Hard Disk Drive is a data storage device which is used for storing and retrieving data. It is commonly used in computers. Its data storage capacity varies from some Giga byte ( GB ) to several Tera Byte ( TB ).
Causes of Hard Drive Poor Performance
Use of computer for too long time without any maintenance will decrease Hard Drive performance and also may lead to Hard Drive failure.
Hard Drive Maintenance Tips
- Clean dust from Hard Drive every week.
- Check your computer cabinet for proper air ventilation, so that Hard Drive will not get heat to much as it will slow down its performance and also decrease its life.
- Run CHK Disk function every month for checking bad sectors and recovering it.
Go to My Computer then Right Click on partition for which you are going to do chk disk then select Properties then go to Tools section and there you can see option for running error-checking which is known as CHK Disk in error-checking section press check now button then it will open a small windows which has two options (a) Automatic fix file system errors and (b)scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors select both options and then press start button, now it will check all errors and also attempt to recover bad sectors.
- Run Disk Defragment utility every 2 weeks this will enhance hard drive performance because this system rearrange data in proper format on hard drive, so that it can be easily readable.
Go to My Computer then Right Click on partition for which you are going to do Defragment then select Properties then go to Tools section and there you can see option for running Defragmentation which is known as Disk Defragment Utility in Defragmentation section press Defragment Now button then it will open a small windows with name Disk Defragmenter in that window you have to select the partition which you want to defrag and then press Defragment Disk button then it will start its work to completely defrag fragmented data on that partition.
- Backup your data on regular bases so that you will not loss you important data on Hard Drive failure. On failure your data will disappear immediately. For data recovery then you have to take help of data recovery specialists which will cost you huge amount for getting your data back, so taking backup is always better then recovery.
- Remove junk files from your Hard Drive which are not in use like temp files, recent documents, prefetch files, cookies etc. you can do this via using ccleaner software. It will clear all dead files from your Hard Drive.
- Never store data on Hard Drive through its limits, always leave some space in it, so that it can work properly otherwise it will create huge burden on Hard Drive.
- Uninstall useless software’s, it will also decrease burden on Hard Drive.
- Use UPS because it will protect Hard Drive from sudden shut down without saving data, this may lead to Immediate Hard Drive failure.
- Protect Hard Drive from hard hit because it is very sensitive so it may get damaged. ( Handel with Care )
Conclusion
A properly maintained Hard Drive will give you higher performance and also it will decrease chance of failure and increase its life span. So doing Hard Drive maintenance on regular interval is necessary.
I hope now you understand how to do hard drive maintenance, thanks for reading, comments and suggestions are welcome.