How To Maximize Hard Disk Life

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Hard disk is one of the most important components of your PC and losing your data on it can be a nightmare. Apart from having backup copies, this tutorial will guide you on how you can improve the life of your hard disk. A few tips can go a long way in maximizing the hard disk performance and more importantly its life.

So let me share some of the tips now.

Tip 1: Defragment the hard disk

This is one of the most important tasks that you need to regularly execute on your hard disk to keep it fit and healthy. Disk fragmentation occurs over time and is unstoppable but reversible. Disk fragmentation can slow down the performance of your hard disk and it calls for more wear and tear as data has to be searched causing more strain on the heads. If is pretty easy to defragment your hard disk as here is an inbuilt defragmenter built into the Windows itself. You can access it by right clicking My Computer and then selecting Manage. In the left pane you can find the disk fragmenter option.

Tip 2: Use a UPS with your PC

Your PC components are very susceptible to voltage fluctuations and a sudden fluctuation can ruin any component of your PC. A power surge is very dangerous to the health of your hard disk and you should always use a UPS. Apart from that ensure that you use good power supply brand of appropriate wattage. Also check for any wiring faults in your house that might lead to power surges.

Tip 3: Reduce hard disk cycles

The more your hard disk has to work, the shorter its life span becomes. Check for unwanted process running your PC that might be making your hard disk sweat. Use indexing service judiciously and keep only selected folders under its watch as it consumes a hell load of hard disk resources. The least you can do is keep the hard disk turn off time to low so that when you are not around, your hard disk is also not working.

Tip 4: Keep your hard disk cool

This is a very important tip to keep for laptop owners. Due to the limited space inside the case, all the components are crammed into a laptop. This prevents the components from getting enough air supply to keep themselves cool. Monitor your hard disk temperatures closely and if needed get a laptop cooler which will help your laptop and also your hard disk cool. Desktop owners have the option of installing a hard disk cooler if their hard disk also gets hot while running.

Tip 5: Monitor your hard disk and backup!

Hard disk failures are not always all of a sudden. Due to slow and steady wear and tear over time hard disks become prone to failure. These failures can be detected before hand by using S.M.A.R.T technology inbuilt into the hard disks. Softwares such as DiskView and Stellar SMART use it to analyse the hard disk and keep it under check. Use such softwares to monitor your hard disk and potential hard disk failures.

But the best and the safest way is to backup! Invest in a secondary hard disk, be it internal or external and maintain a backup of all your important data. A few bucks will go a long way in case of a hard disk failure.