Causes

• A hard drive failure could be the result of one of several causes. If the computer is older, the hard drive may have simply quit working. A computer that has been dropped or banged around could wind up with a damaged hard drive, leading to eventual drive failure. Viruses can also destroy hard drives though the introduction of malicious files.
  
  

Effects

• Users should keep an eye out for several warning signs of an impending hard drive failure. The computer will be slow to start up, and occasionally may not even start up at all. The user may notice files have gone missing or are slow to open. Corrupt hard drives may also cause the computer to freeze often, resulting in the need for constant reboots.
  
  

Prevention/Solution

• If a user notices the symptoms increasing in frequency, he should look to back up his most important files immediately. This can be done through portable flash drives, CDs and DVDs or by plugging in an external hard drive and transferring data over from the corrupt drive. Data recovery services can also assist in retrieving files from failing drives, though their effectiveness is dependent on the degree of drive corruption.