Hard Drive Repair

For most laptop users, the insides of their machines are a mystery. They might know the general aspects of those elements: motherboard, hard drive, video card, and so on. But the specifics of what those elements actually do are not something the user thinks about, until something goes wrong.

What Does the Hard Drive Do?

The hard drive of the laptop is the primary data storage device for the machine. It stores and retrieves the user’s information, files and other data by encoding them on rapidly rotating discs covered with magnetic material. This data can be kept even when the machine’s power is off. The magnetic heads that write data to the disc and read it are placed on a moving actuator arm that locates specific data on the rapidly rotating disc.

What Can Go Wrong?

Of course, one obvious way the hard drive can fail is due to poor manufacturing of either the disc itself or the heads. Other possibilities are that damage can be caused by a head crash. This can happen when the disc is scraped by the head, damaging the magnetic film and so physically damaging data files. A Head crash might result from an unexpected power failure, contamination of some sort of the enclosure of the drive. It might be caused by physical shock, such as a sudden impact on the computer. Also, wear and tear, just basic heavy use, can affect the drive.

Another factor that can affect the functioning of the disc drive is air density. The drive is designed to accommodate the agitation of the interior air caused by the spinning disc. The head arm adjusts to this air density, to keep the heads from dragging on the surface of the disc. But if the air density inside the drive case changes enough, due to either heat or cold, it can affect the arm.

When a user understands these factors, they can then understand why they should expect an eventual failure after long-term use. Like the wearing out of tires on a car, a laptop’s hard drive can be worked too much after a long time.

Data Recovery

If an ailing hard drive is not replaced before a crash occurs, it might be difficult to recover all the data. If the disc has been gouged badly, the data files might have been physically destroyed, making recovery of some data impossible. However, if the user is attentive and manages to replace the drive before failure, it’s possible that complete file transfer from the old disc to the new one is possible.

If you want to be sure about the relative health of your hard drive, contact an expert and have it tested. The technician can determine whether the drive is in danger of failure. If you are looking for the best in laptop repair services, contact our office. We can help you.