Do you know the lifespan of your hard disk?
By scheng1
@scheng1 (24650)
Singapore
December 19, 2015 3:06am CST
I never pay attention to the lifespan of a hard disk until one died on me.
That happened early this year.
It was a frustrating week. I thought that a virus had wiped out the hard disk, so I had to call service.
Fortunately I had the good sense to buy extended warranty when I bought the computer a couple of years ago.
The servicing guy collected the computer from my house, installed a new hard disk, and delivered to my house free of charge.
They managed to salvage all the data too.
According to research, hard disk has a very short lifespan. Most of them die on you by the third year.
For more than 30 years, the realm of computing has been intrinsically linked to the humble hard drive. Given our exceedingly heavy reliance on hard drives, and their key role in the expansion of personal computing and cloud storage, it's very, very weird t
3 people like this
3 responses
@ChinaLeon (247)
• Tianjin, China
19 Dec 15
I have a hard disk to keep some very important photos and documents. But I use it very little. I think if I use it seldomly , I can expand it's lifespan.
1 person likes this
@scheng1 (24650)
• Singapore
19 Dec 15
I think there are better ways to store the information.
One way is to get different email accounts, and you can send the important documents from one email to another as attachment.
In this case, both email accounts will store the documents.
Another method is to use free cloud storage.
@ChinaLeon (247)
• Tianjin, China
19 Dec 15
@scheng1 Yeah! Nowdays,I upload the document into the cloud storage. So convient!
@Letranknight2015 (51536)
• Philippines
19 Dec 15
oh crap now Im freaking out because I have a hard disk that I haven't used in a long time. I totally forgot about it i wonder maybe i should request to have the files transferred then. probably next year, i just hope that the hard disk is still alive then.
1 person likes this
@santuccie (3384)
• United States
27 Dec 15
I suspect that average is affected by the duds that die within the first few months, as good hard drives can last five years or longer. There are some 15-year-old machines out there with their original hard drives still in them, still working. Of course, they are rare.
I've seen plenty of disk failures, and I prepare for them. When I'm first setting up a new computer, I create backups along the way. In the case of a Windows unit, I'll start by going through the out-of-box setup with a local user account, then quickly disabling autostart on all factory crapware (if applicable), and restarting before anything crashes. After the first restart, I'll then proceed to disable autostart on any Windows processes that I don't want running in the background (e.g. Windows Defender, Disk Defragmenter, Microsoft Update), and restart again. Then, I'll turn UAC all the way up, set power options the way I want them, run SFC (System File Checker), do a full shutdown (shutdown /s /t 0), and create an initial full backup with Acronis True Image. Once I have a full backup, I'll then proceed to uninstall the crapware and install the apps I want, creating differential backups as I go.
For Macs, it’s easy. Time Machine enables you to not only back up and restore apps and data to the same hardware, but to migrate to new hardware as well (some apps may require new licenses to work on new hardware). The closest thing to a counterpart in the Windows realm is PCmover, and it’s difficult to use. Some apps will not transfer properly, and I’ve had to manually remove files and registry entries and run migrations twice to be completely rid of their effects on the system. Also, some apps use drivers which need to be backed up separately if these apps are to be used. Nevertheless, PCmover can be quite useful, particularly for semi-noninvasive repair of systems so crippled from infections or otherwise that even a repair install of Windows wouldn’t fix them.
As for storage of data files and install packages for the apps I use, I have a nifty, little server setup to save them on. I have Windows 8.1 Professional emulated on VirtualBox, so it is hardware independent, and can be copied to a new machine and running in minutes, no reconfiguration needed. It’s set up with a static internal IP address (assuming the address is free on the router), shared folders, and server app connected to a mirrored data pool (Storage Spaces, a software RAID of sorts), using the new ReFS resilient file system to help fight corruption. I also have an extra, 4TB drive to backup the data pool, just in case. My very most important files are backed up online, and encrypted if they contain sensitive data.
