How Long Do Hard Drives Last? - Comments Page 1

Fascinating numbers Bob. Now that hard drives have been in use for so long we can have some really meaningful numbers. I especially appreciated that you break them down into practical stats for us. I have seen a 20 Mbyte (yes, that's megabyte) drive that was still humming along fine after more than twenty years regular use, and at the other end of the scale I have had one literally fail catastrophically less than an hour out of the box - a read/write head fell off its arm and you can imagine what that did inside the drive. The noise it made will stay with me for ever in my worst nightmares. So you literally just never know. Really, when you consider all that's going on inside one of those little drive cases, it's a wonder they do as well as they do. Great article, and my thanks for your awesome newsletter which I look forward to each week. Live long & prosper Bob.

MTBF stands for mean time between failure, that isn't the average time before a hard drive fails, but the mean. That means half the drives will fail before that and half after. Most MTBF numbers are more likely to be calculated numbers based on accelerated testing since testing for 5 or more years would make time to market very impractical. So accelerated testing may involve higher temperature operations etc.

Interesting info. I have been using computers with hard drives since 1989. Currently I regularly use CCleaner followed by defragmenting and optimization. I have NEVER had a hard drive fail. The defragmenting program I use has a provision to turn off the PC after completion of the task. So I usually engage it before bedtime and let it do its job. Just routine and I think it pays off. Oh yeah....I also back up....not the entire drive because it is so big....but all of the critical data. That data is constantly backed up on two other hard drives plus all my thousands of photo images are saved on DVD's and copies of those are stored not only in my home but also with all three of our sons in their homes. I've considered using a bank safe deposit box but have not gone that route yet.

I thoroughly enjoy your informative news E-mails. Thank you.

No matter what I try to do to backup my computer, I always get, "insert floppy disk".
It won't let me use a cdr, nor a usb, nor an external drive, in place thereof. I use an external drive and save on it, but would prefer a full backup at least weekly. Best regards, john.

The patterns of this binary code store your data as a collection of magnetized spots in one state or the other.
Braille for a computer. No? Best regards, john.

Great topic Bob. Brings to mind a story this past week where the guy had a code for retrieving his 7500 bitcoins, stored on his computer. Obviously he had no backup. If you missed it they are now worth 7.5 million dollars and the hard drive is buried in a landfill with no reasonable expectancy of ever seeing it again. Best regards, john.

Good article Bob! I will say that I have at least one up to date cloned backup for every computer I own ready to do a drive swap if it ever becomes necessary. with that said, I have a couple of laptops that run 24/7 and they have been for 7 years or more in a couple of cases. Those drives are still humming along perfectly. I agree, if you have a cloned backup on a new drive, hardrive failure is not something you will frequently need to think about.I use Casper for all my cloning and it works flawless.

Mark, you are confusing mean and median. Mean = average. Median = half before, half after.

I have found that the length of the manufacturer's warranty is the only thing we mere mortals have to estimate the hdd's lifespan. A 5 year warranted hdd is usually better made than a 3 year warranted hdd which is batter made than a 2 year warranted hdd. Go to Seagate.com or wdc.com for Western Digital.

I've never understood the problems with hard drives.
My oldest is a WD 80 gb from 2002 and runs Windows 7 beautifully. I have drives from 2004, 2006, 2008, and 2011 running Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 just fine. They're Western Digital and Seagate. I only had a problem with a Maxtor and it sounds fine but I goofed up something in the boot process but it still has data on it. I don't even keep them in the case and swap them around all the time. I don't think they're as fragile as everyone makes them out to be.

It seems to me that current SATA hard disks are less durable than older ones IDE and EIDE ones, maybe because the bit packing is so much tighter. I never had a disk failure from 1985 on until my second-from-last new computer, which had a 1Tb SATA2 disk that, after about a year, started clicking and failed within 30 seconds, taking all my data files with it. I had to recover them and rename them one at a time.

My first-from-last one had a 1Tb SATA3 hard disk that started making noise and failed after 6 months. Fortunately, I had learned my lesson and had an image backup.

My current computer has a 1Tb SATA3 disk to which I've added an internal 4Tb SATA2 one, which I back up to frequently. I also have set Word to keep prior versions on the 4TB drive. It'll be a long time before word processing files consume 4Tb.

Thank you Mr. Rankin,
It sounds like I am bucking the odds, as I normally have to retire my drives before they die, since I was always in need of larger and larger HDDs.

I was surprised by the Google statement "...that temperature doesn’t matter as much as you might think." Even though, I don't think as much as they think I think!

The next burning question that is yearning for a real-life answer would be "How Long Do Solid State Drives Last?".
SSDLife utility (FREE/Pro) provides some answers for my current Win8 OS SSD (240GB Patriot Pyro SE w/TRIM):
WorkTime: 12493Hours (1Year, 5Months, 5Days)
Powered on: 370 times
Data Reads: 13.7TB
Data writes: 10.1TB
Estimated Lifetime: 8Year, 3Months, 23Days
T.E.C Date: 2012/04/10

I haven't seen any data on they type of usage that causes drives to fail. If a drive sits there just spinning but not seeking, might it last 10 or 20 years compared to the same drive that constantly seeks, only lasting but 4 years? Intuitively the back and forth stress of the seeking mechanism should be the weakest point in a drive.

I normally do not have any drive spinning more than an hour or so per day and have never had a failure. The exception is my Directv DVR; it has been running continuously now for 5 years with no problem. They use a much sturdier construction drive than standard consumer issue and I try to keep it as empty as possibly under the assumption that the seeks are much shorter. Time will tell on this one.

I apologize for the typo:
The last line my post SHOULD read:
T.E.C. Date: 2022/04/10 (I think T.E.C. indicates the estimate date of SSD death)

I strongly suggest that defragging your HD should be done ONLY when it's utmost necessary. Remember that defragging means rewriting ALL your files wich were written since your last defrag. Meaning : you do all your writes TWICE...
People who defrag regularly shout devide their MTBF by 2 ... yes ?

Sorry, Tony ... But, the DVRs use the same standard consumer's hard drive, too. The newest ones are usually, 1TB at 7,500 RPM or 750GB at 7,500 RPM. They will fail, just like any PC or Laptop, at the same rate ... Which, is still one of Life's little mysteries!!!

The real issue hear is .... Back Up, Back Up, Back Up and Back Up some more!!! No one can make that point, any clearer. Plus, I don't know of any real Geek, who doesn't recommend, that you Back Up, all important data, to you ... Just in case, there is a Hard Drive Failure.

Trying to recover Lost Data, can be frustrating as all get out and there is NO guarantee, it can be recovered!!! Paying a company to do this service, can be rather expensive, $500 and up. There are several FREE software versions, but, you really must know what you are doing, to even get the lost data, you want. I recommend GEC's SpinRite. It does cost $89.95 and was created by Steve Gibson, one of the smartest computer Geeks, that I know of, besides Bob Rankin.

Steve Gibson has been into computers, right from the get go and was writing Assembly Code, for other companies, way back when. In fact, Steve still like to write in Assembly Code, the footprint is so small and simply, does NOT interfere with your PC. Bob knows Steve, most Geeks do. His SpinRite program has been around for years and is continually, updated. It just works, but, only if the hard drive can be recovered.

Another thing, to listen to the sounds of a Hard Drive "dying", is NOT music, to one's ear, ok? LOL Been there, done that, several times. :)

@Tony --- Excuse me, for the snickering, but, Hard Drive Disc Failure, is still one of Life's Great Mysteries. You just can not predict, when it will happen. I prefer to chose good, well known brands, as opposed to using "generic" brands, for my PCs. I have had the best success with Western Digital and Seagate, the worst experiences have been with Maxtor. Again, Hard Drives in general, tend to be a "crap shoot."

Now, having said that I have had the greatest success using Western Digital, the one brand that crashed the quickest was Western Digital. A brand new one, crashed in 4 months. Now, that really surprised me. However, I still trust the Western Digital brand, the most.

Oh, Tony --- Just for your info ... The Hard Drives in a DVR, are just the same as the Standard Consumer Issued ones. They are not the BIG Hard Drives, like the Western Digital VelociRaptor, which runs at 10,000 RPMs, mainly used by power users. The ones that I have removed from my DVRs, has been the standard consumer's Hard Drive, which runs at 7,500 RPMs or 5,400 RPMs, in day's gone past and have been between 80GB, 160GB and 350GB. The one in my main DVR today, is 1TB and is a standard Hard Drive, at 7,500 RPMs.

The main difference between the newer DVRs and the older ones, is that the Hard Drives hold lots more storage today, than in years past. The Hard Drive inside, is still basically the same ... Standard Consumer issued.

The best plan of all, is to simply Back Up, Back Up, Back Up and Back Up some more. I don't think, this can be expressed enough. Every Geek, on the Planet will tell you this. Why?! Because, they know that a Hard Drive can "fail" at anytime, without any warning. Why, do they know this?! Because, it has happened to them, at least once, when they hadn't "Backed Up" everything, that's why. I can't tell you, how many times I have read about websites being hacked, going down and all content was lost completely. This is no different, than a Hard Drive failing completely. The lost is always devastating. Especially, for Home Office owners. This is also why, trying to recover valuable information off of a "failed" Hard Drive, costs so darn much!!! Plus, there is never a guarantee, that anything can be recovered!!!

It easily could be money spent and money lost and I mean, lots of dollars, like $500 and up, for Recovery Service Companies. Then there are also, FREE software, that may or may not help you, recover data. One recommendation is GRC's Spinrite, which costs &89.95. The owner of GRC, is Steve Gibson, he is the Computer Geek's, Geek. He is well known, within the computer field and well respected. Right now, SpinRite has had years of recommendations and years of usage, by those who have needed this software. :)

I disagree about DVR drive quality. I have removed dvr drives on several occasions and noticed much sturdier construction, much thicker and heavier walls than on standard consumer drives of the same brand.This reduces warping and misalignment. What the insides look like I do not know but I assume similar sturdiness throughout.

A completely different and non-technic, call me uninformed, remark: seems you discuss not an issue but an attitude. When was the last time you checked &/or aired up the tires on the car you drive every day, or its oil, coolant, or battery? Things any adolescent can safely do at home for free in minutes...but does it get done? If not, will hazard a guess your drives crash frequently, your home, relationships, and life in general seem chaotic and require large injections of money to stabilize; even then not very successfully. Thanks Bob for all your insights even if many go right over my small pointy head.

Until the introduction of SATA drives, I was totally hooked on the SCSI interface and I had continually upgraded my Adaptec SCSI interface cards up to the time when SCSI320 met its challenge and SATA I/F became the de facto standard. I have had SCSI HDDs that spun at 10k and 15k rpm. I used to pay more for SCSI i/f cables than the current cost of SATA 1TB drives. I never had the desire to run RAID of any flavor but I used to run upto 6 different HDDs in all my systems. Not one of these Seagate SCSI HDDs ever failed on me and I would have to yank them out just to get larger SCSI HDDs as replacements. Then and with the introduction of Seagate VelociRaptor (10k rpm) SATA HDDs, it cost me a small fortune to upgrade to the original 150GB HDDs and then stepped up to few additional 300GB VelociRaptors. I have always used separate HDDs for 1)WinOS drive, 2)Data drive, 3)Audio/Music drive, 4)Video/Movie drive 5)Backup/Archive drive and 6)Linux OS drive. And now, with the 'reasonably' priced SSDs; I have replaced my WinOS drive to an SSD. During all of these years of multi-HDD systems, not one of these drives have ever failed. Instead they were retired for newer, faster, larger and higher performance drives. I am finding out that using an SSD for the WinOS drive has been the most substantial speed increase that I have seen over the past 2+ decades. A 240GB SSD can now be bought for under $200 and the performance improvement is amazing and worth every penny. For longevity purposes, I never share the WinOS drive for any data storage purposes and I have found over the years that multi-partitioning of the same drive does nothing to protect against single point hardware failure(s). Consider replacing your current OS drive with an SSD and you will be surprised at the performance gains that you can realize.