Hard(er) drives

The life of a hard drive is one that would make most dizzy. (Pun intended) They spend their existence spinning at a very high speed, reading and writing data. Sometimes, things go wrong with them. This is the case with my venerable laptop machine. The hard disk drive in the poor thing is simply going out. I have discovered this due to some problems that I have encountered lately with disk access and sounds the device is making. I'm writing this here to inform anyone who reads this as to the symptoms of a failing hard disk drive (hereafter referred to as HDD.)

Clicking and/or grinding sounds emanating from the disk (more than normal disk access sounds) - This indicates that there is something potentially wrong with the motor or the bearings in which the spindle rotates.

Slower than normal program launch/recovery. For instance, your operating system may start up slower than normal. Programs may also suffer some performance hindering. For me, this is most noticeable when I launch a program, switch the focus to another program, and then switch back. Normally, this should be a nearly instantaneous process, but with my machine, it has been getting very slow. This could be due to the fact that since the HDD is not spinning as fast as it should, the data access time for the disk is actually increased.

Hard drive temperature fluctuations, especially in the positive direction. This could indicate friction in the drive housing. Do not attempt to open the disk case as you WILL damage the HDD. Hard drives are meant to operate in very exacting conditions. Even so much as a particle of smoke on the disk platter surface could crash the head.

Drive head crash. This is the worst thing that can happen to your HDD. What happens here is when the read/write heads come into contact with the disk surface. Normally, they ride on a cushion of air a very small distance from the platter. If the heads come into contact with the surface of the disk, they scratch the disk and destroy the data on the disk. Data in the path of the crash are usually unrecoverable.

Anyhow, these are some of the things to look out for when dealing with a used HDD. Since mine has been going out, I have done some research and decided to post what I have learned. I knew some of it already, but stuff like the clicking that I described, I had no idea about. Of course, when my HDD decided to start clicking, it didn't take me very long to realize that something was wrong. :) TTFN.