How to Set a Hard Drive to Send a Failure Warning

In a perfect world, hard drives would never experience failure. But the fact is, all hard drives can, even if they are newer. Everything from electrical surges, thunderstorms, natural disasters, static, and poor manufacturing cause hard drives to fail. Read on for some tips on how you can be sent a warning and back up, restore and recover valuable data on your computer hard drive.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Hard drive
• Computer
• Microsoft Windows

1. Go to the hard drive manufacturer's website and download their failure warning utility (if applicable) or install

2. Enable any SMRTDRV or similar hard drive failure software by going into the CMOS of your computer on the motherboard. Enter CMOS setup by pressing ESC, F12 or other key (as prompted) when your computer first starts before it hits windows. Normally this screen appears in a plain blue or black screen with white writing. Click enable when you see SMRTDRV or similar hard drive references. Warning capabilities vary by manufacturer.

3. Look for your computer to send you messages of imminent failure during the initial startup. It may even have you press F1 or F2 on your keyboard to continue the startup process. If your computer sends you one of these messages, do not ignore it but continue startup and backup your data immediately.

4. Listen for vacuum cleaner, scratching or hair dryer type noises on your computer hard drive. This can be a warning your hard drive could experience a failure very soon.

5. Download hard drive failure warning utility software right on your computer from the Internet if your particular brand of hard drive does not include failure warning detection or notices. Visit download.com for more information.

6. Comment on what helps you and share your hard drive tips, hints, ideas and stories here.

Tips & Warnings

• Consider using an external hard drive or flash drive in addition to your hard drive.
• You can usually hit F1 to continue but sooner or later your hard drive will fail.
• Use automated backup software to guard against data loss.
• Always backup your data.
• Do not rely on this utility solely for hard drive failure information. It can give you a false sense of security.

[MidniteWriter]

on 3/8/2009 SMRTDRV has saved me many times in my computer biz!Sorry I cannot answer specific questions, I get pd for that. If you wish for a consult, pls email me and I'll set up a service call and quote.Comments welcome!Please email me first if you'd like a link to one of your articles, and I will put your article in my resources section. Thank you!

[chintan]

on 3/8/2008 excellent tips. i proud of u

[Cougar1002]

on 3/3/2008 Great article! I never knew something like that was available.

[JMOrganizations]

on 2/24/2008 WOW GREAT INFORMATION!! I never knew about this even in all my years on the net. Thank you!

[Triskit]

on 2/18/2008 Awesome advice!