Do hard drives die immediatly?

Question

Well, seeing as how my current hard drive is in the state of dying, I have unplugged it. I am getting a new one and returning this current one, but is it possible for a hard drive to die suddenly, with no symptoms (Errors, noises, beeps, etc), and not give me a chance to back up my data? I am really worried, especially about losing family photos.

Answer 1

Yes.  They can die immediately with no pre-warning.  

Or die a slow noisy death.

Answer 2

I had a couple of hard drives crash on me in the past.  Some made a eery noise before dying and 1 just died imediately on me.  It all depend on how serious the problem is.  I normaly use Speedfan to determine my hard drive's health, by far the most usefull tool concerning hard drive health.  It tells you exactly what the drive spec's are and what part are above  normal.  Best to make back-ups on a regular bassis of your drive to prevent any data loss.

Answer 3

Yes however the most common cause would be a jar/shock to the hard drive. You may get a component failure that causes it to crash however if you have already determined the drive it about to die you will most likely have a few more boots before its unusable. I had a drive last 6 months with a failure warning before so it depends on what the issue is.