What I Learned After An Assumed Hard Drive Crash - Part 5 of 5

How You Can Benefit From What I Learned

So what have I learned from this experience? Consider:

(1) Never Jolt a PC That is Switched On

During the 3 years of using the notebook PC, I had always taken great care when moving the PC while it was switched on. Why? Remember, most hard drives today are disks spinning at high speeds that have read / write heads that are sited incredibly close to the disks.

Therefore, even though a notebook PC is considered portable, do take extra care when moving a PC while it is switched on. Do that, and your hard drive can last longer than the PC itself. Usually, hard drives fail before motherboards or system boards. By being careful, I was able to reverse that trend.

(2) Don't Block the Air Inflow and Outflow Vents

Notebook (and desktop) PCs usually have a cooling fan to help keep the temperature inside the PC constant. For a cooling fan to work, there must be an air inflow vent and an air outflow vent. That's another reason why placing a notebook PC on any soft surface - like a bed or a sofa - is often the forerunner to a broken PC some time later. Why: software furnishings can block the vents.

Therefore, get to know where the inflow and outflow vents are located on your PC and make sure that both vents are never covered. Often, air outflow vents can be found on the side of a notebook PC while in-flow vents may be sited on the base, however, remember, this is not a hard and fast rule: check your PC user guide to be sure.

During normal operation, the cooling fan switches on automatically as required. When the fan is running, you can often determine where the air outflow vent is simply by putting your hand close to one of the vents for a second or two while the fan is on. In this way, you can feel warm air being expelled from the PC.

Also, for the same reasons, if dust builds up in or around your PC fan, the dust layer itself can interfere with the cooling action. Check your PC user guide for instructions on how to remove the dust.

(3) In Business? Then Replace Your Main PC Regularly

If you use your PC for business, any disruption to your PC disrupts your business processes too. PC costs have come down considerably in recent years and your PC can usually be claimed as a business cost - that means you can most likely save tax whenever you purchase a PC (to be sure, check with your accountant or tax authorities in your country).

We web business users will most likely be using our main PC for several hours each day. Therefore, changing your PC after two years is a good option. Replacing your PC every 12 months is even better.

When you change a PC, make sure that you can easily remove the hard drive from the old PC and install it in a docking station. That way, you can easily copy over any and all files to the new PC and maintain security of your old hard drive.

(4) Try to Keep Data Recovery In-House

When I visited the hard drive specialist, the engineer I spoke to briefly seemed to be over-worked and stressed. That meant, at best, he may not have given my hard drive problem the full attention I would have preferred. Perhaps to be on the safe side, he suggested that the hard drive might be faulty. Perhaps he simply was looking for a firm hard drive recovery booking - which could cost several hundred pounds or more. Perhaps he simply wanted me to go away and not interrupt his current projects. I simply don't know.

However, what I do know is that as soon as my suspect hard drive was inserted into the docking station, the drive worked perfectly and is still working perfectly. If he had a simply standard docking bay, he too would have seen a fully working hard drive. Remember, if you think your hard drive has failed, no-one will give the problem more attention than you. Therefore, try to run your own tests first.

(5) Keep a Suitable Hard Drive Docking Station Handy

Using a docking station is especially useful when the new PC uses a different operating system version compared to your old PC. Most new PCs now come with Windows Vista pre-installed. However, my preferred option was to use Windows XP. For my event above, the old PC had Windows XP and the new PC Windows Vista.

(6) Of Course, Make Regular Backups

For my experience that resulted in this article, even if the hard drive had failed, I had backups that were almost up to date. That was my Plan B. If I also used an email provider like Google Mail,  that would mean that copies of all important emails were stored securely online.

Today, you can keep backups in a variety of ways. Some use another hard drive, some use an online service like Carbonite.com. Some Internet security programs like Norton 360 come with a secure online backup option that automatically backs up your files in the background, with options to expand the amount of space for backup online.

(7) Evaluate the True Cost of Unexpected PC Failure

For the problem outlined in this article, to recover, I only lost several days of work time spent dealing with the problem. The cost was minimal - plus I also learned some new things about the latest technology and about human nature and myself.

(8) Watch Your Mental State

An assumed hard drive crash or computer failure can put you under a lot of stress. Try not to worry. Instead, consider focusing your energy on the steps outlined in this article. 

For me, part of the solution was to keep calm amid understandable tension. Only by working through each step in its entirety was I able to fully think about what to do next. For me, it was important not to play the "What if I have lost all information ...?" game. Sometimes, the fear of something happening can be worse than the happening itself.

(9) Update Your Passwords at the First Opportunity

As an added precaution, whenever a PC fails, as soon as you have recovered your data, change all of your key passwords, especially before you hand over your hard drive to any third party for possible data recovery.

The Autopsy

During this experience, I pondered what might have happened had my hard drive actually been faulty and if I had made no backups. One option I could consider would have been to try and recover as much information from the broken hard drive as possible. However, I learned that this could be a time-consuming, expensive process.

Sure, I could use an external service to recover the information, however, in addition to the higher costs, that would introduce security risks.

In the UK, it is up to individuals to prove their income, for without sufficient records, our tax authorities would essentially guess what a person's annual income is - my guess is they would always over-estimate what you might have earned. As far as the tax authorities go, the onus is on the individual or company to prove that their guess is incorrect. Therefore, in that event, you would most likely pay considerably more tax than you should have.

What's more, clients and customer records would be lost. The true cost would be much higher than any individual amounts. In practice, a hard drive failure with no backups would have probably meant business failure. Be warned: you can avoid such risks by replacing computer hardware often and taking regular backups.

If Your PC Hard Drive Really Does Appear to Have Failed

Remember, that during manufacture, hard drives are assembled in what are known as "clean rooms". Why: to remove most dust particles from the air and thereby prevent contamination and damage to the hard drive. So if you disassemble a hard drive in a normal room environment, the instant you remove the cover, thousands of dust particles will almost certainly enter the hard drive area. Even normal breathing can saturate an "open" hard drive with damaging contamination particles. 

The only safe way to change hard drive disks is within a clean room environment or using a clean room hand kit (much like an incubator but this device sucks out most air particles) prior to hard drive disassembly.

An arguably better choice is to use a reputable, qualified external service to recover your hard drive information. However, remember, this route can be an expensive option, so get clear price quotes before agreeing to a plan. If successful, immediately change all key passwords especially those for online services like banks, credit cards, shopping carts, etc

Where to Go From Here

To review Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4, use the links in the navigation box on the right.

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