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EIDE Question..

M

Maezr

Senior member
How often do EIDE hard drives actually fail?

I've had my computer running 24/7 for almost three years, and I really haven't had any problems at all. Have I been lucky? Or is it just not very common for them to fail?
 
Erm... It's on the 5th page, still no responses..

Sorry for double posting.. but eh, I'd really like to know.
 
I usually buy a new hard drive (bigger, better, faster) about once every 18 months or so. I've only experienced one hard drive failure. It was a 17GB (or maybe 18GB, I don't remember) Seagate. It started making all sorts of great noises. Data was unrecoverable. If you're running a 3 years old hard drive, it must be an ATA33 drive. Less than 20GB too, right? Dude, sounds like it's time for an upgrade.
 
Really depends on the make/model. I've had 3 IBM drives die in under 8 months, but have had 5 seagate drives last for 4 years+ (heavy useage on all drives).
 
Yeah, it's less than 20 gigs..

I'm getting a new one, actually, two new ones. Here's the thing.. Right now, all my data is on CDRs, but it's a HUGE pain.. I'm getting two 80 gig HDs.. I don't really plan on backing stuff up.. What are the chances that one of these are going to fail on me at some point?
 


<< What are the chances that one of these are going to fail on me at some point? >>


almost definitely as no hdd lives forever!
 


<< Yeah, it's less than 20 gigs..

I'm getting a new one, actually, two new ones. Here's the thing.. Right now, all my data is on CDRs, but it's a HUGE pain.. I'm getting two 80 gig HDs.. I don't really plan on backing stuff up.. What are the chances that one of these are going to fail on me at some point? >>



If it's important data, I would never trust it in just one location. What I did is went with dual 80gig'ers, and have them pretty full....but only about 30-35GB of the total 160GB is actual 'important' stuff....for that stuff I have both a CD-R backup & I have it duplicated on both 80-gig HDD's.
 
Modern HDDs are pretty reliable (the quality ones i.e. Maxtor, IBM, Seagate), you may want to check out the MTBF (Mean Time Before Failure) charts on the manufacturers websites for the HDDs your looking at. Also check out their RMA policy. One other thing to consider, if your overclocking with high FSB speeds, the HDDs expected MTBF wil most likely decrease.
 


<< Modern HDDs are pretty reliable (the quality ones i.e. Maxtor, IBM, Seagate), you may want to check out the MTBF (Mean Time Before Failure) charts on the manufacturers websites for the HDDs your looking at. Also check out their RMA policy. One other thing to consider, if your overclocking with high FSB speeds, the HDDs expected MTBF wil most likely decrease. >>



I would remove IBM from that list, just a quick search on here for 75GXP will give you a good idea of their reliability. Never had a Maxtor die however, and only one Seagate. Can't comment on Maxtor's policy, but I know that Seagate will send a replacement drive in <2 weeks without data recovery, within your 3-year warranty period.
 
I've read so many horrible things about the 75gxp. I've got 2 of them. They're both about 8 months old. No problem so far. Keeping my fingers crossed.......
 
Well, I really want to avoid backing up with CDRs if I can.

For RAID mirroring, what exactly would I need? Would it not be worth it? But RAID'll only save me if the HDDs fail while the comp is on and running, right?
 


<< Well, I really want to avoid backing up with CDRs if I can.

For RAID mirroring, what exactly would I need? Would it not be worth it? But RAID'll only save me if the HDDs fail while the comp is on and running, right? >>



RAID 1 (mirroring) will basically just make both hard drives be exact duplicates of each other. It doesn't matter if your comptuer is on or not when the HDD fails (although unless you drop kick your comptuer I don't see how it would fail when it's not on), because the other one ALWAYS has an exact duplicate of the original data on it.
 
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