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Manufacturers of  hard disk drives claim Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) of  millions of hours, which means the hard drives should work for more 100 hundred years. Practically, hard drives fail after a few years or even earlier if  they are not handled properly or due to manufacturing defects. Since data recovery from a failed hard disk drive (HDD)  is expensive,  it is advisable to take a few precautions to prevent hard drive failures or problems 

How to prevent having to fix it

1. Hard drives are mechanical devices, so dropping a hard drive from a height or dropping any object on the drive could damage it. The hard drive should always be handled carefully

2. Use a good quality uninterrupted power supply (UPS), so that there are no fluctuations and spikes in the power supply to the hard drive electronics. Power spikes could burn the electronic components of the hard drive.

3. Close all programs and shut down windows or any other Operating system on your computer , before you switch off the power supply to your computer.

4.  Ensure that you have sufficient memory (RAM), else the computer will use virtual memory from the hard disk for many operations. This will increase the wear and tear of your hard drive and reduce its life.

5. Do not touch the exposed components on the hard drive, you could damage them. If the hard drive is to be moved from one place to another, place it in an antistatic bag or antistatic surface like a wooden table.

6. Dust and high humidity increase the corrosion of  the drive, so use silica gel bags

7. Defragment  the hard drive and run check disk often, to fix any logical errors.

8. Since electronic data is stored on the magnetic surface of a hard drive, strong magnetic fields caused by powerful magnets will affect the data on your hard drive. Ensure that no one uses large magnets or magnetic toys in the vicinity of  your hard drive.

9. Due to wear and tear, it is advisable to get a new hard disk after 2 years.

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