Hard Drives - Why they Fail

Bit of a different approach to this blog as we replace dead hard drives nearly on a daily basis we thought it would make sense to explain what causes them to fail and what you can look for as a user to know when something may not be working correctly.

There are man reasons for them to fail ranging from the circuitry to a mechanical failure of the components that store and access your data. These failures vary and as a result so do the resolutions. Data recovery must be handled with care to ensure optimal outcomes as there are many variations in drives and failure type.

Difficulties faced as a user is knowing what’s going on inside our hard drive. Operating systems we use whether it’s Windows or Mac OS X generally won’t tell us anything about our hard drive until it’s too late but certain tell-tale signs can be help identify hard drive issues.

If your machine hangs up a lot or inexplicably freezes for long periods accessing files or programs could point to a hard drive on its way out, other times you may have blue screens, errors on boot, such as a missing registry file, corrupted drivers or missing MBR. Your hard drive may also make more noise than usual or feel it generating more heat.

Here are most common causes of failure:

Most hard drives will fail gradually due to wear and tear.  ( older the hard drive more chance of failure) 

Many will also fail from overheating. ( if you use the hard drive intensively could cause this issue ) 

Some will fail suddenly because of a physical shock.  ( they are very fragile even the smallest knock can damage them )

On occasions hard drives fail because of manufacturer defects or quality control issues.  ( out of your control and lightly to happen inside of warranty if the case )

Leeds Computer Laptop Repairs specialise in the repair of hard drives, data recover and free advise. If you require a reliable, cheap and friendly laptop repair service then call us now FREEPHONE: 0800 907 0025 | MOBILE: 0759 9585 666

How to Take Ownership & Full Control Permissions of Files & Folders in Windows 7

Time to time a customer comes to us wanting a new build pc but to have access to their old files and folders on the new system. A customer that came to us wanted just that, in this scenario we installed their old sata hard drive into the new computer along side the new hard drive. When accessing my computer and entering the old drive to access their information an error occurs. The error says that access is denied and that the user does not have the correct permissions to access these files and folders.

To change these permissions and take ownership of the files and folders is quite straight forward and if you have the above warning message or errors a great guide to changing the permissions that we ourselves use simply click here. Once the permissions have been altered the files can be accessed and you will have full control of the drive.

Laptop Hard Drive Replacement

New week and back on with the laptops are per usual. A young lady had a problem getting past the windows splash screen which immediately I presumed to be a corrupt system file. Infact it was a curve ball and something out of the ordinary for a laptop of its age as it was only just a year old!

After attempts to get into windows, re install and format the drive all which caused the laptop to hang and crash I removed the hard drive and plugged it in my caddy. It turns out the hard drive had died along with some uni work she had on there! After many attempts to retrieve anything to no avail I suggested I forward an email to her that she could take to get any extension with her work. It's a shame when parts die on a laptop especially one that is so new but it seems hardware is no longer built to last. Parts get cheaper but I guess quality in this situation had suffered for it. I replaced the hard drive with a solid reliable brand and hopefully she'll back up her work in future.

Laptop Hard Drive Upgrade

After a very busy weekend and start of the week I'm catching back up with my blog. First thing Tuesday morning I had a gentleman who was in need of a laptop hard drive space upgrade. He wanted to upgrade the hard drive to a terabyte as he used high end mac software for video editing which when exporting was taking up most of his old hard drives space.

After a straight forward install and transfer of his old information and software he was good to go and get on with his video editing.

Leeds Computer Laptop Repairs specialise in the repair of all technical device problems such as laptop and computer repairs, laptop screen repairs, ipad and tablet screen repairs, computer upgrades and more. If you require a reliable, cheap and friendly laptop and computer repair service then call us now FREEPHONE: 0800 907 0025 | MOBILE: 0759 9585 666