For many various factors, storage space is a very important part of a personal computer. Today, computers do significantly more than they ever have in the past. From businesses to family images storage is the best solution to keep documents on your PC. The most well-known method of storage is the hard disk drive, which we all count on for keeping our data secure.
Even though the hard drive stores data files, it isn’t perfect by any means. Hard drive failure is very usual with all computers, with no real way to prevent it. Even though, there are many different reasons why a hard drive can fail, the most common is overheating. Viruses and crashes are typical as well, along with fraud and accidental deletion.
Along with the older style and mechanics of hard drives, the RPM speed was low, meaning that the drives wouldn’t overheat. The hard drives we use today, have speeds between 5400RPM (Revolutions per Minute) or 7200RPM (some server-based platters spin at up to 15,000 RPM), meaning that they can get really hot when they start working. Computer systems come with fans to cool almost everything down, with most hard drives which include temperature sensors as well, so you can keep track of just how hot your hard drive becomes.
With hard drives now, overheating is a very usual issue. The faster hard drives come with rates of speed of 10,000 RPM, which can make the temperature rise above 75 degrees F, really heating things up inside the drive. The mechanics on the inside are created to resist the heat, although if elements become too warm, you’ll encounter problems. In cases where a drive becomes too hot and ends up losing the data, it may be next to not possible to get back the information – no matter how good your data recovery experts may be.
One place that suffers from the drive overheating is the platters, which are magnetic media. Platters are what carry the data all through the hard drive. Platters are made from optical glass, aluminum, or fine ceramic and usually coated with a layer of magnetic material. Once the hard drive begins to heat up, the platters will start to grow, which changes their dimension. When this happens, the magnetic surface area on the platters will get damaged, which results in a loss of data files. If the physical area of the platters are damaged, it will result in unreadable sectors.
Other areas of the hard drive that can be destroyed due to overheating, are the read and write heads, head actuator, and the controller chip. Hard drives are highly sophisticated parts of hardware, and can’t handle overheating. The read and write heads are a common example of this, as they can very easily render the drive useless if they become harmed. If they become too warm, they do not make any contact with media, which pretty much quits the flow of transfer from information to the PC.
To keep your hard drive from overheating, you must always make sure that it is cooled adequately and well ventilated. You can always get additional fans and coolers, which will improve both ventilation and the flow of air in your computer. You can buy fans and coolers at very affordable prices, which makes them an perfect investment for keeping your hard drive or hard drives cool.
You can also get software program that monitors the temperatures of your hard drive as well. Whether it’s software, or extra fans, you should always ensure that your hard drives are kept cool. By keeping them cool, you will drastically reduce the amount of failures. You’ll also improve the stability of your hard drive as well, which will make your complete PC perform significantly better.
