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hdd life span....

Q

Qasar

Member
based on the manufacture date... how long would a mechanical hdd last, before it starts to die ?

reading this article :

https://www.extremetech.com/computing/170748-how-long-do-hard-drives-actually-live-for

seems like the average span is about 4 years use if used 24/7.. but factor in a drive being turned off for a few hrs at least per day, aka when one goes to sleep... how long will it last before it starts to die ? 5 years maybe ?? as i have mentioned in my other thread about hdd surface scanning/testing programs, the drive i have range from being made in 2006 to 2011, based on the above.. all 16 of my hdds, are now EOL .... and sadly.. that looks to include 2 velocity raptors i have, 300 gig and 600 gig....

think its time to replace some of the drives... dont need them all any more.. but some i do still need, i think...
 
I think it depends on the brand. Hitachi Ultrastar will probably last much longer than any Seagate.
 
they can last a long time in terms of age, I have lots of 10+ years HDs running fine.
even my main HD is now almost 8 years old
 
That article, and the charts in it, without getting brand-specific, pretty-much match up with my own experiences. I generally wipe and sell my HDDs that reach a 3-year or 4-year mark, and buy fresh, larger ones.

Some of my drives, though, my 2TB 7K3000 Hitachi drives, I still have in my server, have never replaced. One has some bad sectors, a bunch of them, but the other drives are fine. I guess I'll probably keep those until they die. (Due to server design and redundancy, I can run them until one drive dies, then swap it, and keep going.)
 
SPBHM said:
they can last a long time in terms of age, I have lots of 10+ years HDs running fine.
even my main HD is now almost 8 years old
Click to expand...

Likewise. There is, IMHO, another facet to consider, and that is how full you keep it. I don't fill drives at more than 60%, and I maintain them regularly.
 
I usually run out of space and buy larger drives before they die. I have working hard drives anywhere from a couple to over ten years old. Buy a quality brand like HGST or Western Digital and odds are they will last a long time.
 
There is just no way to tell how long a HD will last.
The parts that wear out the most are the motor (which is why it is a good idea to not park/ put the drive to sleep very often), the actuator arms/RW heads, and finally the PCB.

I have seen no pattern at all to determine when a HD will go belly up. Some have died with a very low amount of hours on them, others have been beaten to hell and back, and still function just fine.
Doesn't make a difference if you write a ton of data or not either.

In the end, the only thing we know for sure is that all HDs will fail, and you need to keep backups.
 
Could be 20 years, could be 20 hours. Average and median are what they are.

Keep backups and keep enough money in a shoebox under the floorboards** to replace your HDD* on relatively short notice.

*And any other computer components with moving parts like your optical drive, GPU fans, and so on. And probably some other things like eyeglasses, driver's license, passport, birth certificate, etc. But I digress.

*Or maybe a savings account.
 
Qasar said:
seems like the average span is about 4 years use if used 24/7.. but factor in a drive being turned off for a few hrs at least per day, aka when one goes to sleep... how long will it last before it starts to die ? 5 years maybe ??
Click to expand...

It's long been debated if turning the drives off is actually better or worse for the drives from a reliability stand point. In general, on the consumer side, hard drives have been getting less and less reliable but they've been getting far cheaper too. I consider 5 years run time a solid lifespan for a modern consumer drive and that's generally what I've been getting out of the Seagates in my servers which are on 24x7.
 
Just as an outlier , The 40 GB Toshiba HDD in My Pismo Powerbook was bought in 2003 ! Still running just fine , but I just ordered parts to replace it !
Just in case ... LOL
 
XavierMace said:
It's long been debated if turning the drives off is actually better or worse for the drives from a reliability stand point. In general, on the consumer side, hard drives have been getting less and less reliable but they've been getting far cheaper too. I consider 5 years run time a solid lifespan for a modern consumer drive and that's generally what I've been getting out of the Seagates in my servers which are on 24x7.
Click to expand...

they just fail after that? or are you replacing them before
had to check my main drive (Samsung F3 from 2009) it shows 58800 hours of usage and 3300 power on counts

my worst period with reliability was 2003-2004 with Maxtors.
 
I recently replaced all of my companies servers. On the new server I went all SSD. The servers that were replaced just hit 9 years of 24/7 on time. In the six years that I have been at this job out of the 32 spinny HDs only one has failed. All drives were/are WD. Thats pretty damn good IMO. Now, the 8 2tb drives I have on the nas fail all the time. Those are seagates. So yeah. I stick with WD.
 
There is no definite answer. But one crucial factor is heat.

If you keep the drives very cool, they can last a lot longer than the drives that are not well ventilated.
 
mxnerd said:
There is no definite answer. But one crucial factor is heat.

If you keep the drives very cool, they can last a lot longer than the drives that are not well ventilated.
Click to expand...
IMO, that is just one factor. Sure, if the HDs go higher than 60C, those will die pretty quickly.
I have seen plenty of systems in hot rooms with the HDs hitting 45-50C and those are still chugging away.
Another factor is if they are located in a high vibration area. I think that is the #1 killer for units I have seen, which is why those companies are going for solid state now.

I tend to think how they are actually made makes the biggest difference, but, is impossible for users to know, and they end up randomly failing either at the first few months of use, or years later.
 
I think for the average consumer that buys a few drive, the failure rate is completely random. I have seagates that lasted 5+ years with ZERO issues in 24/7 environment and Ultrastar 3TB drives that start to have uncorrectable sectors in less than a year.
 
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