if you receive a virus or any malware that disrupts your computers functions or stops you from accessing your files, or if the virus is made to delete your files it can disable you access to the info and you might need to reinstall your operating system in this case you would not be able to access your information unless it was backed up. you could also cause physical damage to your laptop or its stolen and unless its backed up you wont be able to access any of your files. Also you should do it time to time so that you are updateing you backed up files with any current files that you recently created
My last computer was prone to crashing, viruses, etc. Music I had purchased over the internet would be lost, forcing me to re-purchase it, as well as reloading licensed CD's in my possession. Digital photographs were lost that could not be replaced (I lost 2 years of photos).
In short, a back-up drive is like an insurance policy- If your computer dies, or if it is hit by a virus, you simply up-load files. It is a good idea not to leave the back-up drive connected to you computer, to avoid infections.
Drive Formatting is when you prepare the hard drive or other media for use by the operating system and puts a file system on it such as FAT32 or NTFS. The process erases all the data on your hard drive (important to back it up). That way you can use your hard drive for the first time or get to use it again after the data on it becomes severely corrupted or the operating system fails.
no a hard drive has a much faster access time...
no.
Yes, you sure can. You can also use Time Machine which comes installed on your iMac to back up your data daily all that external hard drive.
The time it takes for a hard drive to find information.
The "Clicking" sound that a hard drive makes is NEVER a good sound. What you are hearing is the drive re-zeroing (the heads are returning to the home position) because it is having read errors.The fact that you're getting a "primary hard disk error" indicates that the drive is most likely beyond help.Sorry to tell you this, but it's time for a new hard drive.See the question: "Why is it important to make backups?" ;)
There is a possibility that one could repair their own hard drive but it would be time consuming. If your hard drive is making a loud steady clicking sound then it is truly dead. Should this not be the case you could try one of the online programs that will try and restore your data back to the broken drive. The best solution is to take the drive in and have a specialist repair it for you or transfer your data to a new drive.
It depends on the make and model of the Hard Drive. Normally the spin speed does control how fast you can access a certain part of a track, but it also depends on how fast your seek time it. If you have poor seek time, your rotation speed doesnt mean anything.
The cache size is refers to the size of buffer on the hard drive. The bigger the the buffer, the less the hard drive has to access the drive. Also it improves the time that the computer needs to access data from the drive.
A separate disk drive is the easiest way for an individual to back data on a hard drive. However, it is also possible to use cloud services such as Dropbox, CrashPlan or Amazon S3 to back up your data, or Apple's Time Machine software if you are a Mac user.
That is entirely dependent upon the speed of the hard drive, if the other hard drive has a higher RPM, or read/write time, then yes it will.
To give the manufacturer a hard time.