Hard Drive Repairs
Your computer hard drive is used to store your information permanently on your computer. When you save data, unless it is saved on an internet web-site such as a banking website, chances are it has been saved to your computer's local hard drive.
Your computer's hard drive is a small device about 5 inches long and 3 1/2 inches wide and about an inch tall. Inside your hard drive casing there are a number of high-speed spinning "platters" that hold your recorded data. They are coated with a metal-oxide coating that is magnetic. Moving rapidly across the platters are a group of read/write heads that read and write the data to the platter surfaces. The heads do not actually touch the platter's surfaces---they float on a tiny cushion of air. When the head actually makes contact with the surface, it gouges off the coating. This is what we technicians refer to as a "crash". The head has "crashed" into the platter...taking off your data with it. When a crashed hard drive spins down (i.e. you turn your computer off), the particles that were gouged off can deposit themselves elsewhere on the platters. The heads then bump into these later on, and cause even more head crashes. This is why a failing hard drive must be replaced as soon as possible, to minimize the amount of data you will lose.
Another type of drive that is sometimes used in place of a hard drive is called an SSD, a Solid-State-Drive. These are hard drives that only use flash memory instead of disk platters with moving heads. These drives have no moving parts at all. They work in concept similar to a USB memory stick, but with much higher access speeds and much higher capacities. They are often used on laptops because they are less subject to jolting and bumping around since they have no moving parts.
It is crucial that you make backup copies of any important data that you have saved to your hard drive. A hard drive that fails could result in the loss of some or all of the data. Computer Doctors can help you set up an automated backup that will protect your valuable data.
We happily can transfer data from your old hard drive if possible. We perform file recovery all the time so we are your best option if your hard drive fails and you didn't make a backup copy.
Please fill out the form below so that we can help you with replacement or upgrade of your hard drive and transfer of your data. We will get right back to you.