Most of us probably have had a hard drive horror story at one time or another. That moment in time when all of your work, all of your files, pictures, programs, data suddenly become inaccessible as your hard drive fails to operate properly.

It could be at boot-up - you’re suddenly not able to get to your Windows screen; or perhaps later when working with your system, whole sections of your drive, folders and files are inaccessible.

It is usually a moment of panic, considering that most of what resides on our computers tends to be close to impossible to replicate. Think about how much information resides on your computer after you’ve been using it for weeks, months or years. Those are countless hours and lost data is virtually impossible to rebuild manually. Even if you could, the time and effort tends towards the painful.

How do our hard drives get this way? There are the usual causes, of course, such as usage. Hard drives are mechanical devices and mechanical devices can break down. Then there are all of the threats that could be residing on your hard drive as a result of viruses and spyware. Thanks to anti-virus software and spyware removal programs, this can be attacked and solved before they ever damage your system and hard drive.

There’s more good news: PC repair software has come a long way in recent years. As a part of most PC repair software, you’ll have a host of utilities focusing on hard drive repair: bringing back lost data and programs and restoring your computer to its original function. Just as a quality spyware removal program can seek out and eliminate problems, so can hard drive repair software.

There are steps you can take as well.

• Make an emergency boot disk. Safe this disk in a safe place “just in case” – you’ll be glad you took the five minutes to prepare this disk. Also, save a copy of your config.sys file. You can create this emergency boot disk with your copy of your Windows operation system.
  
  
• Use the utilities that come with your system. It’s important to run your Disk Defragmenter on occasion. You can even schedule Windows to perform this task on a regular basis. This will consolidate data and reorganize your drive. It will free up space, improve performance and prevent errors.
  
  
• When you are ready to delete a program, do not go into the folder and start deleting it that way. You’ll never get rid of all the components and this can cause a real disaster for you. Use the Add/Remove function in the Windows Control Panel.
  
  
• Back up on a regular basis. No, you do not need to back up your whole hard drive, just important data and files that you change on a regular basis. This can be done through using an internal or external drive, USB drive, removable media, or even using an Internet-based backup service where you run a program and it uploads your backups to another server located on the Internet for storage.
  
  
• Never shut off your computer with the power switch or power cord. Take it down through a system shutdown from your Start button. This ensures that everything closes properly and readies your system for reboot.
  
  

When these steps are followed, you’re likely to avoid the most serious problems. However, when you simply cannot get back those lost files, use PC repair software and specific hard drive repair software to get back your lost files and data and restore your computer.

Then, next time… back up!