Originally Posted by Jmaster3265
oh great....
So i have to tell everyone in my family to backup everything on their accounts including mine...that isn't good...
Espeically knowing my family, there not technical with computers...
To back up stuff don't i need to put it on a jumpdrive or floppy disc though? I do have either...
What causes harddrives to fail, so i can't do anything to resolve this? I have to get it fixed somewhere?
There is no way to really fix a harddrive-- you just buy a new one, and transfer your stuff over.
To back stuff up there are many options, though I would not suggest floppy disc-- they are quite fragile themselves.
You can use just about anything else... another harddrive, DVD's, CD-Rom's-- there are even online backup services these days.
You really don't need to backup all the files-- just the irreplaceable stuff.
Photos/Music/personal records-- anything that has value to you, personally. Software ( I assume) you have on CD somewhere.
Computers are fallible machines--a backup strategy should be part of how you manage it's use/maintenance.
Practical PC Online - Beginner's Guides: Disaster prevention - Backup Strategies
The thing with a failing Harddrive-- is that you do usually get some warning (like funny noises)-- if you
don't listen to those warnings and backup that important stuff right away-- it could fail completely.
Then you lose
everything--and there is no way to retreive it without expensive equipment-- and lots of dollars.
It is much cheaper-- and simpler, to swap your data while it is still accessible.
Am I
100% certain that it's the drive that's making that noise? Nope.
The only way to be certain is to open the case-- and try to locate the noise by listening-- or take it to a repair shop.
When you add together your symptoms:
odd noises
odd behavior of Windows (spontaneous hibernation,etc)
random errors (crashing software)
it all points in that direction.
