fueledbymike Posted October 12, 2010 Share Posted October 12, 2010 Hey, im no computer genius and ive got a question ive had my laptop for almost 5 years its a toshiba a105 (i think) satellite. I got it for my freshman year of college. Lately 2 of my friends hard drives have crashed, so im gettin a lil worried. i back up my documents/music on an external hard drive ever month or so, but i work on a lot of homework and scared i will lose it soon. story over Is there a way to see if your hard drive may be on the verge of crashing/ getting old? hopefully that makes sense and i dont sound like an idiot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lechevre Posted October 12, 2010 Share Posted October 12, 2010 I'm no genius either but if your computer starts to sound REALLY funny when working on it, that's a pretty good sign (imo) it's going. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tylerrr Posted October 12, 2010 Share Posted October 12, 2010 I mean if it's running fine I don't see why it would just shit out on you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest markovianprocess Posted October 12, 2010 Share Posted October 12, 2010 i back up my documents/music on an external hard drive ever month or so, but i work on a lot of homework and scared i will lose it soon. When I'm working on essays/research, I e-mail myself every time I save a version of it on my computer with a title so I can easily find it if my laptop was ever to crash and burn. I have folders set up in my e-mail account for each module, and I write the e-mail title in a standardised way like this: Abbreviated module title - Work Subject Title - DD / MONTH / YYYY - Version Number (e.g. EPE - Varieties of Capitalism - 22 September 2010 - 1) It means you can find your work easily, not have to worry about your laptop dying, and it acts as pretty good proof if you're ever being accused of plagiarism. Yes, I clearly have terrible OCD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackswanns Posted October 12, 2010 Share Posted October 12, 2010 I mean if it's running fine I don't see why it would just shit out on you. Happened to me. I lost everything. Starting fresh is kinda of nice but I know there is some stuff on there that I will remember about after a couple of years go by. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
controlthebleeding Posted October 12, 2010 Share Posted October 12, 2010 you should never wait to back-up stuff. just do it as you have newer files and such. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kgry Posted October 12, 2010 Share Posted October 12, 2010 Is there a way to see if your hard drive may be on the verge of crashing/ getting old? hopefully that makes sense and i dont sound like an idiot. Yup, there are programs out there that will put the drive through some tests and let you know if there are any problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest eriathomas Posted October 12, 2010 Share Posted October 12, 2010 If it's not making a grinding noise, it's good. A lot of the time they just fail without much warning. If you are that scared, you can replace it, but I think you're fine just so long as you have back-ups. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirbypuckett Posted October 12, 2010 Share Posted October 12, 2010 With harddrive you'll usually hear a whirring or a grinding when they're dying, but sometime they die unexpectedly. Regardless you should ALWAYS BACKUP! ALWAYS! ALWAYS! ALWAYS! For a few small documents, pictures, etc... you can sign up for a free Dropbox account. Dropbox is awesome. Head to their site and check out the video: http://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTEzODc1NDk A brief rundown is, you install drop box, it has a folder on your computer, as soon as you put something in that folder or if something changes (ie. saving a document) it'll upload to Dropbox's servers and it's backed up there. If your computer crashes, you can just login to the website and download all of your documents. Another useful feature is I have more than one computer, so I use it to sync stuff between the computers. I also have the Dropbox app on my phone, so that all of my important stuff is always with me and backed up somehow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
punkrudeboy Posted October 12, 2010 Share Posted October 12, 2010 Physically a hard drive will start making noises, clicking, grinding, whirring. If you start hearing things like this on a regular basis back up all your stuff immediately. Windows wise if you know your computers on the up and up (virus scan, malware protection, etc) and you start getting random registry errors or programs start failing to load due to missing files, things of that sorts good sign its no longer writing properly. Best way to protect your data in house is get an external with raid 1 capability. Basically its 2 hard drives one has data getting written to it while the other is a mirror image of the write drive. Should a drive fail, you pop in a new drive and rebuild the raid. Your data is protected from hardware failure. Ontop of that make regular back ups to dvd-r's etc for emergency recovery if needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirbypuckett Posted October 12, 2010 Share Posted October 12, 2010 Thanks to whoever signed up w/ my Dropbox referral! If you watch the video and invite a friend you'll get more space too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fueledbymike Posted October 12, 2010 Author Share Posted October 12, 2010 Is there a way to see if your hard drive may be on the verge of crashing/ getting old? hopefully that makes sense and i dont sound like an idiot. Yup, there are programs out there that will put the drive through some tests and let you know if there are any problems. do you know the names of any of these programs, and are they free or $$$? and i know to listen for a noise, although whenever i talk to people its usually totally random Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
punkrudeboy Posted October 13, 2010 Share Posted October 13, 2010 Yup, there are programs out there that will put the drive through some tests and let you know if there are any problems. do you know the names of any of these programs, and are they free or $$$? and i know to listen for a noise, although whenever i talk to people its usually totally random You need to go to the website for the manufacturers of your hard drive and they usually have diagnostic tools there. Hitachi's I believe are the most common in laptops other wise go to device manager and look under disc drives and see if the manufacturer is there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kgry Posted October 13, 2010 Share Posted October 13, 2010 Check here for a few free programs http://www.ultimatebootcd.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcamps Posted October 13, 2010 Share Posted October 13, 2010 came here to post dropbox, so crucial for school stuff and noodz folders. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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