Preventing Hard Drive Failures - How to care for your PC - Part 2

To see part 1 you can view it here, or visit http://www.fdwsnetworks.com for the full series.

Inside your computer is the Hard Drive and this is where all the files are stored that you use on a daily basis every time you use your computer. These can fail and they’re the most likely piece of your computer to fail. One day you will be using it without any problem and the next your computer won’t start. So here are a few tips.

Get a battery backup instead of a surge protector. – Your computer, like everything else in the house, uses electricity. Getting one of these will not only protect your hard drive but your other components inside the computer. A surge strip will only protect your computer if there is an extremely large surge in electricity, like a lightning strike. A battery backup on the other hand protects against, large spikes, common fluctuations in electricity, or loss of power. They make sure that your computer gets a more stable electrical signal. Make sure the only two things plugged in to the “Battery” side of your battery backup are the monitor and the computer unit. I’d also recommend not plugging in a printer in to the battery side of the battery backup as they can cause rapid loss of power and shut the computer off. Battery backups are designed to keep power to your computer should the power go out and give you time to safely shut the computer down.

Don’t use a space heater. – If you have a space heater near your computer, plugged in to the same electrical outlet as your computer this can cause major fluctuations in the electricity to your computer and will most likely kill the hard drive. If you have a battery backup it will most likely cause a low voltage issue which will wear out the battery backup and kill it then eventually the hard drive.

File corruption. – Files on your computer can become corrupted or broken especially with in the operating system. These commonly present themselves a blue screen with an error message. Also caused the “Blue Screen of Death” not all blue screens are related to the hard drive however so it is important to write the message down and contact a technician.

Note: File corruptions are generally not hard drive failures, but they are commonly called hard drive failures and as a result I included the above information.

We've touched on the physical part of the computer in part three we'll look at the virtual. We will discuss how to protect against computer viruses and how to keep your files safe.