Ways To Extend Hard Drive Life

By Author: Nash Owens
Total Articles: 7
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All computer users want to get the most out of their machine, whether it is a Windows-based PC or a Mac. There are two main ways that a user can draw out all of the benefit from a computer: increased productivity gained by making useful, effective software choices and increased use by extending the longevity of the computer and its main component, the hard drive.

The software choices needed to increase an individual’s productivity will vary from user to user and will depend largely on what type of computing tasks are to be done. For example, an individual who will be making a living with the computer will need appropriate software, such as office suite software for office work and graphics creation or music editing software for the artist.

Extending the longevity of the computer will be of interest to even the casual user. As the time increases between computer purchases, the financial impact on a user decreases. The highest cost, other than outright machine replacement, lies with two major components: the motherboard and the hard drive.

A failed hard drive may have the largest financial impact for home-business ...
... operators and entrepreneurs. The reason is that the price of replacing the drive is compounded by the added cost of retrieving any vital files. Hard disk data recovery can be accomplished by employing data recovery software as long as there is no physical damage to the drive. Disk data recovery on a physically failed drive will incur more expense since the recovery will need to be done at a recovery lab.

The expected life of a drive is denoted by the Mean-Time-Before-Failure or MTBF. This is an estimated life expectancy derived by the manufacturer through a series of tests. However, it is not an iron-clad guarantee that every drive will last that long. Therefore, proper care and maintenance on the hard drive is essential to extending the life of the drive.

The standard hard drive is a delicate mechanism that is damaged easily by physical abuse, such as exposure to temperature extremes and hard or sharp impacts. However, the drives suffer from wear and tear on the read/write mechanisms as well. When a file is requested, the operating libraries for the appropriate program must be found and loaded.

Additionally, the file itself must be found and accessed. As files are repeatedly accessed, edited and saved they can become fragmented. A file is originally stored in one contiguous location. The file grows beyond the size of this location over time and must be divided into smaller chunks and stored in multiple locations on the drive.