by Rob Boirun for BurnWorld.com

3 Easy Ways to Accidentaly Damage an External HD

Most people use external hard drives for performing backup of critical data or to increase the storage capacity of their computer. If something unfortuniate happens to your external hard drive and your computer is not able to detect it, chances are you may end up losing all your data stored on the hard drive. However, you should be ready for such a situation. You need to know the different situations that can cause an external hard drive to fail. When you are aware of it, you can safeguard your hard drive and prolong its life. Here are the main three reasons on why your external hard drive can conk off without warning:

1. Misuse

Your hard drive can malfunction if you do not take care of it properly. If you keep the drive in such a place where it can easily come in contact with intense weather conditions like heat and cold, the hard drive may not work when you connect it to the system. Physical damage like dropping a hard drive is another factor that can cause your hard drive to fail. When a hard drive is dropped, the motor and platters can get knocked offline rendering the drive inoperable. The motor is what the platters sit on, inside the motor are bearings which keeps the spinning smooth and quiet. If the drive is not spinning most likely the bearings are damaged. At this point you will most likely need to assistance of a hard drive recovery specialist. Or if you are technically inclined there is a great guide all about the inner workings of hard disks at storagereview.com.

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This excerpt is shared with permission from burnworld.com.

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