When it comes to saving business files, important documents, or personal data like audio and photos on our storage devices, we seldom ever worry about losing them or really even stop to think about how much longer our hard drive will be kicking for that matter. We seem to get lost in this illusion that it’ll run forever, but the truth is the average lifespan of a hard drive is only five to ten years. With that being said, if any of these weird things have been occurring, it might be time to invest in a new hard drive before your precious data vanishes into oblivion. Here are five signs your hard drive is failing.

1.) Slowing Down or Constantly Freezing.
When your hard drive begins to go bad, your computer will slow down a ridiculous amount in all aspects from start-up to opening files which will then lead to the dreaded frozen screen.

2.) Frequent and Irregular Crashes.
Speaking of the unwanted blue screen, you can tell your hard drive is having difficulties functioning when your computer is frequently freezing and randomly requesting reboots every time you try to access a document or program.

3.) Strange Sounds.
Doom is upon you if your hard drive literally sounds like its dying. Known as the click of death, a repetitive sound will occur as it tries to process data. Also, grinding or screeching noises are symptoms of internal parts failing.

4.) Unable to Open Files.
Can’t access your files even though they saved without any error or slightest hint of a problem? Corrupted data popping up left and right is a surefire sign your hard drive is about to croak, which leads us to the next point.

5.) Files and Folders Vanish.
Isn’t the point of having a hard drive to save data? When it reaches the point of corrupting data, it will inevitably cause folders and files to do a disappearing act. Even programs will stop responding entirely and once again welcome you to a frozen screen. For more awesome tips on data recovery, be sure to visit our blog!