It might even work for a while. A “0%” phone usually has at least a couple minutes charge left; an “empty” gas tank usually has at least a little fuel sloshing around in the bottom; a 0% air tank might have a few breaths left; a drive with 0% health might run fine, for a while.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But why on earth would you knowingly choose any of those scenarios? You’d know<\/u><\/strong><\/em> you’re setting yourself up for trouble!<\/p>\n\n\n\n A 0% drive health rating from a good drive-monitoring app (examples<\/a>) means the drive has reached the end of its reliable service life. Even if it still appears to be working OK, it either has already suffered damage or excessive wear; or (statistically speaking) is about to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The drive is now on borrowed time, and the clock is constantly ticking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Replace the drive ASAP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Permalink: https:\/\/langa.com\/?p=3241<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n COMMENT \/ QUESTION<\/strong> on THIS ITEM?<\/strong> See the<\/em> Comment box<\/strong> at bottom of this page!<\/em> Sure. You can also start your day with 0% charge in your phone; or leave on driving vacation with 0% fuel in the tank; or start a scuba dive with gauges showing 0% air…. There are many things you can do. It might even work for a while. A “0%” phone usually has at least…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-reader-asks","category-hardware"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paaiox-Qh","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1716,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2019\/01\/24\/a-reader-asks-my-hard-drive-is-too-slow-but-i-cant-afford-to-upgrade-to-ssd-of-equivalent-size-what-can-i-do\/","url_meta":{"origin":3241,"position":0},"title":"A reader asks: “My hard drive is too slow, but I can’t afford to upgrade to an equivalent SSD. What can I do?”","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2019-01-24","format":false,"excerpt":"First, be sure your hard drive is the true bottleneck: If you're using Windows, open Task Manager\/More Details and select the Performance tab. If your hard drive is a truly the bottleneck, you'll see something like this: Near-100 percent drive utilization, while the rest of the system is loafing, might\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/langa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/HighDiskActivity.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1412,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2018\/12\/19\/a-reader-asks-how-can-i-reduce-laptop-noise\/","url_meta":{"origin":3241,"position":1},"title":"A reader asks: “How can I reduce laptop noise?”","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2018-12-19","format":false,"excerpt":"Laptop noise usually comes from four components: the cooling fans; any spinning-media data-storage device (e.g. hard drive or DVD); the keyboard; and the speakers. We'll discuss those in reverse order, and immediately discount the speakers: I seriously doubt that's the kind of noise you were referring to! You can just\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2060,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/11\/using-windows-powerful-recovery-environment\/","url_meta":{"origin":3241,"position":2},"title":"Using Windows\u2019 powerful ‘Recovery Environment\ufeff’","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2019-03-11","format":false,"excerpt":"The column below was originally published in the June 23, 2016 Windows Secrets. Today, it supplements a new column, scheduled for the March 11, 2019 AskWoody Plus Newsletter, focused on what to do if an error causes you to lose all admin privileges on your own PC. Click on over\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "AskWoody Plus"","block_context":{"text":"AskWoody Plus","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/askwoody-plus\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/langa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/W20160623-BP-CommandPromptOption.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1700,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2019\/01\/22\/a-reader-asks-what-is-the-best-software-to-recover-deleted-android-files-by-a-pc\/","url_meta":{"origin":3241,"position":3},"title":"A reader asks: “What is the best software to recover deleted Android files, by a PC?”","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2019-01-22","format":false,"excerpt":"It depends on where the files are located. If the files are on a removeable memory card, it's easy! Just shut down the phone, remove the memory card, plug the card into a PC's card reader and use any of the gazillion free and paid file-recovery tools available. (Examples.) No\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2530,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2019\/04\/05\/a-reader-asks-should-i-replace-my-5yr-old-hard-drive-with-a-smaller-ssd-and-keep-it-as-external-storage-or-buy-a-cheaper-and-bigger-hard-drive\/","url_meta":{"origin":3241,"position":4},"title":"A reader asks: “Should I replace my 5yr old hard drive with a smaller SSD and keep it as external storage; or buy a cheaper and bigger hard drive?”","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2019-04-05","format":false,"excerpt":"A 5-year-old hard drive is probably near the end of its safe service life. I wouldn\u2019t recommend reusing it for anything essential or irreplaceable. But using it as a secondary scratchpad drive, or as redundant or tertiary storage, you might be able to squeeze a bit more life out of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A reader asks..."","block_context":{"text":"A reader asks...","link":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/category\/a-reader-asks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4042,"url":"https:\/\/langa.com\/index.php\/2020\/01\/08\/why-does-a-dead-laptop-revive-after-putting-it-in-the-freezer\/","url_meta":{"origin":3241,"position":5},"title":"“Why does a dead laptop revive after putting it in the freezer?”","author":"Fred Langa","date":"2020-01-08","format":false,"excerpt":"(Answer requested by Edgar Ferrer) Yikes! If this actually worked on your laptop, you're very lucky. The actual, true \"put it in the fridge\" advice is very old-school, and is\/was a nothing-left-to-lose, last-ditch recovery option for malfunctioning spinning-platter hard drives. 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