Stop, Look, and Listen

Sometimes failing hard drives offer warning signs of their imminent demise. If you're lucky enough to see or hear one of these signs, stop what you're doing and immediately back up your data. It isn't uncommon for a failing drive to go from being partly accessible to being completely inaccessible in a very short time.

How can you tell if your drive is dying? Watch for any error messages about the names or locations of files or folders. For example, if Windows can't find a file that you're sure is on the hard disk, be worried. Likewise, if Windows won't let you move or save a familiar file, or if the names of files and folders contain strange characters or have changed to complete gibberish, it's safe to suspect disk trouble as the cause.

If you encounter any of the symptoms described above, don't panic. Some of your data may have been scrambled by errant software or by an isolated hardware glitch. To check, run Windows' ScanDisk utility. In Windows 98 and Me, click Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, ScanDisk. In Windows 2000 and XP, open My Computer, right-click the drive, select Properties, Tools, and click the Check Now button under 'Error-checking'.

Set ScanDisk to examine the entire disk for physically damaged sectors. To do this in Windows 98 and Me, enable the Thorough option (see FIGURE 1). In Windows 2000 and XP, check both Automatically fix file system errors and Scan for and attempt to fix bad sectors. (On multigigabyte hard disks, this may take hours, so be patient.)

If ScanDisk reports more than a few physical errors, there's a good chance your hard disk is on the way out. But if it reports only a few logical errors, such as cross-linked or fragmented files, let ScanDisk repair the files and then run ScanDisk periodically to see if the errors recur. Running ScanDisk once a month is a good way to catch hard disk problems before they become irreparable.

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