How do I know my hard disk actually failed ?

Hard disk failure is often characterised by a variery of symptoms which include one or more of the following:

• System ‘hang’ and takes longer than usual to access a file or folder
  
  
• Original file name and folders replaced by funny or garbage characters
  
  
• Drive or partitons became unformatted or raw and system prompt to reformat
  
  
• Bios does not detect hard drive.
  
  
• Hard disk detected but OS does not load/boot up.
  
  
• Operating system does not boot up or boots up intermittently.
  
  
• Hard disk is dead silent and shows no signs of operation.
  
  
• Bios displays model of hard disk with nonsensical characters.
  
  
• Files, folders or directories disappear mysteriously.
  
  
• User accidentally deletes files/user error.
  
  
• Clicking, scraping or knocking sound when computer/media device is switched on.
  
  
• Data corruption.
  
  
• Files and folders cannot be open.
  
  
• And various other reasons.

Any of the above situation which sometimes can be a combinations of two or more, we strongly advice user shut down the system at once especially if you hear any funny clicking or scraping noise which likely is hardware related damage, and send down your disk to a data a recovery company.

Do not attempt to do a recovery by using some commercially available software unless you know exactly what you are doing.

Always remember, digital data is highly volatile and once overwritten or lost, recovery might no longer be possible. Let an expert do it.