Disk corruption may stem from various reasons like human errors, hardware defects, software bugs, etc. The patterns of damage caused to the hard disk will depend on the source of corruption. Some prominent causes of hard drive data corruption are as follows:
1. Improper Shutdown of Windows:
Improper shutdowns on Windows PCs only increase the risk of
hard disk corruption and leave your system in an inconsistent state. This
generally happens when your PC spontaneously resets or an instant power surge
results in a bad exit. As a consequence, you may encounter several cross linked
files, corrupted directories, physical bad sectors, and other similar symptoms.
2. Hard Drive Defects:
As the hard disk ages, it gradually develops various
physical defects and a propensity for malfunctioning. You may notice your data
slowly vanishing, files disappearing, errors on running a SMART utility, errors
found by ScanDisk, etc. In some extreme situations, the CMOS setup fails to
detect the disk.
3. Bad Disk Writes:
The operating system and hardware drivers collectively
handle direct disk access. When there are bugs in the device driver code or the
operating system code, bad writes occur on the disk, disrupting the normal file
system operations and causing data corruption.
4. Malware Attack:
Viruses and other malware affect your system in various
ways. They damage the data structures and file system attributes, destroy data,
and tend to slow down your system. Some of them are specifically programmed to
target the boot sector of your drive.
5. Faulty Hardware Components:
Not only your hard disk, but other hardware components may
develop defects over time. Your system may have a bad RAM, bad processor fan,
overclocked PCI bus, flaky hard drive controller, etc. Any of these components
may corrupt the data in its passage to the hard disk. This may cause
significant loss of data.
In all the aforementioned cases, your precious data stored
on the disk becomes inaccessible. To avoid this crippling loss of data, you can
perform hard drive recovery via
advanced third-party software. These utilities help you easily and quickly
recover your lost data in critical events of hard disk corruption or crash.
They can perform reliable HDD recovery for all Windows versions, including
Windows 7, Vista, Server 2003, XP, and 2000.
Guest Post:
This is a guest post by Oliver who works as a data recovery specialist with Stellar Data recovery and writing article on different conditions of data loss. You can follow oliver on Goolge+ to stay updated on the latest data loss problems and causes of hardware failure.
