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How Do You Diagnose a Failing Disc? – Part 1

You need to know what steps to follow to learn and identify the causes of a disc that is not working and not being recognized by Windows or your computer. How to check the SETUP or BIOS settings. There are many possible symptoms in connection with these problems. Here are all of the steps that you need to follow to recover a defective disc, reuse it or extract the information it contains.

The hard disk is one of the main devices that make computers work, whether it is a desktop PC, a laptop or a notebook.
They can be of various types, IDE, SATA or SSD, but the logical operating principle is the same, as are the frequent errors.
These discs store the data and files that make the operating system work and all our personal information.
Any error affects the operation of the equipment in one way or another and any failures can be catastrophic, due to the large amount of data it may contain.
Sometimes it is difficult to verify that an error in the disk, is the cause of the computer not working properly or different conflicts that arise.
These errors can in some cases be relatively easy to fix, or in other cases the only way out is to replace the disc with a new one.
This article explains in detail and in an easy-to-understand way how to identify disk errors and how to fix them.

Most common Types of Hard Drive Errors

Hard drive conflicts or errors can be divided into three types: logical, electronic and physical.
1- Logical errors correspond to the conflicts in the file system used to order and save the information (FAT, NTFS), they are the easiest to solve.
There is no physical damage to the disk in this case.
The cause can be a computer virus, a power failure, software errors, etc.
For that Windows includes the Disk Repair utility or CHKDSK.
2- The electronic errors are those that involve the PCB, the card with the circuits and components that feed and control the operation of the mechanical part.
Sometimes it is possible to recover a disk or extract the information it contains by replacing the card with another one from a similar disk.
It is also possible to replace the two diodes that serve as fuses, in case they have accidentally received an overload of energy.
3- Physical disorders are the most difficult if not impossible to solve. They are mechanical problems involving the heads, the disks or plates where the information and the engine are stored.
They have two causes, the inevitable wear due to friction and traumatic shocks.
In all the modern discs they are almost always preceded by warnings due to the S.M.A.R.T. functionality.
These errors can only be solved by professionals in a laboratory.
In case of any error or conflict in the operation of the PC that the hard disk is thought to be involved, the first step is to identify the cause and to know if it corresponds to one of the three previous types.

How do you know why a hard drive is not working? We will share more in the next post!

Filed Under: Communications

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