One question that we always get when a customer’s hard drive crashes is, “How can this happen? It is only 6 months old!” Here are some indications that will give you a heads-up before it happens so you can back up your data or get it into us so we can help you out. The time to address this is sooner rather than later.

Here are some of the indicators that can give you a warning:

• You hear some weird noises from inside your computer, like something is grating, grinding or clicking and your hard drive light on your laptop or tower is going crazy while it is doing it.
• Computer shuts down suddenly or hangs very often; these are signs of a hard disk failure.
• Your files on your system start to disappear or come up with the “file access is denied” message when you click on them to open or try to access them through the “Open With…” selection. This can be caused by a virus or by someone else not allowing share access – but if they are files you created, this is a sign that you need to get your computer checked.
• Your hard drive is producing a lot of heat – meaning if your laptop is very hot around where your hard drive is encased; or if you hover your hand or fingers over your computer tower and feel a ton of heat, this is a good indicator.
• If your system is prompting you for a disk check all the time when you start it up, this is another indication that it is having a problem reading the information on your drive.

All these are signs for a hard disk failure, but this isn’t a complete list – there are many other signs also. If you get any of these indicators, it is a good idea to bring your system in to get a quick tune-up or check before it is too late and you do lose your data or even some of it.