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Wednesday 21 June 2006

Please...save...my...hard...disk...



I learn about hard disk being a mechanical device a long time ago in CAD (Computer Architecture and Design) class, but the reality of it didn't struck me until recently.

As a mechincal device, a hard disk is exposed to wear and tear. It is made of a stack of glass-like disks with needle points to read and write data from and to the disks' surface. The disks spin constantly while the needle points move as well, like the needle on a record player (phonograph turntable). Due to the spinning and moving, frictions occur and eventually they degrade the hard disk's performance. In turn, everything on the computer will start to slow down. Files will take longer to open or programs start later than often, among other things.

Worse, your files in the hard disk could be corrupted (which I think sounds more dramatic than just saying 'damaged'). Nothing can help you much in this problem, unless you have backup.

My hard disk suffered from a crash not a long ago. Windows was corrupted, blocking me from accessing anything within the hard disk. Gone are some of my school works, the photos my cousin took of our families and some articles in PDF that I downloaded for reading. No spinning. No moving. No backup. Only the memories.

Alhamdullillah, I have a new hard disk now. I think insya-Allah I will take better care of it. Hard disk is not cheap, especially the ones with good features.

Lessons from the ordeal:
  • Backup, backup, backup, backup, backup, backup, backup, backup, backup, backup.

  • Hard disk, when damaged, can turn your life upside down.

  • Hard disk are not cheap. Take good care of them.

  • To restore your 3-year-old PC back to the way it was, with a new hard disk, is super time-consuming and taxes your patience incredibly.

  • Shutting down your computer abruptly (in my case, frequent occurences of blackout in my house) is a fast and proven way (again, in my case) to corrupt your Windows operating system.

  • Patience, prayer, repentence and hope are great strategies to solve any problem, big or small.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Best hard disk ever is Quantum Fireball series. I'm still wondering how such company that made a good reliable hard disk couldn't keep on going in the business.

Oh yeah, some people said that a good quality PSU would help ensure your hard disk to live longer. It seem certain hdd has low tolerance on cheap quality PSU.

Anonymous said...

oops, I mean low tolerance towrds cheap quality PSU.

Anonymous said...

(PSU tu ape?)

It can be puzzling for a company with an excellent product to roll up the mat, as we say it in Bahasa Melayu, but sometimes poor management or marketing could be the cause. An excellent reputation or customer preception cannot stop a company from going down. A lot of factors come to play as well.

Anonymous said...

PSU aka Power Supply Unit.

regarding Quantum iinm they are not entirely out of business. Only their hard disk division or something like that been sold to Maxtor. And the funny thing is the mystery keep on going when not so long after Maxtor bought Quantum hard disk business they start rolling out bad hard disk. Back then I was like, huh? Whattheheck actually happened?

Talk about Maxtor I've just remembered one funny thing, last time when they are producing lots of crappy hdd one or two years back, if you type the domains below you'll be redirected to maxtor official site lol.

http://www.maxtorsucks.org/
http://www.maxtorsucks.net/
http://www.maxtorblows.com/
http://www.maxtorblows.net/
http://www.maxtorblows.org/

but nows these domains were no longer active. hehe.

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