RichardMcJunkin
Technical User
I have a 3gig hard drive in a Gateway that is four years old. Does anyone have any knowledge with the history of hard drives and how long they can be expected to perform?
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Hard Disc Useful Life Expectancy
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History is worthless. Design specs as published by the manufacturers is a figment of their imaginations.
If you go to the drive manufacturer you can find specs on the drive. There may be a spec for design life, but those have been inflated over the last few years for competitive reasons.
In the real world I suspect that the value for "Mean Time to Failure" is around 3 years. Enough last past 3 years to raise the average for those that die early. And the interface type seems to affect longevity but it may also reflect additional quality control on drives that will sell for a higher price.
I'm sure that the manufacturers have some sample data, but I'm also sure that it will be locked away for competitive reasons. Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.
If you go to the drive manufacturer you can find specs on the drive. There may be a spec for design life, but those have been inflated over the last few years for competitive reasons.
In the real world I suspect that the value for "Mean Time to Failure" is around 3 years. Enough last past 3 years to raise the average for those that die early. And the interface type seems to affect longevity but it may also reflect additional quality control on drives that will sell for a higher price.
I'm sure that the manufacturers have some sample data, but I'm also sure that it will be locked away for competitive reasons. Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.
CitrixEngineer
Technical User
I agree with Ed.
It can depend on how hard it was hammered in its lifetime, and whether it was regularly defragmented/otherwise maintained.
Then again, some drives can take a real hammering and survive for years - I have a WD Caviar 420Mb drive that I bought 8 years ago that still works perfectly. I also have a WD Caviar 1.2Gb drive I bought 2 years later, that got less usage than the previous one, and hasn't worked properly since 1998. Should chuck it out really.
Of course, mechanical devices are more prone to failure than solid-state ones, but even solid-state devices can pack in unexpectedly. Case in point, one Intel pentium III 450Mhz that died 1 year and 5 days after I bought it.
Erm, back On-Topic, you should reasonably expect a hard disk to last about three years. I don't think any manufacturer provides warranties longer than this.
With good maintenance, it should last even longer
CitrixEngineer@yahoo.co.uk
It can depend on how hard it was hammered in its lifetime, and whether it was regularly defragmented/otherwise maintained.
Then again, some drives can take a real hammering and survive for years - I have a WD Caviar 420Mb drive that I bought 8 years ago that still works perfectly. I also have a WD Caviar 1.2Gb drive I bought 2 years later, that got less usage than the previous one, and hasn't worked properly since 1998. Should chuck it out really.
Of course, mechanical devices are more prone to failure than solid-state ones, but even solid-state devices can pack in unexpectedly. Case in point, one Intel pentium III 450Mhz that died 1 year and 5 days after I bought it.
Erm, back On-Topic, you should reasonably expect a hard disk to last about three years. I don't think any manufacturer provides warranties longer than this.
With good maintenance, it should last even longer
CitrixEngineer@yahoo.co.ukAs most hard drives are backed by a 3 year warranty it is reasonable to expect the manufactures to have designed them to exceed this by a percentage margin to safeguard against exessive return rates.
Having said that I would guess the average to be around 4 years. Martin Just trying to help, sometimes falling short, I am only human after all.
Having said that I would guess the average to be around 4 years. Martin Just trying to help, sometimes falling short, I am only human after all.
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