There is one thing you need to keep in mind, and that is that some of the tips that we are going to give you below would be more recommended for a hard drive that you have as additional storage and not for system storage, as it will involve a loss of performance in certain situations (in any case, we explain what advantages and disadvantages each of the actions will bring, and it is up to you to decide whether it is worth doing it).
Tips and Actions to Avoid Disk Problems
Next, we’ll list the actions you can take to increase the useful life of your hard drive; As you will see, they are all simple to make and do not require knowledge that you cannot acquire in this article, so we will go straight there.
Run CHKDSK regularly
CHKDSK (check disk) is a tool built into Windows that automatically detects and repairs any errors that may be on the hard drive. It is especially useful for mechanical disks, but it is also useful for organizing SSD indexes, so it is also useful in both cases.
To do this, just open a Command Prompt window as administrator (right click on the Start button and select “Command Prompt (Administrator)” and run the following command (type it as is and press ENTER):
chkdsk x: / r / f -> where X is the drive letter you want to use, for example C for system disk
Defragment the hard drive to avoid problems
This should only be done with a mechanical disk and not with an SSD, although in the latest versions of Windows 10 the operating system itself no longer allows you to do this on an SSD, but offers you to instead of optimizing it. In any case, this tool, which is also built into Windows, allows files to be rearranged to join them in the first tracks of the disc, which serves to speed up performance and reduce their use since you will not have to search all tracks, the information that it will always be at the start of the unit.
To run it, click on the Start button and as it is, type “defragment”. The tool will appear first; When it opens, select your hard drive and click Scan, then select Optimize. In SSDs, you can do the same even if the process is different (nothing is rearranged, only indexes are checked and purge processes are performed).
Disable content indexing
We recommend that you do this only on hard drives that you have connected as secondaries and on SSDs. By default, Windows has a service dedicated to indexing content, by writing to a temporary file where each piece of data is located; this dramatically improves performance on a mechanical drive, but since SSDs have no moving parts and the data access latency is the same wherever they are, it makes no sense to turn them on.
As for mechanical disks, it is advisable to enable it on system disks which should have performance, but if it is a secondary disk only for data storage, it has no effect. meaning neither, on the one hand because you don’t use it constantly and on the other hand. because it creates a lot of reads and writes (besides taking up space on the disk itself) which forces the unit to run constantly.
To turn it off, just open Computer in Windows, find the drive, right-click on it, and select Properties.
In the first tab (General), you need to disable the last option: “Allow files on this device to have indexed content in addition to file properties”.
Do not install programs on a secondary hard drive
Many people, especially those with an SSD and a mechanical drive connected as a secondary, think that it is better to install on the SSD only the operating system or at most the programs that you use the most to speed up. its execution, installing everything else on the secondary disk. This is a mistake, because you will always force the secondary drive to run constantly and more than necessary (with its loss of performance).
Therefore, if you have a secondary disk, we recommend that you only use it for mass storage and do not install programs on it. Of course, you can install games there for example from Steam, as this allows you to modify and even change the location even with the game already installed.
Things to keep in mind when it comes to hardware
There are also other things that you need to keep in mind to keep the hard drive in good condition and extend its useful life which are hardware related, so we will go through them one by one and, of course, explain them.
Do not allow dust to accumulate and pay attention to the temperature
Overheating and exposure to dust can cause your hard drive to malfunction and shorten its lifespan in the form of crashes or other issues, so you should adopt ways to avoid overheating (active cooling in the case PC) and reduce exposure to dust and humidity.
To get rid of dust, simply clean the inside of your PC regularly, including whatever drive (s) you have.
Beware of static electricity
The internal components and peripherals of a PC are very sensitive to static electricity, and this is especially true of mechanical hard drives as they work with electromagnetism, and therefore it is of vital importance that the socket at which you connect your PC to an earth connection. . You can see if the plug is grounded with the naked eye, just by checking that it has these metal pins on the top and bottom.
In addition, it is also advisable to never touch a hard drive (or any other internal hardware) when it is in operation, among other things because the human body tends to accumulate static electricity.
A UPS is also used to avoid disk problems
A sudden failure or power surge can be extremely damaging to the hard drive, especially if it is mechanical, as its head could end up in the middle of a platter or with half-written data causing it to crash or at least fail. corrupted data. Therefore, having an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) undoubtedly helps to avoid these types of problems, because in the event of a power failure, it will give you time to perform a shutdown of the PC controller and, in turn, Besides, it will also protect the equipment from power surges and current fluctuations.
If you follow all of these tips, you will lower the chances that your drive will experience a problem or failure, but remember that sometimes these things happen and whatever you do they are inevitable.
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