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Hard disk data longevity

S

Silver Fang

Junior Member
Hi,

If a hard drive with all its data, are not used for some years or hasnt been re-written.
The magnetic disc will degrade over time.

What about hard drives from Xbox or Playstation ??
Once you buy digital games, you dont re-write them.

Will the games be playable after 5-30 years ??
If the hard drives have not been failed by that time.

Thanks for any answers
 
Will the games be playable after 5-30 years? If it's a digital download and they still offer it to you then just re-download. As for HDDs... as with any hardware, it can/eventually fail. What's more important regardless of the storage tech is backups. Luckily a 1TB of HDD space on a hot sale is about $30 now. I'd pay that $30 to avoid the headache of losing/retrieving data.
 
I can tell you my anecdotal evidence. I have successfully used hard drives that are 8 years old but have not been used for 5 years. I would not assume that this would hold true 30 years later.

You should have backups, and I would at least transition those backups to fresh media after 5-6 years. How long I go without changing to a fresh drive depends on how important the data is.
 
So a back up every 2-5 years back and forth, just to refresh the files.

What about SSD, can it be unused for years after the data is stored on it ??

Thanks in advance
 
Silver Fang said:
Hi,

If a hard drive with all its data, are not used for some years or hasnt been re-written.
The magnetic disc will degrade over time.
Click to expand...
Yes, depending on the state at the time of writing. Theoretically, it should take quite a few years for data to be lost, long enough that your biggest risk is mechanical failure due to the motor drying out, or something like that. OTOH, I have seen bit-rot within months, and HDDs are usually not sufficiently paranoid, when it comes to weakened sectors (if a sector has to be written to or read from more than twice, I want a log of it!).

What about hard drives from Xbox or Playstation ??
Once you buy digital games, you dont re-write them.
Click to expand...
What do you mean? AFAIK, unless you are buying PC games that are DRM-free (buy from GoG, when possible!), I don't know of any differences, as they are all, "digital games," and have DRM that might fail if the mothership is shut down.

Will the games be playable after 5-30 years ??
If the hard drives have not been failed by that time.
Click to expand...
Most, no, regardless of the HDDs failing. This is one of the reasons there are people that are so dead set against DRM--not that content producers shouldn't be paid, but it makes a cultural content time bomb.
 
Silver Fang said:
So a back up every 2-5 years back and forth, just to refresh the files.

What about SSD, can it be unused for years after the data is stored on it ??

Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Data left alone can die. The longer you leave it, the better the chances are that some of it might be lost. Trusting that any single copy of your data, that you haven't checked on recently, is still complete and valid, is how you lose it.
 
So a back up every 2-5 years back and forth, just to refresh the files.
Click to expand...
I think it's more "refreshing" your hardware than preventing bit rot(more of a problem here in the PacNW where it rains a lot). You've got to be able to plug your storage device into something to get the data off it. The storage devices themselves will probably fail before the data on them becomes encrusted with mold.
 
What about the hard drives on the stores that are unused and 1-2 years old ??
Some never gets sold and just hanging there for months and years...

Are those hard drives bad ??
 
Some of them, maybe. Personally, I've never seen that. Even Staples, which would never be my first stop, always seem to have spotty stock of drives, due to shallow inventory and people buying them.
 
The biggest threat to and HDD is magnetic fields and impact.
I have recently pulled HDs from the early 90s that I used to move images and documents to during my migration from C= and Amiga.
Couple Conners IDE and Quantum SCSI drives (120MB-4GB), All was good (Wow, Slow).
Had to see what was on them and retrieved a few things lost over time before I tore them down for the magnets.
 
So in about 10-40 years, peoples Xbox, Wii and Playstation is not useable because of the hard drive, all the downloaded games is corrupt ?
We cant show our grandchildren, this is what we played etc.
 
Silver Fang said:
So in about 10-40 years, peoples Xbox, Wii and Playstation is not useable because of the hard drive, all the downloaded games is corrupt ?
We cant show our grandchildren, this is what we played etc.
Click to expand...
Do not connect your console to the internet. As in open it, and try to use it completely disconnected. See how many games work (zero downloaded games will work, since they can't be downloaded,and games that need patches won't get them). Then, consider the relative importance of a hard drive. 99% of your downloaded games will be unplayable long before the HDD technology becomes obsolete (it's a replaceable SATA HDD, so it going bad/corrupting is fixable, for now).

When it comes to something like 40 years out, emulation is basically the only answer. For a good read on how it was with rather old, much simpler tech, read the history of BSNES. DRMed DD does put a bit of a speed bump into that, though, since someone will have to have up to date copies to be able to emulate, including emulating or circumventing the DRM used.
 
Digital games doesnt always be connected to internet.
For example Xbox 360 or Wii U, you download to the drive and can play it offline, no patch or update needed.
 
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