Diagnosing Your Desktop Computer Problems
When your desktop computer hard drive crashes, isn't recognized, starts clicking or simply fails, File Savers is here to help you recover your precious data quickly and affordably. Our data recovery engineers will not give up until they have exhausted every possible solution to recover your important files.
We recover data from all makes and models of desktop computers that are no longer working, giving you errors or problems that are preventing you from accessing your data. No matter the problem, File Savers will give you the best possible chance of recovering your files.
Common failures of desktop computers
Physical laptop component problems
Common Desktop Failure Symptoms
Desktop computer won't power on:
This could be related to your on/off switch, mother board, RAM or power supply. Your computer either needs to be repaired or your data needs to be transferred. You should make this decision based on the age of your computer. It would be wise to transfer the data off an older computer but it may be in your best interests to have a newer desktop computer repaired.
Desktop computer boots in a loop:
This is likely related to your hard drive. This can be caused by a logical failure or a physical failure of your hard drive. A logical failure might be from a virus attack or some kind of operating system damage. A physical hard drive failure with this symptom is usually caused by bad sectors. Bad Sectors are physical damaged areas (often caused by head crashes) that are no longer able to be read on your hard drive. This damage is likely located in the system area (where Windows is located) on your hard drive. Bad sectors are like cancer, the damage will usually spread quickly and cause your hard drive to totally fail, start clicking and eventually make your data completely unrecoverable. We recommend that you power off your desktop computer and get the hard drive to us immediately for data recovery to give you the best chance of a full recovery of your important files.
Desktop computer blue screens "Blue Screen of Death":
Blue screen symptoms are usually caused by the same things that cause a computer to boot in a loop. Logical failures can include virus attacks or operating system corruption. Physical failures are usually caused by bad sectors or failing read / write heads. There is really no way to differentiate between the two without pulling the hard drive and running tests on it. If your hard drive is suffering from bad sectors, powering on your drive will continue to make the problem worse and can even spread and make your data or specific files unrecoverable.
Desktop computer crashes randomly or when you attempt to access a specific file:
This is usually related to bad sectors on your hard drive. At this point, your data is in serious risk because the bad sectors are located in the data area and will likely spread quickly.
Desktop computer black screens:
A black screen on a computer usually indicates that the boot device can not be found or is not recognized which usually means your hard drive is failed or the boot record is damaged. Again, this could be a logical failure or a physical failure of your hard drive. If the drive is physically failed, powering on your computer could permanently destroy your data. If the drive is not recognized in BIOS, it usually indicates a physical hard drive failure that absolutely requires our help to recover your data. Do not continue to power on your computer if it does not recognize the boot device or hard drive.
Desktop Computer black screens and makes clicking sounds "Click of Death":
Clicking is usually the sound that a hard drive makes when the heads that read and write the data to the platter fail. Head failure is the most serious failure a hard drive can have because when the heads fail, it nearly always leaves serious damage on the platter surface where your data is stored. Head failure is the number one cause of an unrecoverable hard drive. This is very serious and you need to power off your computer immediately.
File folder with question mark:
This is a symptom that Mac/Apple laptop's give when it no longer recognizes the hard drive or boot device. This is almost always related to a serious physical hard drive failure. Power off your desktop computer and call us immediately.
Desktop computer does not recognize the hard drive / bootable device:
This usually means the hard drive is physically failed. You need to power off your computer and do not continue to power it on.
Desktop computer screen stops working:
More than likely, you are dealing with an electrical failure of some kind. Your not getting power to your computer for some reason or your monitor, motherboard or power supply has failed. This failure will usually require simple data transfer unless its an electrical failure that has also killed your hard drive. We offer data transfer of healthy hard drives for very reasonable rates.
Desktop computer crashes when you attempt to open a file or files:
This is usually related to a physically failing hard drive or bad sectors in the user data area. Hard drives do not get better by themselves so you need to transfer the data off the drive as quickly as possible. If it won't let you pull the data off, you are probably dealing with a hard drive that is seriously failing or that contains lots and lots of bad sectors. Power off your computer and call us immediately so you don't lose your importand data forever.
Warning: Never open your hard drive yourself. Never push down on the lid of your drive. Never put your drive in the freezer. Never tap, hit or drop your hard drive. If you believe your hard drive is failing, turn it off and do not continue to apply power to it. Hard drives are extremely sensitive and can easily be made unrecoverable.