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There are myriad reasons as to why data loss occurs. The top three being: Hard drive failures Virus infection Data Corruption Hard Drive Failure Hard drive damage is unpredictable. It could occur in two days or after ten years of your hard drive purchase. But when closely examined, hard drive has an average life of 4 to 5 years after which it can wear out leading to data loss. It can turn nasty if the user does not have a backup of the drive. Sometimes, setting up of the whole computer after a failure becomes even more tedious. Many are not aware that a hard drive failure can also be gradual. Usually, the computer shows a lot of signs such as longer booting process and an unbelievable slow down in the normal operations performed. One can wonder what causes this failure. Generally, there are four reasons Firmware corruption Mechanical failure Electronic failure Firmware is a software code which is embedded in a hard drive and controls its performance. If there is a corruption in firmware, the interaction between the hard drive and the files is lost, thus leading to a hard drive failure. To fix this problem, it is necessary to recover data using reprogramming in a low level. A mechanical failure is the failure in the internal components. This can be identified when the user hears a clicking sound when a system is powered on. Electronic failure, on the other hand, refers to the problems that happen in a control board. A simple power spike can be the most common reason for this damage. The computer will appear dead and the hard drives will not recognize any application due to electronic failure. This kind of problem can be solved only by the data clinic. The Uninvited Guest A computer virus is like any other software but instead of assisting the computer users it hinders the proper functionality of the computer. Worst of all, it has the capacity to spread to other computers through a floppy, CD or any removable drives. Apart from this, e-mail attachments are also a prominent means of acquiring a virus. The symptoms to identify the presence of a virus in a computer are: Slowdown of the computer Frequent lock up Frequent restart without prior command Inaccessibility of the drives Difficulty in printing Error messages that are unusual Menus or dialog boxes that are distorted. Not able to run or install an anti-virus software Sudden appearance of new desktop items Removal or addition of programs Often OS reinstallation and removal tools are the only ways to remove virus from a computer. It can also be prevented by updating your computer frequently, running the anti virus tools periodically and removing the unwanted files from the PC. Data Corruption This has nothing to do with the internal components or physical damage but with the corruption of the information in the drive. When an error in a computer data occurs during transmission of a data or its retrieval, it introduces a lot of changes that are unintended to the data. When a data transmission is interrupted it causes loss of data. This occurs frequently in the wireless transmissions as there can be difficulty in satellite transmissions and interference from microwave radiations. Data corruption can be either due to hardware damage or software problem. Your data corruption can be as small as an invalid file allocation entry to a serious corruption of the fragmented drive. When analyzed, network problems and non-availability of disk space becomes the major reason for data corruption to occur. The best way to solve all these problems is to make use of the utility software available, to select a reliable remote server and maintaining a good amount of free space in the disk. Prevention is Better Than Cure Prevention is better than cure applies not only for humans for computer data as well. It is important to secure the computer well especially when most of our important data are stored on them.
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James Walsh is a freelance writer and copy editor. If you are concerned about data loss and would like more information on Data Recovery see www.fields-data-recovery.co.uk
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