Dr Prem Tech and Web Services Logo

Usual causes of hard disk problems, and their solution

Grow with Dr Prem

There is nothing worse than losing your hard disk. When something like that happens to you, you are faced with two choices. Either you have to let go of your valuable data or you have to pay dearly to a data recovery company to get it back. Therefore, it is necessary that you understand what causes hard disk problems so that you are always on the safe side.

4 Usual Causes of Hard Disk Problems and their solution

The hard disk is a very important component of a computer. The drive is used to store and retrieve data or digital information when required. As it contains copious amounts of important data, it is the backbone of the computer. We often hear the hard disk is corrupted or hard disk failure, which is an indication of trouble, and raises chances of losing all your data.

Beautiful young businesswoman

It is important to identify the correct reasons of hard disk failure. These could be caused by various reasons such as a virus attack, the operating system may be corrupted, poor supply of power and many more. One of the most common reasons of hard disk failure is when the read and write head of the device gets in touch with the platter and scratches the data storage surface, resulting in data loss and destruction of the hard disk.

Here are few reasons of hard disk failure along with solutions that might help you recover some or all data where possible.

Virus Attack

1. Virus Attack

One of the most common reasons of hard disk crash are computer viruses, worms, and associated malicious programs. Not only does the virus affects the hard disk but also spreads to the other part of the system. The virus may enter through various media, network, external drives etc.

In case the user takes back up of the files containing virus, the system is again at risk of infection. To prevent the virus causing hard disk failure, use antivirus programs. Keep your system updated regularly with the antivirus but also keep in mind to update the antivirus so that it has the capability to detect any kind of virus and prevent them from affecting the system.

Corrupted files

2. Corrupted files

There is case when the operating system fails to boot making the files inaccessible for the user. There are many reasons that system is not able to boot properly like incorrect shutting down of system, power failure, closing the running program by mistake, and use of corrupted software.

The solution to this problem is to avoid shutting down the system in an inappropriate way and not installing software that does not originate from reputable sources. Maintain the hard disk by removing the corrupted files regularly.

Failure of detection of hard disk

3. Failure of detection of hard disk by the computer

When there is a variation in power supply given by the UPS to the computer due to the power supply is low or the power supply is high, the basic input/output system is unable to read the hard drive. It may also result in causing problem while dealing with the motherboard. To overcome this problem, use an UPS of good quality and make it sure there is adequate supply of power.

computer crashes_!

4. Computer crashes

Computer crashes occur when there are bad sectors and blocks on the hard disk. This problem may also occur when the spindle motor stops rotating.

The read and write head of the device usually keeps hovering about the surface or scratches the magnetic data storage that is known as head crash. This occurs when the hard disk is formatted many times out of its capacity or is too old that it cannot be operated any more. Use of reliable software for regular updation of the system will help you get rid of this problem.

working on computer

5. Dust and heating

If the system is being used in excess, then it might get heated and lack of ventilation or if there is fault in the CPU fan then it might cause a hard disk problem. Keep the CPU properly cleaned and free from dust. To avoid heating, check the processor and ensure that it is getting sufficient cooling. You can also opt for smart tools that will alert you about hard disk conditions.

Maintain your hard disk

Hard disk is the primary data storage of a computer. If not maintained properly, it might result in various problems and solution to these problems must be done immediately otherwise it may cause loss in data. In case you think that your hard disk is corrupted and you want to recover all your data, you can use some popular data recovery software. However, if you want to recover something as unique as orphaned files, here is how you can do so with partitionguru.

Dr Prem Tech and Web Services

 

Recovering Orphaned Files using Partitionguru

There are various reasons why our hard drive may get corrupted or spoiled. Sometimes, a hard drive may be corrupted due to certain register issues, virus, or malware or even due to some damage that it has sustained. It does not matter what the reason is for the hard drive to be corrupted or damaged; what is important is recovering orphaned files and other data that is stored on the hard drive. PartitionGuru helps you to do just that. Here is an easy guide on how to recover orphaned files using PartitionGuru.

The data stored on the hard drive is very important for a variety of reasons. While for some people, it is their work or work associated files; there are some files that is mandatory for the functioning and execution of any program installed in the system

Understanding the term “Orphan files”

There are different kinds of file formats on our hard drive; and each of them has their own purpose. While some files are used for executing or running particular software, there are some files that provide additional support. Generally, these sorts of files have a DLL extension.

Causes and symptoms of orphan files

Whenever a person uninstalls any software of program, if there were any problems during the un-installation process, the orphan files remain in the system. This generally happens especially in the cases where a person uninstalls the program manually.

Just in case another program is using the same orphan file, and for some reason that file cannot be located; you will notice some kind of problem while using or running the program. This is the reason why you have to make sure that the necessary files are available.

File recovery software can help in recovering orphaned files

To ease the process of file recovering orphaned files, there is certain software designed to help you out. Considering that there are many folders and subfolders on the hard drive; it is a time-consuming task to go through each one of them to locate where the files are.

While some people can recover data by typing a few commands on the command prompt; it is not possible for everybody to do this. When you are dealing with such kind of things, you have to be technically sound so that you do not end up causing more damage.

Secondly, a non-tech person will not understand the different file extensions and their needs or uses. Keeping all these factors in mind, you can use file recovery software for safety. With the help of a file recovery software, the time consumption is much less and easy to use. One such software to help in file recovery is called PartitionGuru.  Let us check out how to recover a file using PartitionGuru.

Recovering orphaned files using the file recovery option in Partitionguru

There are two options to choose from when you want to recover a file. The first is to recover deleted files, while the second is to use the whole partition file recovery. Let us look at each of them and how to recover the orphaned files that you are looking out for.

Recovering orphaned files using recover deleted files option

This is a faster search and helps in recovering orphaned files that were deleted by mistake:

  • First run the PartitionGuru program and select the file recovery option. This option is available in the Tools main menu. The sub menu that you would need to choose is Recover Lost Files.
  • Then a Dialog box will open which will give you two recovery mode options. The first is to recover deleted files and the second is the whole partition file recovery.
  • Choose the first option and select the box that states recover earlier deleted files and then click on start.
  • The program will scan the hard drive to give you the list of all the recent files that were deleted. You will also get all the relevant details about where it is stored, the size of the file, etc.
  • Once the scanning is completed, you will get a main interface which will give you all this information.
  • You can do a search for the desired extension to make it easy for you to select the files that you want. Select the files that you want by clicking on the small check box next to it.
  • Then you can go to the File menu and select the Copy to option. This will save your files in the location that you want.

NOTE – One thing that you have to remember is that there is folder called Lost Files. This folder is created by the software itself and automatically saves various kinds of files. While looking out the files that you want, remember to check out this folder as well.

Recovering orphaned files using the whole partition file recovery option

This option is used when you want to for recovering formatted files. In comparison to the deleted file recovery option, this process is a little slow. However, it is very helpful since you have a chance in recovering almost all the files.  With the help of PartitionGuru, the directory will be divided for easy search. Even when the scan is going on, it will look into the virtual platform as well to pull out the files needed.

  • To use this option, first go the main menu and select the Tools tab, and then choose the Recover Lost File option. When the dialog box opens, you need to choose the Whole partition file recovery option and select Recover files.
  • You will also get an option to search for files based on a particular extension. If you are aware of the extension, just type *. (Fileextention. For example, while recovering orphaned files, you can do a search by typing *.dll. If you do not know the extension, then you can select the Search option and let the program scan the hard drive.
  • Once the scan is completed, the dialog box closes and the main interface of the program opens in a new window. Through this window, you can get to see all the different files that can be recovered. Choose the ones that you want by selecting them.
  • Once you have selected all the files that you need, then go to the file menu and select the option that states Copy to. You can save the files in a new location.
Dr Prem Tech and Web Services
Scroll to Top