Portable hard drives are convenient, travel well, and offer a cost-effective, handy solution for data back-up or to expand the storage capacity of your laptop or desktop computer.

But because they are so small, they are also prone to many environmental dangers, including fires, floods and especially shock damage caused by being dropped.

Many people travel with their portable hard drives in their laptop bag with their computer. It is perfectly safe to put your portable hard drive through the airport’s X-ray machine. But it can face danger when you take it out of your laptop bag, where it’s well-protected. Be careful not to drop your portable hard drive, as this can damage the platters inside where data is stored.

When your portable hard drive is safe at home, it’s also subject to dropping, power surges, or even getting crushed if a heavier item falls on it. Store your hard drive in a safe spot, and make sure the USB cable that connects your portable hard drive to your computer won’t get tangled in other wires or pulled in such a way that your hard drive will fall.

Physical shock damage occurs to your drive when the platters that store data, and the heads that read that data, are physically torn, scratched or otherwise damaged. If this occurs to your hard drive, you will need professional hard drive recovery and hard drive repair.

Some external hard drive users report throwing, kicking, and otherwise beating up their external hard drives while experiencing no loss of data at all. In other cases, extensive vibration or even dropping a drive just once can cause a failure. It’s not worth taking chances. Store your external hard drive in a place where it won’t fall or be subject to extensive heat or vibration, and take extra care when traveling with your external hard drive.

If something should happen to your hard drive, know that 24 Hour Data has trained, certified data recovery experts on staff to work on nearly every make and model of external hard drive. Call us today for your free diagnostic.