Harddrives got better with time, but sometimes they still fail. Here are some hardware tips for selfhosted.

Update 2023

• If you encounter Read/Write Errors on USB drives, or your SBC (such as Raspberry Pi, Odroid C4) frequently crashes, it might be due to Physical Memory Corruption. Try replacing the eMMC/SDC
• Sometimes, health/check apps can resolve these errors. In the golden 90s and 2000s, often the best solution was acquiring a new drive as soon as any hdd failure surfaced. Any recovery would typically result in your data, such as images, being filled with zeros in place of unreadable sectors.
• Modern SSDs have safety systems like SMART, which monitor the drive's overall state, bad sectors, and can potentially alert you to the need for a replacement.
• The most effective and reliable method to safeguard your data is to make backups (yes, multiple. 1 original + 2 copies)!

Below is a snapshot of a log of the repair-process of a corrupted drive.
Enjoy.

C:\Users\Max\ chkdsk F: /
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is g-hdd.
Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure ...
Deleting corrupt attribute record (128, "")
from file record segment 213216.
Deleting corrupt attribute record (128, "")
from file record segment 213235.
270336 file records processed.
File verification completed.
17 large file records processed.
0 bad file records processed
Stage 2: Examining file name linkage ...
Correcting error in index $I30 for file 40138.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the bitmap for index $I30 for file 40138.
Sorting index $I30 in file 40138.
Correcting error in index $I30 for file 40142.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the bitmap for index $I30 for file 40142.
Sorting index $I30 in file 40142.
Correcting error in index $I30 for file 41322.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the bitmap for index $I30 for file 41322.
Sorting index $I30 in file 41322.
Deleting index entry UrlManager.lnk in index $I30 of file 56941.
Correcting error in index $I30 for file 56993.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the bitmap for index $I30 for file 56993.
Sorting index $I30 in file 56993.
Deleting index entry git-cmd.lnk in index $I30 of file 56993.
Deleting index entry RestartOnCrash(冲突时的文件备份2016-05-09 20-13-40).lnk in index $I30 of file 57029.
Deleting index entry EasyImgur.lnk in index $I30 of file 57184.
Deleting index entry iFunBox.lnk in index $I30 of file 57184.
Deleting index entry plistEditor.lnk in index $I30 of file 57184.
Deleting index entry ShareX.lnk in index $I30 of file 57184.
Deleting index entry TabExplorerStarter.lnk in index $I30 of file 57184.
Deleting index entry vncserverui.lnk in index $I30 of file 57184.
Deleting index entry vpnclient.lnk in index $I30 of file 57184.
Deleting index entry vpncmgr.lnk in index $I30 of file 57184.
Correcting error in index $I30 for file 59253.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the bitmap for index $I30 for file 59253.
Sorting index $I30 in file 59253.
Correcting error in index $I30 for file 59289.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the bitmap for index $I30 for file 59289.
Sorting index $I30 in file 59289.
Correcting error in index $I30 for file 59290.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the bitmap for index $I30 for file 59290.
Sorting index $I30 in file 59290.
Correcting error in index $I30 for file 59309.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the bitmap for index $I30 for file 59309.
Sorting index $I30 in file 59309.
Sorting index $I30 in file 68588.
Deleting index entry PotPlayerMini64-g-xmg-2.ini in index $I30 of file 72319.
Deleting index entry PotPlayerMini64-g-xmg.ini in index $I30 of file 72319.
Correcting error in index $I30 for file 108001.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the bitmap for index $I30 for file 108001.
Sorting index $I30 in file 108001.
Deleting index entry SF Probeseiten Lernbuch.pdf in index $I30 of file 183699.
Correcting error in index $I30 for file 213060.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the bitmap for index $I30 for file 213060.
Sorting index $I30 in file 213060.
Correcting error in index $I30 for file 213073.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the bitmap for index $I30 for file 213073.
Sorting index $I30 in file 213073.
Correcting error in index $I30 for file 213088.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the bitmap for index $I30 for file 213088.
Sorting index $I30 in file 213088.
Correcting error in index $I30 for file 213160.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the bitmap for index $I30 for file 213160.
Sorting index $I30 in file 213160.
Correcting error in index $I30 for file 213194.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the bitmap for index $I30 for file 213194.
Sorting index $I30 in file 213194.
Correcting error in index $I30 for file 248130.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the bitmap for index $I30 for file 248130.
Sorting index $I30 in file 248130.
Correcting error in index $I30 for file 250350.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the bitmap for index $I30 for file 250350.
Sorting index $I30 in file 250350.

324758 index entries processed.
Index verification completed.
CHKDSK is scanning unindexed files for reconnect to their original directory.
Recovering orphaned file PDFXEdit.lnk (38709) into directory file 56941.
Recovering orphaned file GACBrowser.lnk (38740) into directory file 56993.
Recovering orphaned file GACManager.lnk (39084) into directory file 56993.
Recovering orphaned file MusNotificationUx.exe (39086) into directory file 57305.
Recovering orphaned file audacity (40138) into directory file 68588.
Recovering orphaned file Nyquist (40142) into directory file 40138.
Recovering orphaned file audacity.exe (41320) into directory file 40138.
Recovering orphaned file rawwaves (41322) into directory file 40142.
Recovering orphaned file bug.lsp (41323) into directory file 40142.
Recovering orphaned file mand1.raw (55248) into directory file 41322.
Skipping further messages about recovering orphans.

433 unindexed files scanned.
409 unindexed files recovered to original directory.
CHKDSK is recovering remaining unindexed files.
24 unindexed files recovered to lost and found.
Lost and found is located at \\found.001

Stage 3: Examining security descriptors ...
Repairing the security file record segment.
Deleting an index entry with Id 475 from index $SDH of file 9.
Deleting an index entry with Id 474 from index $SDH of file 9.
Deleting an index entry with Id 476 from index $SDH of file 9.
Replacing invalid security id with default security id for file 11127.
Cleaning up 4 unused index entries from index $SII of file 9.
Cleaning up 4 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 9.
Cleaning up 4 unused security descriptors.
Security descriptor verification completed.
Inserting data attribute into file 213216.
Inserting data attribute into file 213235.

27214 data files processed.
CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
Usn Journal verification completed.
Correcting errors in the master file table's (MFT) BITMAP attribute.
Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap.
Windows has made corrections to the file system.
No further action is required.

Remark 2023, Hardware

WARNING

Currently with the new boost of Generative AIs, writing apps and code became easier. The biggest challenge is where to run that code? How to build any kind of platform? Numerous paid articles tell you to get Digital Ocean, AWS or even Microsoft Azure hosting. If you try this you'll quickly realize what toll that will have on you. Plus this makes you dependent on a provider. If they kick you - you're gone!

Stay independent, stay backed up.