How to tell if your hard drive is starting to crash

All the components of a computer have a useful life. Some may last longer than others, although it depends on a multitude of factors. The hard disk does not escape this, and also has a limited useful life. It is for this reason that it is recommended to always make backup copies. It can happen that the hard disk stops working unexpectedly, with the consequences that this has.

Index of contents

How to tell if your hard drive is starting to crash

We are lucky to be able to detect if the hard disk is living its last days. There are symptoms that we can easily detect. Thanks to them we can be prepared and anticipate his death, without it being a problem of enormous magnitude. Therefore it is important to know the symptoms.

What symptoms can we detect?

The computer makes noise. That is so, but we generally know how to distinguish when there are strange noises. If we hear strange or unusual noises, there is reason for the alert. In many occasions the noises are caused when one of the heads of the hard disk is damaged. The motor that spins the discs may also not work well. These are two signs that indicate that there is little time left.

If any of you experience problems when saving and reading documents, be careful. Or if any program suddenly stops working. It may be caused by a virus, but generally it's time to make backup copies.

There are other problems that can make us see that the hard disk does not work correctly. It may happen that our computer does not detect any disk drive. In this case the problem is usually on the hard drive. Another symptom to watch out for is that your computer crashes frequently. It goes slow, restarts, crashes… these are ways of detecting that the hard drive fails. Very connected to this are the access times. If it takes forever to access the file explorer, things go wrong. If you try to empty the recycle bin and it seems like it will never end, worry.

All these symptoms can help us to know that the moment of death of our hard disk arrives. Do you know any of these symptoms? Other symptoms to consider?

How to check for faults

There are several ways to check the status of our hard drive. In order to guarantee its good or bad condition, and thus know if the time has come. There are two general ways to find out. One is through some tools that we can download, and the other is manual. We explain both ways.

What tools can I download?

There are currently three useful tools that we can download to our computers to check the status of the hard drive. I tell you something about each of them, and so you can see the one that best suits your needs.

• DisckCheckup: This is a free application. It works with any version of Windows (plus point) and usually has numerous updates. Simply download a file to install the software that will analyze the health status of your hard drive. If all SMART attributes are marked with OK, the hard disk is in good condition. It is very easy to use, so it would be a great option. HDDScan: This is another free program. Its main problem is that it only supports up to Windows 7. Its great point in favor is that it supports any hard disk regardless of its manufacturer. It has a very complete software, which analyzes even the temperature of the disk. You can also save reports with the information to keep track. CrystalDiskInfo: Once again a free application. It works only with Windows, although the good thing is that it supports all versions. It shows in detail the statistics of the SMART attributes and informs us about the state of the hard disk. It also shows your temperature. In addition, with its pure traffic light style color system we can see if the state of health of the disc.

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These three tools are very useful and easy to use, so they can be another way to detect problems on your hard drive. You don't need to install them when the disk is about to die. They are tools that can help you keep a very clear and concise control of your hard drive. Also, in a very simple way.

Conclusions

These are the main ways to know if there is a serious problem with our hard drive. Logically, whether a hard drive is about to die also has to do with how new or old it is. An old hard drive is going to give you (in theory) more problems or show more symptoms than we have previously mentioned. It may happen with a newer one, but then it would be interesting for users to check if there is a failure in the construction of said hard drive.

We hope that these tricks and tools that we have presented to you today are useful for you. Do not hesitate to share with us any other way to check if your hard drive is in its last moments.