How long will a hard drive last if it sits on a shelf?

[DaneGuy]

I need to archive some data and I was thinking of putting it on external drives because it's too much for DVD's and I don't want to use tape.

So, if I put the data on an external drive and put it on a shelf, how long will it last?

Thanks for any thoughts.

 

[Tlkki]

Very long time. Unless you drop it or your sister decides to give it a bath or something.

 

[DaneGuy]

More than 10 years?

 

[Puffnstuff]

I've had in use hd's last for more than 10 years, well ok one lasted that long. Why do you ask?

 

[Tlkki]

Yes youve USED them for 10 years.. i have too. But unused.. heck 100 years? Some factors are of course there.. heat makes the magnetism on a HD to dissipate faster, so does moving and vibration etc. So in a freezer which is stabilized with gyroscopes? Eternity?

 

[pcslookout]

A lot of people here buy a new hard drive before 10 years or even 5 years.

 

[Tlkki]

And hey on a side note. DVD-Rs cant be rewritten. You can take your HD, plug it in. And rewrite the stuff to it over again to start the countdown again.. yikes

 

[SonicIce]

Originally posted by: Tlkki
And hey on a side note. DVD-Rs cant be rewritten. You can take your HD, plug it in. And rewrite the stuff to it over again to start the countdown again.. yikes

My guess is the mechanical parts of it will fail before the platters lose magnetism.

 

[DaneGuy]

I'm just putting data on it and sticking it on a shelf.

 

[Tlkki]

Originally posted by: SonicIce

My guess is the mechanical parts of it will fail before the platters lose magnetism.

True if the drive was in use

 

[BladeVenom]

Originally posted by: DaneGuy
More than 10 years?

I wouldn't rely on magnetic storage to last more than ten years. The strength of the magnetism will decay. I don't know exactly how long it lasts, but more than 10 years and I think you start to risk losing data.

 

[Tlkki]

Happy rewriting then.. every 10 years

 

[Puffnstuff]

It probably won't be long before mechanical storage is a thing of the past.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: Puffnstuff
It probably won't be long before mechanical storage is a thing of the past.

just like the floppy???

 

[Leros]

Originally posted by: Puffnstuff
It probably won't be long before mechanical storage is a thing of the past.

Replaced by what?

 

[Roguestar]

Most people don't use them any more. I use them in work to boot from and for network drivers and legacy equipment but most people are using USB storage for their removable needs.

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: Leros
Replaced by what?

Solid state flash memory. There are already new hybrid drives using flash technology to replace volatile cache memory with non-volatile flash memory.

BTW, over long periods of time, floppy disks can lose data due to magnetic decay - we called it "bit rot" back in the 80s. A lot depends on how they are stored - light, climate, etc.

The external drive is currently a good, viable option for data storage. They can also be cloned so as to have multiple copies. Burning DVDs or anything else is slow and cumbersome, and requires restoration. Not good when time is money.

 

[Ausm]

Originally posted by: corkyg

Originally posted by: Leros
Replaced by what?

Solid state flash memory. There are already new hybrid drives using flash technology to replace volatile cache memory with non-volatile flash memory.

BTW, over long periods of time, floppy disks can lose data due to magnetic decay - we called it "bit rot" back in the 80s. A lot depends on how they are stored - light, climate, etc.

The external drive is currently a good, viable option for data storage. They can also be cloned so as to have multiple copies. Burning DVDs or anything else is slow and cumbersome, and requires restoration. Not good when time is money.

Very true floppies were notorious for loosing data over time.


Ausm

 

[bob4432]

my comment about the floppy was because people have been saying for over a decade their connector won't be on the next set of m/b, but still it is there. so i am sure hdds will be around for quite some time

 

[pradeep1]

I've got hard drives back from 1990-1992 or so in the 10 MB to 120 MB (note megabytes) range that still work when you plug them up.

I also use an external HDD as a backup device, but I would not use that as long term storage. Archival quality DVD-R would probably be the best bet for you for long term safe storage.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Tlkki

Originally posted by: SonicIce

My guess is the mechanical parts of it will fail before the platters lose magnetism.

True if the drive was in use

I'm not so sure you can count on that.

The problem is that I don't know of any large-scale studies of how 'unused' drives hold up over long time scales. Hard drives are not necessarily designed to last for decades. If you fire up the drive 10 years from now, some internal seal or bearing may have degraded to the point where the drive (or at least the motor and head assembly) doesn't work right anymore. I wouldn't be real concerned about the actual magnetic properties of the platters unless the storage conditions were bad (high heat/humidity, large thermal cycles, etc.) -- but if the head crashes on startup and scrapes the platters you're screwed. I would not personally count on magnetic hard drives for extremely long-term archival. If you're talking less than five years, hard drives should be fine.

What I normally recommend for people looking to do long-term archiving is to burn data to DVD-R discs (not -RW; -R/+R discs have higher reflectivity and should in theory hold up better to any surface damage or degradation, plus you can't accidentally erase them). Then reburn them every 5-10 years, which should avoid any major problems with media degradation and also gives you a chance to consolidate onto higher-density media. This also avoids potential issues with not being able to find drives a long time from now, though DVDs are so ubiquitous that I doubt this will be a problem even 20-30 years from now.

If you really want reliable long-term storage, use magnetic DLT tapes. They're stable for decades in good conditions, maybe much longer. And because they're widely used for backup and archival in business environments, finding tape readers should not be an issue for a long time.

 

[SonicIce]

Originally posted by: Matthias99

Originally posted by: Tlkki

Originally posted by: SonicIce

My guess is the mechanical parts of it will fail before the platters lose magnetism.

True if the drive was in use

I'm not so sure you can count on that.

The problem is that I don't know of any large-scale studies of how 'unused' drives hold up over long time scales. Hard drives are not necessarily designed to last for decades. If you fire up the drive 10 years from now, some internal seal or bearing may have degraded to the point where the drive (or at least the motor and head assembly) doesn't work right anymore. I wouldn't be real concerned about the actual magnetic properties of the platters unless the storage conditions were bad (high heat/humidity, large thermal cycles, etc.) -- but if the head crashes on startup and scrapes the platters you're screwed. I would not personally count on magnetic hard drives for extremely long-term archival. If you're talking less than five years, hard drives should be fine.

What I normally recommend for people looking to do long-term archiving is to burn data to DVD-R discs (not -RW; -R/+R discs have higher reflectivity and should in theory hold up better to any surface damage or degradation, plus you can't accidentally erase them). Then reburn them every 5-10 years, which should avoid any major problems with media degradation and also gives you a chance to consolidate onto higher-density media. This also avoids potential issues with not being able to find drives a long time from now, though DVDs are so ubiquitous that I doubt this will be a problem even 20-30 years from now.

If you really want reliable long-term storage, use magnetic DLT tapes. They're stable for decades in good conditions, maybe much longer. And because they're widely used for backup and archival in business environments, finding tape readers should not be an issue for a long time.

Yea thats what I thought about a seal or bearing or motor failing or breaking. Magnets can last for thousands of years I thought. But its probably not the same for hard drives because the data is microscopic.

 

[Cr0nJ0b]

Originally posted by: Matthias99

Originally posted by: Tlkki

Originally posted by: SonicIce

My guess is the mechanical parts of it will fail before the platters lose magnetism.

True if the drive was in use

I'm not so sure you can count on that.

The problem is that I don't know of any large-scale studies of how 'unused' drives hold up over long time scales. Hard drives are not necessarily designed to last for decades. If you fire up the drive 10 years from now, some internal seal or bearing may have degraded to the point where the drive (or at least the motor and head assembly) doesn't work right anymore. I wouldn't be real concerned about the actual magnetic properties of the platters unless the storage conditions were bad (high heat/humidity, large thermal cycles, etc.) -- but if the head crashes on startup and scrapes the platters you're screwed. I would not personally count on magnetic hard drives for extremely long-term archival. If you're talking less than five years, hard drives should be fine.

What I normally recommend for people looking to do long-term archiving is to burn data to DVD-R discs (not -RW; -R/+R discs have higher reflectivity and should in theory hold up better to any surface damage or degradation, plus you can't accidentally erase them). Then reburn them every 5-10 years, which should avoid any major problems with media degradation and also gives you a chance to consolidate onto higher-density media. This also avoids potential issues with not being able to find drives a long time from now, though DVDs are so ubiquitous that I doubt this will be a problem even 20-30 years from now.

If you really want reliable long-term storage, use magnetic DLT tapes. They're stable for decades in good conditions, maybe much longer. And because they're widely used for backup and archival in business environments, finding tape readers should not be an issue for a long time.

what he said! :thumbsup:

for long-term retention of important or critical data look to NARA. They set the standards for government retention of records at places like the national archive.

I would say if you are keep your copies of your photos and such, you are safe. Just spin the drive up every few years to make sure that nothing is getting corrupted. Do some low level disk diags to verify it.

If you are saving the only digital copy of the formula for cold fusion. and you don't have any other copies anywhere...well, I would not take our collective word for it and do a little research first. Maybe keep two seperate copies on different media etc.

edit: By the way...not to start a flame here, but I wouldn't trust ANY tape medium for longer than 3 years without exercise. I think NARA recommends 1 year for tape format.

 

[setras]

so long as drive remains sealed and it is not exposed to large magnetic fields or dropped, in theory it will hold the data indefinately. A few years back i dropped an old conner 256Mb (from a compaq 325sx prolinea) in a washing up bowl full of water by accident, after it had dried it worked fine.

thinking about it i heard a mate tell a joke once which if done could store data for eons bar earth destruction event.

he said "have you heard after amazon's bid to try and patent the single click option for mice, apple have responded by releasing all their back catalogue of software in an anologue format which will be available on vinyl from your local record shop"

 

[Matthias99]

edit: By the way...not to start a flame here, but I wouldn't trust ANY tape medium for longer than 3 years without exercise. I think NARA recommends 1 year for tape format.

I can't seem to find any specific NARA recommendations around tape archival. If you have a link that would be very helpful. I'm not sure what you would use for long-term archival if not magnetic tape (unless you just mean that they recommend rewriting the tapes every few years; this may help but should not be necessary over even 10+ years). Or do they advocate MO media or something like that?

DLT and LTO tapes both claim (and AFAIK this has been pretty well backed-up, if you'll excuse the pun ) to last at least 30 years for archival purposes if they are kept in proper environmental conditions. If you're looking at longer timescales than that you'll need to copy the data onto new media at shorter intervals than that.

edit:

for instance, here's a part of a NARA report where they specifically talk about disks being less reliable in some cases then tape for long-term storage:

http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10707&page=45

There is more to learn about the use of disk storage for long-term preservation. The details of disk drive failure mechanisms and statistics are not yet fully known, because manufacturers are loath to release data. It is not clear, for example, whether disks should be powered down if they are not expected to be used for a while or whether a disk that has been powered off for a long time should be run periodically to lubricate its bearings. There are indications that the lifetime of some disks is somewhat reduced when they are operated near other disks because of coupled vibration.

However, their overall recommendations are to try to use redundant networked drive arrays for the bulk of their storage, since the performance is so much better (especially for online/nearline use) and their projections indicate that drives should be cheaper than bulk tape over time (since hard drives are increasing their storage density faster than tape is). However, their needs are VERY different from most home users looking to backup photos or documents.

If you're trying to archive terabytes of data (which would take hundreds of DVDs), you may be better off with using external hard drives and copying the data onto newer/higher-density drives every five years or so. But there's just less to go wrong mechanically with a passive media like DVD or tape.