The frightening reality of computers or server crashes is that the warnings signs that accompany them are easily missed or dismissed as being unrelated to the problem. Even technical experts, who work with computers on a daily basis can miss many of the signs of impending problems.
- Your computer is slow to boot up.
Among other issues that can slow down the boot sequence of a computer, bad blocks and sectors on a hard drive can decrease the speed that your computer starts up. If your PC is taking a long time to boot and you can’t find a different cause, such as new anti-virus software, your hard drive may be headed for a crash.
- Your computer is noisier than usual.
If the sound coming from your hard drive spinning up changes, they may be having trouble completing their rotation. Hard drives are very intolerant pieces of equipment and even the tiniest speck of dust can damage the disks or impede their movement.
- Your computer warns you of a read/write error or your disk has failed to respond.
Although not the end of the world, these are warning signs that your hard drive is having trouble accessing information. At this point, data recovery is the most important task you should be doing.
These are hardware issues, but computers can also fail because of malware or viruses that creep in over time. The following issues are indicative of software-related problems with your computer.
- You notice an unusual number of pop-up windows while on the internet.
- Your anti-virus is out of date or non-existent.
- You aren’t current with Microsoft security updates.
- You are not sure if you have a firewall.
- You have trouble sending or receiving emails.
Technical support will be needed to clean up your computer and restore it back to a fast and safe system. In many ways, it is better to operate as if your computer is headed for a crash all of the time. Backing up your data often, even daily, will help recover data that would normally be lost. Rest assured, if your computer crashes, data will be lost.
The best way to avoid these issues is to have a comprehensive and professional tech support regimen in place to maintain and test your computers and servers for hardware and software problems. Contacting a company, such as IT Services Cyprus before your system crashes can save you money, time and precious data.