How to spot when your hard drive will fail before it does

The hard drive installed in your Windows or macOS system is where all of your apps and files live--so as computer components go, they don't get much more important. You might even have more than one drive installed to cover all storage duties. Whether it's a solid-state drive (SSD) or an older mechanical hard disk drive (HDD), this component won't keep going indefinitely. You may well find it stays working smoothly until it comes time to upgrade your laptop or desktop, but there's no guarantee--and failures can often happen, especially with older hardware. When a hard drive does die, it can stop your entire system from functioning, and leave your data inaccessible.