{"id":34339,"date":"2019-02-04T13:35:01","date_gmt":"2019-02-04T05:35:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/?p=34339"},"modified":"2019-02-04T13:35:03","modified_gmt":"2019-02-04T05:35:03","slug":"7-signs-you-need-to-buy-a-new-hard-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/2019\/02\/04\/7-signs-you-need-to-buy-a-new-hard-drive\/","title":{"rendered":"7 Signs you need to buy a new hard drive"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Lily Asis<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A crashing hard drive is an all-too-familiar situation. At one point or another of your computer’s life, your hard drive may crash and stop working. It can no longer read any of your data, save, or open anything, nor can it obey any instructions that you make on your computer. When you experience any of these signs, the best you can do is to extract your files and save them on an <\/strong>external hard drive<\/strong><\/a>, to be sure you don\u2019t lose them. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Your computer must be able to install the latest operating systems. When your hard drive can no longer handle such, it means it cannot accommodate the required specifications of a new operating system and, hence, needs replacement.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Here are signs that you need to buy a new hard drive:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. You can\nno longer install the latest operating systems.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most tech giants such as Apple and Microsoft come up with\nnew operating systems every year. These updates are meant to fix bugs, viruses,\nand other issues in older operating systems. Your computer must be able to\ninstall the latest operating systems. When your hard drive can no longer handle\nsuch, it means it cannot accommodate the required specifications of a new\noperating system and, hence, needs replacement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. You\nexperience repeated program crashes.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the programs that you run constantly crash, this can\nalso be a sign of a hard drive problem. The same unfortunate situation holds\nwhen you cannot run applications smoothly or play games. For example, you were\nin the middle of typing a document and suddenly MS Word crashes, or you were\nbrowsing through Facebook and the application stopped working. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If these situations continue to happen often, it can be your\nhard drive telling you that it already needs a replacement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. The\ntypical three symptoms of failure are present: blue screen of death, slowing\ndown of computer speed, and frequent computer freezing.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The three common signs of hard drive failure are the blue screen of death<\/a>, the slowing down of your\ncomputer’s speed, and frequent freezing. If any of these symptoms occur\nindependently of each other, usually the problem is minor and you can fix it\nyourself by following the troubleshooting instructions that are provided by\nyour computer\u2019s manual or handbook. However, if these three happen alternately\nand frequently as a group, a hard drive failure is bound to happen soon.\nReplace your hard drive before you lose any of your data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. You can’t\nconnect your hard drive to any other device.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the advancement in technology, it is a common sight that there are multiple devices connected to your computer. When your hard drive is working perfectly fine, you can connect multiple devices to your computer and it will still run smoothly. For example, you can plug in a USB in one port and your cellphone on another. If your\ncomputer can no longer accommodate more than one device, have your hard drive\nchecked as it may be aging and may require a new one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Your\ncomputer no longer starts or switches on.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If your computer no longer switches on, you can first try to ask a repairman to take a look at it. If you’re lucky, it can still be fixed. The repairman may be able to retrieve your files, but it is not an assurance that your hard drive is still fine. In some cases, especially when your computer has already been with you for at least five years, you may be told to buy a new one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Replace your hard drive before you lose any of your data.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

6. Your data\nbecomes corrupted.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When computer experts say your data is corrupted, it can\neasily mean one of the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  • Your computer does attempt to open a file or search for it\nbut still ends up showing “File not found” or “File can\u2019t be\nopened.”<\/li>
  • Your files suddenly have errors in them.<\/li>
  • Your files have disappeared.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Corrupted data can be due to many other reasons, but the\nmost common of them all is a progressive hard drive failure. Soon after this,\nother problems will start popping up, which will prompt you to purchase a new\nhard drive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    7. Your hard\ndrive is running out of space.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If your hard drive is new and fresh, then space should not\nbe an issue. As your hard drive gets old, the less space it will have. Even if\nyou constantly refresh and delete programs, applications, and files, your hard\ndrive will always reach a point that it\u2019ll run on lesser memory, leading to a\nslower speed. There are two signs that your hard drive is running out of space:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    • All of the RAM on your hard drive is used up even when\nyou\u2019re running only a few programs or applications at a time.<\/li>
    • The CPU usage, when you check your hard drive\u2019s specifics,\nis already beyond 75%.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      The rule of thumb is that if you constantly have to delete\nold applications and programs to accommodate new ones, then you\u2019re better off\nbuying a new hard drive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      These telltale signs will help avoid loss of all your\nprecious files, memories, documents, and photos. Don\u2019t forget that your hard drive,\nalong with your other electronic devices, will have an end of their lifetime,\ntoo. Most hard drives only function well between three to five years and can\nlast up to ten years, if you’re lucky. When you start to notice any of these\nsigns, it\u2019s best that you be proactive so that you can transfer your files\nbefore ultimately buying a new hard drive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      If your computer can no longer accommodate more than one device, have your hard drive checked as it may be aging and may require a new one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":34340,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,26],"tags":[207,987,4603,54,96],"class_list":["post-34339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-opinions","tag-hard-disk-drive","tag-hard-drive","tag-hdd","tag-security","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.upgrademag.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}