Sorry I was not able to get a column out last week. Running for office took much of my time but it was worth it, as the voters of Oak Island had elected me to the Town Council. Thank you!
I do not normally comment on a particular brand of PC or PC component when problems occur. But I have seen a large number of hard drive failures recently and I judge it important to let my readers know about the issue. One other PC repair company in the area has also seen this problem.
The failures are with the hard drive component of your PC, specifically the Seagate Barracuda Model 7200. I have only seen failures on serial (SATA) drives. You can determine your hard drive model number by clicking on Start and then right clicking on My Computer (or Computer in Vista) and selecting Properties. Then go to the Hardware tab, and click on Device Manager. This brings up the Device Manager window, which shows all of the components on your PC. Click on the plus sign next to Disk Drives and you should then see the drive manufacturer and model number.
If you have one of these, I would suggest that you contact your PC manufacturer and find out if there is a known problem; if the component is still under warranty you may be able to get a replacement.
The failures themselves are hard to characterize. Some result in instantaneous failure of the PC; some just result in weird conditions or data loss. The problem usually gets worse over time. So, what can you do?
First of all, take good backups. This is always a good idea even if you do not have this type of drive. You can backup to CDs or DVDs, or to an external USB hard drive. How frequently you back up is up to you; just realize that you will have to re-create any data modified after the last backup if you have to restore the data. I personally like to use an external USB hard drive and a synchronization program that takes backups throughout the day. I also use CD backups once a week or so and make sure that some CDs are taken off-site.
If you begin to experience hard drive problems, do not continue to use your PC. I know this may be difficult, but the more you use the PC after a hard drive problem occurs the harder it may be to recover any of the data on the hard drive.
If you have a failure, you have the choice of trying to get service from your PC manufacturer, or just putting in a new hard drive yourself (or with the help of someone like me). The problem dealing with the manufacturer is that you will probably spend a fairly long period of time on the phone while they try to get you to do various things to diagnose the problem. In the end, they may agree that it is a hard drive failure, and ship you a new drive. But then you have to wait for the drive to arrive.
Part of the manufacturer's diagnostic procedure may be to have you reformat the drive and reinstall Windows. This test may or may not be conclusive, but it will usually wipe out all of you data on the hard drive.
It is often easier just to pay for a new drive yourself and put it in. You will have to reinstall Windows, your applications, and restore your data anyhow - why not start with a clean, new drive. And since you kept your old drive, you can use an external USB adapter and attempt to recover some of the data from it.
I want to again caution you that I do not have a detailed or rigid technical analysis of the problem yet, but every time I have opened up a PC in the past few weeks with a hard drive failure, it was a Seagate 7200. Hopefully being forewarned of the problem will ease your resolution of it.
(Bob Seidel is a local computer consultant in the Southport - Oak Island area. You can visit his Website at www.bobseidel.com or e-mail questions or column ideas to him at bsc@bobseidel.com. For specific inquiries, please call Bob Seidel Consulting, LLC at 278-1007.)