Causes

• The two most common reasons why a hard drive crashes are, first, accidentally deleting files or formatting incorrectly (user error). Users should be careful when deleting files. It could result in deletion of important source files. The second leading cause for a hard drive failure is an error in the mechanism itself.
  
  

File Recovery

• If the cause is mechanical error, it is much more difficult to recover files. If the mechanical error results in damaging the platters that store the data, the data may be permanently lost. If the cause is accidental deletion of files, it is much easier to recover the files because they are not truly deleted. There are several data recovery companies such as Geek Squad that will recover your files for a fee. If the failure is not mechanical, you can attempt to recover the files yourself using data recovery software.
  
  

Preventative Measures

• No hard drive, regardless of price, is immune from crashing. Back up the drive regularly to make data recovery much more painless.