Hard drives have moving parts, so like all things with moving parts, they can break down and degrade over time. This eventually causes your hard drive to fail – but even if wear and tear do not take your hard drive out, other things can. Power outages and power surges can harm your hard drive. Improper shut downs can harm it, too! If your hard drive goes on the blink and dies, then you risk losing any data you had on it, so it is important to

keep your hard drives in good repair as long as possible and always make backup copies of your data!

If you notice your hard drive making odd sounds, then it may be starting to fail. Even if it is not making odd sounds, there are other signs that your hard drive could be having problems. Freezing, hanging, crashing and getting the dreaded Blue Screen of Death are examples of the most common signs that your hard drive is not doing very well. If this is the case with your hard drive, don't worry - you are not completely out of luck. There are a few things you can try for repairing your hard drive.

One of the easiest methods is using a Windows utility called Chkdsk (Check Disk). This utility will scan every sector of your hard drive, looking for problems, and then attempt to repair them. Many times, it will be able to get rid of the problem for you, extending the life of your hard drive. Here's how to use it:

 

1. Turn off all other programs and utilities, because Chkdsk needs exclusive access to the drive.
2. Go to Start, then Run. In the field, type cmd and then press Enter.
3. To repair errors, scan for bad sectors and recover any readable information, type chkdsk volume:/r
4. Let the scan run and repair any issues it can. This may take quite some time if you have a large hard drive.
5. If errors are found and repaired, reboot the computer and run Chkdsk again. If errors are found again, then Chkdisk was not able to repair them and you may have to look for another solution or replace your hard drive.

You can also get to the Chkdsk utility by double clicking on My Computer, right clicking on the hard drive you want to check, then clicking Properties. Under Tools, look for Error checking and click on Check Now. Choose the option you want – probably best to go with the repair option as mentioned in the procedure above – and let it run. Again, the amount of time it takes for Chkdsk to run will depend on how large your hard drive is. Just be patient and let it do what it needs to do – it could save you a lot of grief in the future!