Article written by Nyc Z

Although you may not realize it, your computer’s hard disk is a very important part of your computer. This is the component that stores all your data and is the only thing that will restore your data should you decide to upgrade to a newer computer. As a result the hard disk must be protected in certain ways so as to not lose any data.

Never ever physically shut down power when the hard disk light is on or blinking. This means that the hard disk is working and transferring data. Any power loss at this point not only results in data loss but also in physical damage to the platters within the hard disk. Please note that shutting down in this instance refers to a loss in power and not the shut down process offered by the operating system which is the proper way to power down your computer.

Ensure that the environment you work in is as dust free as possible. Hard disks are capable of absorbing minute granules of dust which in turn cause physical damage within the hard disk. You must also keep your computer free of any excessive vibration or physical movement when the computer is in use. This will also lead to the hard disk developing problems.

You should regularly perform disk defragmentation if you have frequent creation and deletion of files. The defragmentation process will clear the hard disk of fragmented files and to put it bluntly “put all the files in a neat order”. This enables faster seek times in a hard disk which will result in faster data retrieval for you.

If you follow the above guidelines you should be able to keep your hard disk running in good health for a long time to come.