How long do External HDs/Enclosure's Last?

[smoaky]

Im going away to college in a week. I have a laptop, but its only 80gb, so I picked up a new lacie 250gb and a used 120gb WD. I also bought some cheap enclosures for some IDEs i have lying around. I plan on having atleast the lacie plugged in 24/7 for sharing over my schools network, and probably similar for the 120gb Western Digital. Does anyone have any idea how long these drives last? I don't have enough cash to backup an external HD. I will use the enclosures to backup my laptop, so those will only be plugged in for a few hours a day at most. Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[Blain]

They should be fine for the rest of the year.

 

[smoaky]

I would hope so...

I would think the lacie should last atleast 2-3 years, its one of the most reputable names on the market. The Western Digital I bought from the circuit city store on ebay, so I'm thinking it is in pretty good shape. The other IDEs that I will put in an enclosure (120,160gb respectively) were used for 1.5 years about. The latter, like I said, will only be plugged in sporadically to back up my OS and Docs.

 

[Nocturnal]

I've had my Adaptec ACS-100 for about a year now. I've had no problems with it whatsoever. This enclosure is used to do data backups so I swap out drives almost on a daily basis.

 

[Rubycon]

If it's cheap and not made from thick aluminum with the hard drive firmly bolted to it, I'd say it's good until the fan fails. Then the drive starts to cook.

 

[smoaky]

The two aluminum enclosures do not have fans. Will those basically cook, as you say? In general, the enclosures will be for backup, not everyday use. The two manufactured external hard drives, the lacie and the used WD, will be used 24/7.

 

[Rubycon]

The ones without fans use the housing to dissipate heat build up from the drives. They should be OK as long as the drive does not get too warm inside. If the enclosure feels warm it's a good bet the drive is sunk to the chassis. If it stays room temp, watch out!

 

[smoaky]

thats good cus my new lacie feels quite warm, I've had it plugged into my desktop for 2 hours to transfer 150gb. but I'll have to wait until I get my enclosures to see how they run.

 

[smoaky]

btw - these are the drives i purchased -

Lacie 250gb - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822154043
WD 120gb - http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi...&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1
2 enclosures - http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi...&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT&rd=1
also picked up two usb-ide converters and 2 power supplies, kind of pointless since I bought the enclosures. Maybe I can make an enclosure w/ a tiny fan myself that has an open top so heat can get out. - http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi...&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT&rd=1