Digital Hygiene: Hardware Management

Berglund Authority Level 3

by Charles Boulet
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Computer hardware is manufactured to meet various performance requirements, including minimum MTBF (Mean Time Before Failure). In other words, your hardware will fail, it's simply a matter of when. While current manufacturing standards and techniques provide hardware components that last longer and perform better than in the past, all hardware, especially hard drives and high-use disc readers, have a limited life span. Indeed, productivity loss and additional costs due to hardware failure are guaranteed, regardless of what the user does to avoid them. The question then lies in how one might minimize the associated losses and costs.

Best Practices: This article will describe some key issues relating to the health of your computer hardware. Of prime importance is to ensure that you have a reliable source of clean power. If you are storing important data on your computer, a power-conditioning uninterruptible power supply (UPS) is an absolute requirement. This is less critical if you regularly backup your data to an external device such as a removable/portable hard disk drive, CDs, DVDs, or tape. See below for a specific recommendation.

Hardware itself is relatively inexpensive and to illustrate consider that a $1000 computer will cost less than $1 per day if used for three years. Software, if you keep the original media and serial numbers, will never cost any more than what was originally paid for it. In short, in the event of a catastrophic system compromise (hardware malfunction, theft, or 'infection') you simply need to replace the missing or damaged parts and reinstall the software. The worst case scenario is that you should have to replace the entire computer (very rare).

In contrast, the vulnerability of the data that you collect, create and store on your computer's re-writable drives (specifically hard disk drives (HDD)) is your greatest risk. Consider the consultant who charges an hourly rate of $50 — a week of fulltime work alone can produce $2000 worth of data. Even if you work on salary, or if you simply use the computer to store personal files and photographs, it becomes clear that the loss of data can easily outstrip the value of lost hardware. Whereas data backup and management will be covered in a future article, this article will emphasize issues relating to maintaining the good health of your computer hardware platform with a view to avoiding catastrophic data loss.

As mentioned earlier, chances are that you will lose data at some point. Follow these guidelines to minimize the risk of loss and the amount of data at risk:

  1. Defragment all HDDs in your computers regularly. The definition of 'regularly' depends on use and how often you create and edit your files, but generally 'defragging' once monthly is a good starting point. To find out more about what file fragmentation means, click here. In a nutshell, imagine you have a large book (several thousand pages) of blank paper in which you write a story. For the reader, the easiest access to the story would be if it were written contiguously starting on one page then leading to subsequent consecutive pages until the story is complete. Now, consider the same story, written in broken sentences, scattered throughout the book: The reader might start on page one with the beginning of the first paragraph, then have to turn to page 879 to finish the first paragraph, then flip to page 1598 to start the next sentence of the paragraph only to have to return to page 654 to finish that sentence. Imagine now that this random pursuit of broken sentences continues through to the end of the story. Reader frustration aside, one can easily see that it would take considerable time to read the entire story as compared to the same story written from start to finish contiguously on consecutive pages.

    In this analogy, the story is a digital file and the reader is your processor and HDD trying to piece together the file in order to open it, copy it, or do some other function with it. Taking a fragmented file and piecing it back together has a few advantages. Firstly, you benefit from a computer that for all intents and purposes runs faster, not that the computer is suddenly more powerful, but the work you are asking it to do is greatly reduced. Secondly, contiguous files are more easily recovered from compromised HDDs. Some may argue this last point, but anyone who has had to recover data off of a HDD whose file tables have been ruined will only smile and nod in agreement. Finally, defragging files refreshes the electronic signatures of the files themselves and helps to retain the original integrity of the data.

    Various computing platforms, including Windows, have defragmenting tools built in. Third party tools from Norton and my personal favorite, Gibson Research Inc., are available to make defragging easy and assist in maintaining the integrity of your files.

    Interestingly, Apple (www.Apple.com) recommends against defragmentation as OSX (Mac Operating System 10) version 10.2 and later uses advanced file management that virtually eliminates the need for it.

    As a final comment, files can become fragmented on any rewritable medium including popular removable media such as Secure Digital cards. As a rule, you should never rely on these removable cards for long term storage of data and so defragmentation, while possible, is redundant.

  2. Scan HDDs for file system errors and bad sectors. Sound complicated and overly technical? Well, yes and no. HDDs are in a sense simple devices consisting of stacked platters with a magnetic finish. These platters (disks) are read by heads (one for each side of the platter) that bobs up and down making precise contact with the surface to read data. (Physically, the layout is not that different from a record player with a stylus reading the data from the record. Of course, the workings of a HDD are completely different than for vinyl albums! Refer to Wikipedia or Techweb for more detailed information.)

    As a result of usage, abusage and (rarely) manufacturing defects, HDDs can accumulate physical and or magnetic (data) errors on the surface of the platters in the basic storage units known as sectors (click here for a description of hard disk heads, sectors, and cylinders). These sectors become unusable or at best unstable. Your operating system needs to try to recover data from these sectors if possible, then flag the bad sectors so that no future attempts to write data to them will be made.

    The good news is that either your operating system or third party tools will take care of these issues for you (again, Gibson Research Inc. is your best bet here).

  3. Clean your computer regularly. Depending on how you use your computer and where you keep it, you might do this once or twice yearly; use common sense - desktop computers stored on a clean desktop or table will not need cleaning as often as those stored on or near carpeting (eek!) or where dust accumulates. (You should never store your computer on carpeting and should always try to have it on static neutral surfaces especially in low humidity environments.) Likewise, laptops that are kept on clean work surfaces will not require the same attention as those used on laps in easy chairs or in bed.

    Cleaning should include blowing and suction to remove dust from around all components and from within fans, grills and filters. You should also reseat all connections (pull cables and cards then reinsert them). Always unplug your computer before cleaning/reseating components and always wear a particle mask to avoid inhaling dust. While cleaning is easy to do, it is best to hire it out to a reputable third party to avoid trouble if you are unsure or do not have the correct equipment (generally speaking, a household vacuum is NOT acceptable for removing dust from your computer!)

  4. Clean and secure your power source. Power transformers in computers, that is, the part that is directly connected to your wall outlets, are designed to distribute reduced voltage to the internal components of your computer. They operate within certain minimal tolerances and are not all created equal — you get what you pay for, but you can generally expect that they alone will not cause trouble. The main cause of power problems is the power you feed into your computer. Power outages are not the only concern to manage, indeed 'dirty' power is responsible for more hardware damage and data loss than flat-out outages. Wikipedia lists nine common classes of power problems:

    1. Power failure — Total loss of utility power
    2. Power sag — Short term under-voltage
    3. Power surge (spike) — Quick burst of over-voltage
    4. Under-voltage (brownout) — Low line voltages for an extended period of time
    5. Over-voltage — Increased voltages for an extended period of time
    6. Line noise — distortions superimposed on the power waveform.
    7. Frequency — variation of the power waveform.
    8. Switching transient — under-voltage or over-voltage for up to a few nanoseconds.
    9. Harmonic Distortion — multiples of power frequency superimposed on the power waveform.

    Anything short of steady supply of clean power puts your hardware and data at risk. Your best protection from all these is to invest in a power conditioning power bar or UPS (uninterruptible power supply) so that regardless of the quality of power coming from your outlets, the power reaching your computer is guaranteed to be stable and within tolerable limits. UPSs have the advantage over simple conditioning power bars in that they continue to supply power to your critical components even after power is lost. Most UPS units today include software to assist in safely powering down your computer in the event of an outage or brownout. Because power surges can come also over phone (DSL) and cable lines, ensure that whichever model you choose allows you to filter these as well. Loss of data and hardware due to power is second in frequency only to human error (i.e. not saving a file, or accidentally deleting data). The cost of a power conditioning bar or UPS is negligible compared to the replacement cost of hardware and especially the data held on your computer, so if you are only using a basic power splitter consider this your greatest risk. The end note that follows includes specific recommendations that you can consider as a starting point.

End Note

I highly recommend BHPhotoVideo.com as a great source for new electronics purchases. Go to their website and search for 'UPS' under the 'computers/solutions' category to get a list of options in various price ranges. (Links valid March 2007). Here is one example of an entry-level product ($165 + Shipping) that should provide the necessary protection outlined in this article:

"The Smart-UPS SC 620VA 120V Surge Protector and Battery Backup from APC provides power protection and battery backup for office computer systems. The UPS provides surge protection and battery backup via 4 outlets. It yields an average output power capacity of 620 VAC at 390 watts and the battery lasts up to 15.7 minutes at half-load capacity.

The UPS also features RS-232 serial communication and RJ-45 data line protection. APC offers guaranteed protection from surges and spikes with their lifetime $150,000 Equipment Protection Policy. These features make the Smart-UPS SC an excellent choice to provide power and battery backup for your office PC."

If power conditioning is your only concern, you might consider the following for $35:

"The PF11VNT3 11-Outlet Home/Office SurgeArrest Surge Protector with Phone, Network and Coax Protection from APC provides surge protection for home computer systems. The power strip provides surge protection for all 11 devices connected as well as protection for phone, network and coaxial connections. APC offers guaranteed protection from surges and spikes with their lifetime $100,000 Equipment Protection Policy. These features make the Home/Office SurgeArrest an excellent choice to provide power and battery backup for your home PC."