Sometimes hearing strange grinding and thrashing noises means your drive is beyond repair. If you notice these sounds back up important files immediately. If this is happening it could be caused by the hard drives internal components grinding against each other. If this is happening you need to act quickly or risk loss of all of your data.
Disappearing Data and Disk Errors

If your computer won’t let you save a document or you’re sure that you had a file on your desktop yesterday that’s nowhere to be seen today you may have a hard drive issue. Another telltale sign that your hard drive is about to fail is when programs that always worked suddenly stop working and ask where a file it depends on is stored. These are all potential signs that your hard drive is on its way out. There is always the possibility of user error; you might have mistakenly moved vital program files or the file that you thought you saved to the desktop is actually in your documents folder. It could even be caused by a virus eating up your files. Try to rule out these other possible issues before replacing your hard drive but backup your files anyway just in case.
Your computer stops recognizing your drive

If your computer no longer recognizes your drive or cant load the operating system chances are there is a problem with the hard drive. A good way to test this is by plugging your hard drive into a different computer and if it doesn’t work then its the hard drive.
Computer Crashes

Does your computer regularly go to a blue-screen or suddenly reboot? Does it crash often, especially when booting your operating system? If your computer is crashing, especially at times when the computers is accessing files (such as during the boot sequence), it may indicate a problem with your drive.
Really Slow Access Times

If it takes an unusual amount of time to open files, transfer files or delete files there could be an issue with your hard drive. This problem typically indicates a hard drive failure will occur within a month or two. If you have this issue and the hard drive does not fail you may need to reformat your hard drive with a fresh operating system.

Overall sound is the best indicator for a failing hard drive. As soon as you notice a change in sound power down and consult a professional. If the noise is only slightly worse you might try to backup your files on a DVD, CD or external hard drive and then power down. But if the grinding and clicking noises get louder power down and call someone for help.

Avoid This

If your hard drive has already failed and you need assistance with data recovery call Portland Computer Repair Pro and Bolt Portland for a quote on Data Recovery at 503-616-2841.

Technorati Tags: Computer Repair, Hard Drive Failure, Hard Drive Repair, Portland

If your hard drive has failed and you need to recover data you might find that it is a very expensive service.  With computer repair from bolt Portland data recovery is affordable and reliable. Portland Computer Repair Pro also helps you learn how to diagnose your computer problems or yourself. If you hear noises or notice other hard drive issues contact Bolt Portland immediately.

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Technorati Tags: Computer Repair, Hard Drive Failure, Hard Drives / Data Recovery, Portland