Hard drives can last anywhere from four years to forever. Well, not forever, but for a long enough time, depending on how you use the drive. And when they do fail, they rarely do so without warning, which is a good thing. You’ll typically see numerous signs before your drive gives up on you. The only problem is that these signs may not be apparent if you don’t know what to look for.
Unlike SSDs, which have no moving parts, hard drives have several mechanical components that wear out with use. As a result, hard drives typically display a mix of physical and logical (software-level) symptoms.
Sometimes the writing’s on the wall
Windows has built-in tools that can help you detect if the drive is failing.
One excellent way to check your drive’s health on Windows is to use the Command Prompt:
- Launch Command Prompt as Administrator.
- Type wmic diskdrive get model, status and press Enter.
If CMD displays OK, it means the drive is fine and won’t fail anytime soon. However, if you see Pred Fail, it indicates imminent drive failure. In some cases, CMD may output Caution/Unknown, indicating that the drive’s S.M.A.R.T. health status couldn’t be determined, which usually means there is a problem with the drive. For a detailed S.M.A.R.T. report, you’ll need to use a third-party tool instead.
Failing hard drives often show up with the wrong storage capacity in Windows Disk Management. I’m not talking about minor differences between advertised capacity and usable capacity (for instance, a 1TB drive showing up as 930-odd GBs). Rather, look for a drastic difference, like a 1TB drive showing up as several MBs, or even 0 bytes. This can happen when the HDD platter’s service area — the part that contains the firmware and the translator — is corrupted, or when the read/write heads are too damaged to read it.
Is It Hardware or Software? How I Diagnose My Computer Issues Easily
If your computer doesn’t work, there are a few ways to figure out if it’s the software or hardware causing the issue.
Another Windows tool you can use to check the drive’s health and predict failure is CHKDSK. You can run the tool using Command Prompt:
- Open Command Prompt as Administrator.
- Type chkdsk C: and press Enter.
Windows will scan the drive and display any issues it finds. To scan some other drive or partition, replace C: with the respective drive’s drive letter.
Your hard drive is making unusual noises
Clicking, grinding, and beeping sounds mean different things
Hard drives have several mechanical components that can fail. Two important ones are the magnetic platter, which stores your data, and the read/write head, which reads and writes data to the drive. Keep in mind, the head doesn’t touch the platter (if it does…you have a problem on your hands), but rather hovers nanometers above it. There’s also the actuator motor, which moves and positions the read/write head above the platter. A constant hum and the occasional soft click are perfectly normal sounds that a hard drive makes. But there are certain sounds that indicate the drive is failing: Northwind Data Recovery’s compendium is a good place to learn what specific sounds mean.
The first one is a constant clicking sound. Usually, this means the read/write head can’t locate the data track on your drive. When this happens, the hard drive keeps resetting the actuator arm, which moves the read/write head, resulting in a consistent clicking sound. This noise is often referred to as the “click of death,” which is a bit melodramatic, since your drive can usually be “saved” by a professional. The second type of sound you should watch out for is grinding and screeching. The best (and ONLY) thing you should do in this case is power down and disconnect the drive immediately. Because nine out of 10 times, this grinding noise means the read/write head has crashed on the platter: the head is digging into the platter, wiping out your data.
I learned the hard way not to ignore these PC noises
Every squeak is your PC’s way of crying for help.
Finally, some hard drives may emit a beeping sound. Most drives make this sound when there’s an issue with the power supply to the drive. This may happen because of an issue with the hard drive or connection problems. For instance, external hard drives may not receive enough power when you connect them using an adapter.
Your files have become inaccessible
Keep an eye out for performance slowdowns, too
Failing hard drives often exhibit a number of software-related issues. The most common issue to look out for is file-related problems. Are files and apps taking longer to open? Have some files disappeared randomly? Have you noticed perfectly good files becoming corrupted? If yes, your hard drive could be failing. But since these errors overlap with other issues, such as a malware infection, they may not be enough on their own to confirm that the drive is failing. In addition, you should watch out for disk-related errors like CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check) failure, or S.M.A.R.T. Hard Disk Error 301.
When a hard drive is about to fail, the computer’s performance suffers. You’ll see longer and longer boot times, and there’s a possibility your computer won’t recognize the hard drive at all. If your Windows installation is on the hard drive, your PC may not boot up. Regardless, try connecting your drive to another computer and see if it detects the drive. You can use a USB enclosure to connect internal HDDs externally.
Regular backups are your best defense
But sometimes it’s best to stop using the drive
Your best defense against hard drive failure is creating regular backups, because no matter how carefully you use your hard drive, it will fail one day. Mechanical wear and tear, as well as an accumulation of bad sectors over time, are inevitable. Keep important data in multiple locations to avoid losing it.
In case you see physical signs of failure, it may be best to stop using the drive. Don’t try copying your files or running disk repair utilities; it will do more harm than good. In fact, it may make your data irrecoverable. Instead, contact a professional data recovery service if the data is important enough.
