical location from the previous | | | | After all the monitoring and all the prevention measures |
| time. This results in extreme fragmentation, causing | | | | are in place, one fact still remains: all hard drives fail. |
| longer hard drive access times and forcing more strain | | | | Backing up regularly will ensure that you're never |
| on the heads. This strain can eventually lead to a head | | | | caught without your critical data. For individuals, the |
| crash, and often that means a virtually unrecoverable | | | | simplest solutions include external portable hard drives, |
| drive.Finally, in the event of a total crash, a fragmented | | | | dvd's, and online storage. For businesses, we |
| drive is much more difficult to recover then a healthy | | | | recommend renting space at a secure data centre |
| defragged drive. | | | | and implementing a disaster recovery plan, regardless |
| Luckily, Windows makes it remarkably easy to defrag | | | | of the size of your business. |
| your hard drive, simply launch the Disk Defragmenter | | | | I hope that the above techniques give you some idea |
| utility (Start > Programs > Accessories > | | | | of the importance of hard drive maintenance and |
| System Tools), choose which disk or partition you'd like | | | | provide some insights in how you can protect yourself |
| to defragment and set it to work overnight or while | | | | from data loss. |