An OS crash is less serious, but is infinitely more annoying than a hard disk crash. When a hard disk crash happens, valuable data is lost. And it can even be fatal for the individual or business. OS crash will not result in massive data loss, but it can slow down work at crucial points of time, and data that was stored as part of the OS will be lost.



Reasons for an OS Crash

There are several reasons for an OS crash. There are some symptoms we notice before an oncoming crash, and that is the time when we need to act to stop it. These signs are:

1.The functions of the computer will become slower.

2.Files will take a long time to open, or not open at all.

3.It will also be more difficult to save any work that you have been doing. The programme will refuse to answer the usual save or print command.

4.It will be difficult to connect to devices like the printer, CD or DVD drives, floppy drives, or even the speakers. It will also be difficult to play music or view pictures.

5.The computer will switch off on its own, and start up showing an error.

6.The computer will refuse to start up at all in the normal way.

If the last one happens, it will mean that something serious has happened to the operating system, and it should be reinstalled before it ends up causing you more data damage. The reasons for this are as follows:

1.A hardware fault or an ?exception? can happen. This will be all the more troublesome if the fault happens within the OS itself, so that it cannot correct it.

2.Similarly, an OS can detect a loss of internal logical self-consistency within itself, and stop working.

3.A programme may lose its logical path due to a bug, or overwrite a part of a programme code.

4.An OS crash may happen due to a race condition between two processes. In this, the first process sends a signal to the second one and waits for its response. Meanwhile, the second process has also done the same thing. As a result, both processes keep waiting forever for each other. If any one of them is central to the kernel or basic process of the OS, then the system will crash, and will have to be restarted or reinstalled.

5.An OS crash can happen when a virus attacks programme files too.

Remedies for OS Crash

When an OS crashes, we usually restart the computer, failing which we give up and reinstall the system again. Meanwhile, we may keep working by attaching the discs to another computer where the OS is working. But there are two important steps that we first need to take when an OS crash occurs.

1.Debugging: This is a process of tracking down and reducing the bugs, or defects, in a programme or hardware, and correcting it to make sure it does its function. Debugging can be hard when subsystems are coupled with each other, so that changing one will make bugs appear in another.

2.Reporting it: A crash reporter is an application that reports details of the crash to the manufacturer along with type of crash, details of the process, version of software etc. This helps the developer to diagnose and fix the real cause of the crash. Both Windows and Mac offer it.



But there are certain steps we can take in advance to ensure that no data is lost in the event of an OS crash.

1.We must keep a backup of any important data contained in the drive where the OS is installed, and also backups of data that is a part of the OS itself.

2.We should make another disc our storage device in the computer.

These steps should be enough to secure the data from loss.