When an error occurs, the system administrator or support technicians must determine what caused the error, attempt to recover any lost data, and prevent the error from recurring. It is helpful if applications, the operating system, and other system services record important events such as low-memory conditions or excessive attempts to access a disk. Then the system administrator can use the event log to help determine what conditions caused the error and the context in which it occurred. By periodically viewing the event log, the system administrator may be able to identify problems (such as a failing hard drive) before they cause damage.