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Is there a recommended limit to how full you fill a mechanical HDD?

James Stokes
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Go to solution Solved by Jihakuz,

The more you fill your hard drive up, the slower it goes. I wouldn't worry about it unless you're using 95%+ of your space.

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I am looking for a HDD to backup my current data in case one of my drives fail. When I get my new drive I was curious how full I should fill a mechanical HDD. Is it bad for the drive to fill it to 80 or 90 percent?  The only thing I can think of is that it would lead to more file fragmentation due to the limited space to put new files.

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The more you fill your hard drive up, the slower it goes. I wouldn't worry about it unless you're using 95%+ of your space.

important figure in mensa

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Unlike SSD, HDD can be filled up to maximum. HDD doesn't need empty space to swap its memory.

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Cool thanks!

 

I will probably get a 6TB or 8TB drive so I think leaving at least about 100GB of free space should be good.

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Actually HDDs should be filled no more than 90%. That free 10% is needed for defragmentation.

Jeannie

 

As long as anyone is oppressed, no one will be safe and free.

One has to be proactive, not reactive, to ensure the safety of one's data so backup your data! And RAID is NOT a backup!

 

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