4 Causes of Hard Drive Failure All hard drives will eventually fail. They may last longer than your computer’s lifespan, but due to their mechanical nature the drive will not last indefinitely. A lot of the time this can be down to the parts simply wearing out, but mistreatment from the user can speed that death clock up quite considerably. It’s worth knowing what can cause failure of the hard drive and steps you can take in order to try and prevent it from happening.

	Vibration A hard drive is dangerously sensitive. The drive head floats delicately above the platter in order to read your data. As such, knocking the two components in to each other can be catastrophic over time. A scratch on the platter renders that area unreadable for data. If this happens often then you may notice that files start to become inaccessible and you’re unable to write to certain parts of the drive. For the most part this can be prevented by ensuring that your computer is securely on a flat surface and isn’t in a vulnerable position where it can be knocked easily. Remember that a speaker’s subwoofer produces vibrations too!
				Mishandling Drives are not designed to be moved around while they’re working, so when using something like a laptop it is best to keep it still stable when it’s powered on. Ensure that you’re holding the laptop properly with the keyboard flat – the drive is underneath and is designed to run in that position. Also, although it may seem fine at the time, dropping your computer can cause failures to start occurring down the line. Although most modern laptops have accelerometers built in to protect hard drives on impact, this is not a failsafe system and is not an excuse for being clumsy with your computer.
	Heat You must make sure that your computer isn’t situated in a location where it is going to build up a lot of heat. Not only does this mean keeping it out of direct sunlight, but also avoiding placing it inside cabinets or other enclosed spaces where the computer cannot ventilate properly. Also make sure that all of the fans in your computer are functioning correctly and install extra if needs be (this is not possible in laptops). You may want to download a utility that monitors the CPU temperature, especially if it’s a customized build. Additionally, when moving a computer from somewhere cold to somewhere warm you should leave enough time for any condensation that might have built up to evaporate before turning on the computer.
				Power surge A large power surge can cause damage to your hard drive so it is advisable to invest in a quality surge protector. These can soak up any excess voltage that might occur during something like a lightning strike. However, a surge protector isn’t one hundred per cent reliable; the sure fire way to ensure that a power surge will not harm your system is to simply turn it off and unplug it during electrical storms or power outages. It may be inconvenient, but it’s certainly much more preferred than losing your data.
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