Your computer can not function without hard drive. It stores all your data in your computer. Without hard drive, you can’t have World Wide Web, email, or even operating system. It is so important that, if it goes bad or crashes, it can cause great amount of troubles. Your hard drive can generally crash due to a number of reasons.

It can crashes due to hardware problems. You know, hard drive is a magnetic disc that spins and has an extended arm hovering over it, to access any area, and collect the data. Thus, it can crash, if its motor overheats and stops spinning or the arm fails to function.

In fact, it works when a series of platters rotate at the rate of 150 times per second with heads being separated, at submicron distances, moving over them. The slightest of disturbance inside the disk can hinder the functioning of the entire disk. Thus, it can crash, if the read/write head touches the rotating platter.

It can crash due to the smallest bit of dust that enters the sealed drive unit and settles on magnetic surfaces; it gets stuck in the thin gap between the head and the disk and disturbs the function of your HD.

It can crash, if it falls on ground, or gets a shock. In fact, even the slightest jerk or vibration can disturb the functioning of your hard disk. Hence, the careless handling of hard disk can cause hard disk malfunction, and in many cases, HD crashes.

It can crash because of corrupt system files, registry files, and viruses. Viruses can attack your computer system in many forms, such as spy ware, ad wares, or emails. Viruses can get in thru World Wide Web. Some of virus protection programs from McAfee or Norton are recommended to keep your PC protected from viruses and prevent your hard drive from crashing.

hard drive slows down and crashes, if it is too full. You can free some space on it, every few months. You can free a lot of space, deleting useless files and folders on your system. You can create more free space by emptying the Recycle Bin every week. HD should be scanned every week for errors or bad sectors.

It can crash due to faulty or badly-installed software. Often, the problem can be cured by uninstalling the software and then reinstalling it. You can use Norton Uninstall or Uninstall Shield to remove an application from your system properly. It helps to remove references to the program in the System Registry and leaves the way clear for a completely fresh copy.

Hard drive can crash, if the fan, which is meant to keep Central processing units (CPUs) cool, fails or stops working. If the fan fails or if the CPU gets old, it may start to overheat and generate a particular kind of error called a kernel error.

Hard drive can also crash due to electrical failure or fluctuation of power, which can occur anytime. Electrical failure has the direct effect of the circuit board failure, which is located on the bottom of the hard drive. Faulty components, electro-static discharge, damaging circuitry during installation are some of the various causes leading to electrical failure. Thus, for the proper functioning of electrical components, computer systems should be kept clean and well ventilated. Hence, it is recommended to keep your PCs in cool conditions.

Often, hard drive failure occurs due to a corrupt Master Boot Record (MBR) or Partition Table, which often results in a non-booting drive.

Your hard derive can go bad, when you try to boot the system but instead receive an error message displaying “HDD Controller Failure”. It can cause complete data loss. Hard disk controller failure occurs due to many reasons, such as – if adapter is not properly placed in the slot; or, if the IDE drives are not mastered/slaved properly; or, if MBR (Master Boot Record) or the partition table is distorted; or, if Hard disk drive is not connected or set up properly; or, if hard drive cable has gone bad (loose, twisted or has a broken wire); or, if hard drive or the motherboard has gone bad.

If any of the above problems occur in your PC, it may result in complete data loss. You data could be rather valuable, particularly when you manage most of your business thru your computer, or if you are running an online business. So, if your hard drive crashes, it can badly affect your business, or may even ruin your business. So, to keep your computer top notch, you definitely need to keep your hard drive top notch!