Should I still use my old HDD ?

[LeOsP]

So , I recently decided to upgrade my pc , and I got my selfa a kingstone a400 240 gb SSD , loaded and installed windows 10 on it , and I formated my old HDD that is faulty ( bad sectors ... ) , so I am wondering if I use them together (SSD for windows and important stuff and HDD for games ) am I risking anything , is there any risk that if HDD decides to die it may cause damage to my SSD and other stuff ?

[rEkmAInc1csBnlM6C85H]

No risk, you can ride that hard drive out to the bitter end.

 

Well the only risk is the data on the hard drive.

[MadmanRB]

The health of the HDD has no impact on the SSD.

However bad sectors does indicate failure, mind you its still okay to use a hard drive with bad sectors but too many of them is bad, real bad.

Some people panic at a few bad sectors, its fine it doesnt always mean hard drive failure.

However it should be fine but do consider a new drive here soon just in case.

How many bad sectors do you have?

[LeOsP]

OMG , thank you for really fast reply guys , I will probably be considering new HDD , but currently I am trying a HDD regenerator program and it has relocated 12 bad sectors !

 

[LeOsP]

46 minutes ago, Genwyn said:

If it dies it will only affect the contents of that hard drive.

Make sure your page file is on the SSD, so if the drive goes full toaster you won't lose your page file. That's not the end of the world but windows freaks out and games that are normally configured to use that page file might have problems with it going missing.

 

Dont stress a small amount of bad sectors. That's not the end of the world, it happens with age on drives, they're designed to ignore those sectors when they go bad.

If you have a bunch though that's a warning sign for imminent total drive failure.

What is page file and how do I check that , I am really sorry if i sound like a noob , but actually I am a noob , so could you please explain it a bit to me please?

[rEkmAInc1csBnlM6C85H]

25 minutes ago, LeOsP said:

What is page file and how do I check that , I am really sorry if i sound like a noob , but actually I am a noob , so could you please explain it a bit to me please?

Page files, sometimes called swap is in effect a parking spot or overflow for your systems RAM; the core difference being it lives on the hard drive and is much slower. It can also supplement systems that have tiny amounts of RAM, as it itself is virtual RAM.

 

This guide will help you find the settings.

https://www.thewindowsclub.com/increase-page-file-size-virtual-memory-windows

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Rather than worrying about the health of your drive, you should be making backups. Then, if the drive should ever die, you get infected by a virus or other malware, your house burns down or get flooded, you goof and lose data that way, you get robbed and your computer gets stolen, etc., you will still have your data.

 

Btw, I reuse old drives all the time and never have problems. As long as they have enough capacity, they make good spare drives for when a drive dies or even for regular usage in a computer or as backup drives.

[Pickles von Brine]

24 minutes ago, Lady Fitzgerald said:

Rather than worrying about the health of your drive, you should be making backups. Then, if the drive should ever die, you get infected by a virus or other malware, your house burns down or get flooded, you goof and lose data that way, you get robbed and your computer gets stolen, etc., you will still have your data.

 

Btw, I reuse old drives all the time and never have problems. As long as they have enough capacity, they make good spare drives for when a drive dies or even for regular usage in a computer or as backup drives.

I do the same until they have bad sectors. I will try a surface scan and see if the drive can be salvaged (sectors remapped). Then I do a performance test. If it is consistant and what I expect (70-100MB/s) with no dramatic dips, then the drives are good. If they cannot, drive goes in the trash. Even then, it is used for things that are not important as it cannot be trusted. 

 

The other issue I have with using failing drives is they can cause windows to start behaving really odd, cause lockups, freezes, etc even if they are not the main drive. 

Use a failing drive at your own risk. Have backups as Fitz said, and if it behaves badly in any way, get rid of it. 

 

Also, do not use a failing drive for your page file. Limit the size or turn it off. If your system does need to swap, you are better off leaving it on the SSD to begin with. Much faster than a hard drive.