When it comes to computer repair, hard drive failures are among the top issues I deal with. A failed hard drive can be disastrous. But with some regular maintenance, you can keep your hard drive spinning like a top. Here's how to keep your hard drive healthy.

Hard drive failures fall into two (2) classes: Predictable and Unpredictable. Predictable failures arise from mechanical wear and the eventual degrading of the storage surface. Unpredictable failures come from parts becoming defective or sudden mechanical failures. Around 60% of hard drive failures are from gradual wear and tear from daily use. With regular maintenance, you may be able to find, fix, and repair problems before they become catastrophic.

CHKDSK (check disk)

CHKDSK running on Windows 10 Tech Preview boot

Every operating system has a built-in utility for checking the health of your hard drive. In the early years of Windows (when it ran on top of DOS), there was ScanDisk. When Microsoft came out with Windows NT and NTFS, the disk checking utility changed to CHKDSK and is still in use today. The functionally has been expanded, but the commands have changed very little. CHKDSK verifies the integrity of the file system and fixes logical file system errors. It can also check for bad sectors and mark them as bad, but it cannot repair them. Cost: Free

Run CHKDSK in Windows XP

Run CHKDSK in Windows Vista / Windows 7

Run CHKDSK in Windows 8.1

Run CHKDSK in Windows 10

Manufacturer's software

UBCD HDD diagnostics list A thru P

Almost all hard drive manufacturers have utilities to check their drives for errors. Their software can check the SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) status and test the hard drive's physical condition. Best of all, their software can re-map bad sectors to spare sectors. You can find most diagnostics software on the manufactures' website or use the version included in the Ultimate Boot CD (recommended). Cost: Free.

Ultimate Boot CD

SpinRite

Intro screen from GRC SpinRite

SpinRite from Gibson Research Corporation is a magnetic storage data recovery, repair, and maintenance utility. The way it works is quite ingenious. It reads the data from each sector, inverts it, and then writes it back to the drive. It then reads the same sector, inverts the data, and then writes it back to the drive in the original format. If it can read, invert and write to a bad sector, it can clear the bad sector flag and make it usable again. SpinRite also has a feature called DynaStat that can reassemble missing data from bad sectors. Cost: $89.

SpinRite

One of the biggest complaints I hear from customers is how their computers go into sleep mode at the most inconvenient times. It happens mostly with laptop computers that are stationary and are using the ac power charger. The best way to deal with this issue is to change the power options inside of Windows. Here is how to create a custom power plan inside of Windows 8 / Windows 8.1.

Right out of the box, Windows does a pretty good job of matching its' power options to the hardware inside of your computer. But for some of us, those settings won't work. I don't like my system to go to sleep or hibernate. One of the biggest problems I have encountered is having my computer go to sleep as I'm charging my smartphone via USB port. When the system goes to sleep, so does the USB port. I have disabled hibernation entirely on my system. I have the display turn off after a certain amount of time.

How to create a custom power plan inside of Windows 8 / 8.1

1. Go to the Control Panel and left-click on Hardware and Sound.

2. Left-click on Power Options.

3. In the left-side column, select Create a power plan.

4. Select an existing plan to start with; give it a name and left-click on Next.

5. Make any changes to you may want for the display and when the computer goes to sleep, then left-click on Create.

6. Now you should see your power plan set as default. To change the advanced power settings, left-click on the Change plan settings on the right side of your power plan name.

7. Left-click on Change advanced power settings.

8. On the Advanced settings dialog box that appears, left-click on Change settings that are currently unavailable. Now you can modify every aspect of the power settings for your computer.

When it comes to computer repair, you have to be prepared to work on different types of systems. One of the biggest issues is having the correct video display connector. With more than ten different types of connectors it can be difficult to identify the correct one. Here is a list of the most common video display connectors.

Most common video display connectors
S-Video 3 variations - 4, 7 or 9 pins.
VGA (Video Graphics Array) 2 variations - DE-9 (9-pin) & DE-15 (15-pin).
DMS-59 (Dual Monitor Solution, 59 pins) It provides two DVI or VGA outputs in a single connector. An adapter cable is needed for conversion from DMS-59 (digital) to DVI (digital) or VGA (analog).
DVI (Digital Visual Interface) 5 variations - DVI-I (Single Link), DVI-I (Dual Link), DVI-D (Single Link), DVI-D (Dual Link) & DVI-A . DVI-I (integrated, combines digital and analog in the same connector; digital may be single or dual link). DVI-D (digital only, single link or dual link). DVI-A (analog only).
HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) Electrically compatible with the DVI. 4 variations - Standard, Dual-Link, Mini and Micro.
DisplayPort Backward compatible with VGA and DVI through the use of adapters. 3 variations - Standard, Mini and Micro.

Keeping your computer secure has always been challenging. It seems like every week there is another exploit making the rounds. Nobody can predict what kind of attack hackers will use next. But you can protect your computer from the most common actions and techniques used with the Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit 5.1 (EMET).

The main screen inside of EMET 5.1

What is EMET? It monitors selected programs (Internet Explorer, Microsoft Office programs, etc.) for known attack actions and techniques. When one of the several pseudo mitigation technologies is triggered, EMET can block or even terminate the program in question. It will also validate digitally signed SSL certificates inside of Internet Explorer. Here's is the current list of mitigations EMET currently looks for.

• Structured Exception Handler Overwrite Protection (SEHOP)
• Data Execution Prevention (DEP)
• Heapspray allocation
• Null page allocation
• Mandatory Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR)
• Export Address Table Access Filtering (EAF)
• Export Address Table Access Filtering Plus (EAF+)
• Bottom-up randomization
• Return Oriented Programming (ROP)
• Attack Surface Reduction (ASR)

The about screen inside of EMET 5.1

EMET 5.1 includes the following improvements:

• Attack Surface Reduction (ASR) has been updated to limit the attack surface of applications and reduce attacks.
• Export Address Table Filtering Plus (EAF+) has been updated to improve and extend the current EAF mitigation.
• 64-bit ROP mitigations have been improved to anticipate future exploitation techniques.
• Several security, compatibility and performance improvements.
  

EMET can also be customized via the registry (see EMET manual for instructions). Here are a few of the items that can be modified:

• Enable unsafe configurations.
• Configuring custom message for user reporting.
• Configuring certificate trust feature for third party browsers.
• Configuring local telemetry for troubleshooting
• Configuring EMET Agent icon visibility.

Here's a quote from Microsoft's website:

The Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) helps raise the bar against attackers gaining access to computer systems. EMET anticipates the most common actions and techniques adversaries might use in compromising a computer, and helps protect by diverting, terminating, blocking, and invalidating those actions and techniques. EMET helps protect your computer systems even before new and undiscovered threats are formally addressed by security updates and antimalware software. EMET benefits enterprises and all computer users by helping to protect against security threats and breaches that can disrupt businesses and daily lives.

EMET should never monitor anti-malware and intrusion prevention or detection software, debuggers, software that handles digital rights management (DRM) technologies or software that uses anti-debugging, obfuscation, or hooking technologies.

Every computer repair technician has a digital toolbox, more than likely several. They are either on a CD / DVD or USB drive and contain programs that we use regularly. Here are a few of the programs that I have in my digital toolbox.

All of the following programs have one thing in common; they don't require installation. Just right-click on them in File Explorer and select Run as administrator, that's it. Some of the programs may require access to the Internet for complete functionality.

AdwCleaner

AdwCleaner is one of the best stand-alone adware removal tools I have found yet. Right out of the box, and it will scan your system with a generic set of definitions. But if you are connected to the Internet before you start up AdwCleaner, it will download a current copy of adware definitions. And if you select uninstall, it will remove any quarantined files and then delete itself.

AdwCleaner

.NET Framework Cleanup Tool

When it comes to resolving .NET problems, you are sometimes better off just removing and reinstalling the framework. The .NET Framework Cleanup Tool is a stand-alone program that does just what its name implies. Just pick the version you wish to remove (or all) and click Cleanup Now. Once it is complete, reboot and use Windows Update to reinstall whatever version of .net framework you need.

.NET Framework Cleanup Tool

Sysinternals Suite

Sysinternals is hands down, the best collection of Windows troubleshooting tools. All of them are stand-alone programs, over 70 altogether from seeing everything that automatically starts up with Autoruns, exploring running processes with Process Explorer, or monitoring network usage with TCPView. When it comes to Windows diagnostics, you cannot beat the Sysinternals Suite.

Sysinternals Suite