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Storage: Is there a life expectancy on external hard drives?
- 5/29/09 1:02 PM
All hard drives have a life expectancy.
by XSYLUS - 5/22/09 11:26 PM In reply to: Is there a life expectancy on external hard drives? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
All hard drives have a life expectancy, over time sectors go bad even if you do not notice any issues. There are disk utilities that will tell you if there are any issues with your drive. CrystalMark makes disk info tools however I don't think their current version supports external drives. My recommendation would be not to store anything of value on that drive. The drive may last several more years or it could stop working tomorrow. Acronis makes disk imaging software that would allow you to easily clone that drive's contents on to a new drive.
Hard drive life expectancy
by pc-clinic - 5/22/09 11:48 PM In reply to: Is there a life expectancy on external hard drives? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
For 5 Years I think you have had your moneys worth, It might last another 2 or 3 years but I would NOT rely on it, backup your stuff to another HDD
The 1st 90 days seems to be the big test.
by DH950 - 5/23/09 1:32 AM In reply to: Is there a life expectancy on external hard drives? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Almost all the drives that have failed with little or no warning were in operation less than 90 days. Over half the drives still running at home are well past their 3yr warranties.
I have or support systems with drives that are over TEN years old & running smooth. There are 2 to 10 GB drives that now backup data from the up to TERABYTE size drives that replaced them. That "obsolete" drive becomes a savior when something goes wrong on the new drive.
1. Keep them cool & clean while running, no fancy stuff.
2. Protect them from external movement while running.
3. Keep the drive in the same position. Drives can be run flat or on their side. Because they develop wear patterns, changing their orintation is begging for trouble.
4. Look at the manufactor's warranty, 3-5 yrs is normal.
I look back to the 80's & 90's were people switched the orientation of thier computers to regain desk space, Drive problems were often not far behind.
Short: Yes, they are.
by kuhar.gyorgy - 5/23/09 1:45 AM In reply to: Is there a life expectancy on external hard drives? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Long: In general they have a "working hour limit", becouse they have motion components, and there is a "surface abrasion". If You format regularly the disk, this procedure checks the surface, and corrects errors, if it is possible. When the errors are too much, save disk content, and replace it. (S.M.A.R.T.)
External or internal disks are the same.
Life expectancy of a hard drive
by keithrider - 5/23/09 1:58 AM In reply to: Is there a life expectancy on external hard drives? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
All things have a life expectancy, but some do last longer than others.
I have had new hard drives fail after a few days, other have gone on for years. I ALWAYS back up my data, photos, Docs onto CDs or DVD.
Some makers give 3 or 5 years warranty on a drive, and I have successfully claimed for replacements. But, this is not much good to you if all your work is on a failed hard drive. You can get firms to rescue the data, but this is an expensive solution.
I don't know which make of hard drive is the best, but there are some that I would not use again.
Your could have a Raid set up, to give you a bit more security.
keithrider
Life expectancy of Hard drives
by jedwood - 5/23/09 3:46 AM In reply to: Is there a life expectancy on external hard drives? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
With the relativley cheap large volume hard drives around nowadays, its easier to always have an external backup of your external backup. Thats the way I backup, after making my mistakes..
As for the life of a hard drive..they can go at any time...but most will give you many years of service if properly looked after.
Like the man said you can never have too much memory...
YES!!!!
by htdile - 5/23/09 4:23 AM In reply to: Is there a life expectancy on external hard drives? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
To check if you are into the "danger zone" of your HDD you must be refer to the tech specs. of the manifacturer for that model. You will find a value called MTBF expressed in hours. IF the ON time of your HDD is around that value be very carefull on its use.
I've seen perfectly running HDD to die in seconds for a failure.
Running the disk into perfect condition of temperature and without mechanical stress increases its life!!
Life of an External Hard Drive
by waytron - 5/23/09 4:35 AM In reply to: Is there a life expectancy on external hard drives? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I am sorry to report that you are living on borrowed time. Hard drives are mechanical devices with platters that are spinning at thousands of revolutions per minute and like a set of tires on a car, it is not a question of if they will fail but when? Unfortunately, it is next to impossible to predict a hard drive failure which is why having multiple backups is so important. The average life of a hard drive is typically thought to be about 5 years. Although many factors such as handling, temperature and just plain luck of the draw can result in failures at anytime. I personally find in my business that laptop drives are lasting about 3 years and desktop drives about 5, but all it takes is to drop your laptop once and you could be done. External Hard Drives use the very same hard drives that are found in desktop and laptop computers, however, I have found that they don’t seem to last nearly as long. Maybe, users drop or mishandle them more, maybe it is poor cooling, or just plugging and unplugging them incorrectly. As far as maintenance goes, other than keeping the drive defragmented and always using the “Safely Remove Hardware” icon before unplugging your drive, there is not much else you can do except avoiding any sudden shock to the drive (especially while it is turned on). You should treat an external hard drive as though it were a carton of eggs and never, ever use one as your only working copy of any data that you care about without having additional backups. Drives are so inexpensive now that simply replacing them every few years is probably the best course of action.
Dana
Wayland Computer
Life expectancy of hard drives
by gfviner - 5/23/09 5:03 AM In reply to: Is there a life expectancy on external hard drives? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Is there any way of turning off installed hard drives, other than unplugging them to prolong their lives ?
Powering down your internal drive
by waytron - 5/23/09 5:55 AM In reply to: Life expectancy of hard drives by gfvinerYou can power down your internal hard drive from the power setting menu. START > CONTROL PANEL (switch to classic view) > POWER OPTIONS. Simply change the setting for “Turn off Hard Drive”. This will spin down the hard drive after the computer has been inactive for a set period of time. NOTE: It is often debatable as to what is really worse for a hard drive. Leaving it on all the time or turning it on and off constantly. Depending on design, it may be worse for some electronics and also some mechanical devices to be subjected to the thermal stresses and power surges of constant warming up and cooling down associated with turning on and off repeatable. This has always been the similar issue when answering the question of what is best, leaving your computer turned on all the time or shutting it down?
Dana
Wayland Computer
powering down back-up HDD
by gfviner - 5/23/09 8:54 AM In reply to: Powering down your internal drive by waytronBack-up disc is not needed to run all the time, is there any way of powering down not needed HDD ?
Life Expectancy of HDDs
by Dr,BILL - 5/23/09 5:05 AM In reply to: Is there a life expectancy on external hard drives? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
As a retired expert on HDDs especially Microdrives, I feel qualified to discuss this topic. The MEDIA life expectancy is well over 20 years, that is, the time the media will retain the magnetic data if it's set on the shelf. The primary failure (wearout) item in any HDD is the bearings. Usually caused by machines that are run 24x7 or sudden shock. Rarely do you see a mobile drive failure by bearings in laptop drives that are used as portable machines however more and more are being used as home office machines and may be left spinning more than 12hrs/day.
For the external question, the major threat is shock caused by an accidental drop which could damage the bearings causing the disk to not run true and loss of data could occur.
Take care of the drive, limit spin hours and your drive should last for 10-15 years or more. Then there are those pesky electronic failures that just happen... Can't predict those.
Bill Heybruck, Ph.D.
Former Senior Engineer for Hitachi GST
Now Director, Industrial Solutions Lab, UNC Charlotte
Hard Drive Service Life
by dbisc - 5/23/09 5:50 AM In reply to: Is there a life expectancy on external hard drives? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Two specs usually determine the life of a drive - MTBF (Mean time between failure) and Service Life.
MTBF - Although this is the most stnadardized measure provided by manufacturers, it can be deceiving, MTBF ratings can equate to 20-30 years between failures - obviously this is unlikely. It is a good indicator of reliability and must be used in conjunction with the service life rating
Service Life - Typicaly this spec runs in the single digit number of years.
Personally, I would not rely on a drive more than 4-5 years (As the cost of storage has dropped so significantly, I would not take take the chance with my data)
It has been suggested elsewhere that the mtbf is 8 years.
by fivish - 5/23/09 6:07 AM In reply to: Is there a life expectancy on external hard drives? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
It has been suggested elsewhere that the mtbf is 8 years.
This means a 1 in 8 chance each year of a single drive failing.
But I had a Samsung HDD in a Dell fail after only 3 months.
I have other HDDs which are many years old and still work just fine.
So you can never tell when an HDD is going to fail. It could be in 5 minutes or five years time.
I always backup my backups!
HD Life Span
by macedeno - 5/29/09 6:39 PM In reply to: It has been suggested elsewhere that the mtbf is 8 years. by fivishMy other computer is a 15-year-old Windows 98 with a 10 GB HD that is STILL working like a charm. Of course the key is taking care of things.
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