summer weather and data loss.

We all like warm and sunny summer days. But unfortunately, summertime is not as fun for our electronic devices such as laptops, desktops, servers, smartphones, etc. 

Summer heat can quickly turn into severe weather conditions that can generate fires, storms, floods, extreme heat, and strong winds that lead to electrical surges, power outages, overheating, and high humidity that can generate electrical failure and cause data loss.

• Fires

Droughts in the summer present an increased risk of fires, especially in California. Fire can destroy a computer's hard drive and cause data loss.

• Floods

With summer thunderstorms falling rapidly, floods are common in the summer months. Flood water in a house can damage any computer placed on the floor or with wiring close to the ground.

• Storms

During storms, electrical surges and power shortages are common and can cause data loss.

There are different scenarios of how a hard drive can be damaged by electrical surges, power outages and other natural disasters:

1. Read/write heads repark incorrectly
Because computers and operating systems are complex, they need to shut down properly. An outage causes computers to shut down suddenly and improperly.  This can cause any open files you have been working on could to be lost or become corrupted. If power outages occur frequently, they can damage your hard drive and reduce its lifespan. 

How does this happen?

When a hard drive runs, its platters spin and generate an air blow  that keeps the read/write heads floating above the surface. During a normal shutdown, the heads repark back into place before touching the platter’s surface. However, when power is suddenly cut to a drive, the drive’s read/write heads repark incorrectly. The platters slow down to a stop, unexpectedly removing the air that keeps the heads off the surface of the platter, causing harmful contact between the heads and the platters. This is what we call a "head crash". It can damage the read/write heads or scratch the surface of the platter. As a result, the hard drive can fail and data can be lost. 

2. Damaged control board 

Electrical surges are usually caused by lightning strikes during storms. Lightning sends high levels of voltage through power lines. If a computer is plugged in during a power surge, it can be damaged. The damaged components often look charred or burnt. These can prevent a drive from powering up which leads to data loss. 

3. Damaged read/write heads
Electrical surges can also damage read/write heads of a hard drive. The read/write heads of a hard drive are very sensitive and handle very little power during normal operation. A hard drive control board prevents heads from too much power reaching them. However, during electrical surges the protective components on the control board can be damaged. This causes high levels of voltage and current to reach and damage the delicate read/write heads. If this happens, data is not accessible.

Power surges usually damage the control board after receiving too much power, consequently causing the read/write heads to short out as well. 

How can we prevent hard drive damage and data loss?

1. Surge Protector
Use a surge protector to protect your computer from unexpected power surges. Instead of plugging devices directly into an outlet, plug them into a surge protector, which plugs into a regular outlet. If an electrical surge happens, the surge protector offers protection from the spike in voltage. Surge protector channels the extra voltage through its grounding wire instead of the devices plugged into it and protects electronics from damage. However, surge protectors can only help prevent damage due to minor electrical surges, usually caused by heat waves when power usage increases due to high demand for f.e. air conditioning. Increased levels of usage can cause voltage to temporarily drop, then rise again which often causes power surges.

2. Unplug Your Devices
Electrical surges caused by lightning during a storm are strong and a standard surge protector often can't help. Therefore, the old good way of powering down and unplugging your electronics is the safest way to protect them during a thunderstorm. 

3. Backup Your Data
The best way to protect from any data loss situation is by having a good backup strategy. We recommend a secure online backup solution which stores your files offsite so there is no risk of data loss due to electrical surges, fires, or floods. If you do backup on physical storage devices like flash drives or external hard drives, the same disaster can destroy both the data on your computer as well as your backup data. 

In case there is no backup, Kotar Data Recovery can always help and recover your lost data.