How long do HDD's actually last?

[lafrente]

In my previous 3 computers, I noticed harddrives getting slower over time. After 4 years they became especially pathetic, only used for files that you'd not need any performance for. Like movies and music. Don't ever think about having any kind of programs on them or you'd start punching the desk.

 

Have you had an HDD that still worked well after 3-4 years when actively used? 

[Kisai]

1 minute ago, lafrente said:

In my previous 3 computers, I noticed harddrives getting slower over time. After 4 years they became especially pathetic, only used for files that you'd not need any performance for. Like movies and music. Don't ever think about having any kind of programs on them or you'd start punching the desk.

 

Have you had an HDD that still worked well after 3-4 years when actively used? 

Mechanical Hard drives to not get slower over time. SSD's do. TLC is good for about 3 years if you have your swap file on it, otherwise you can probably make it last longer.

 

What you're experiencing, at least with mechanical drives is drive fragmentation, that coupled with os bloat. This is why back in the late 90's and early 2000's, "reinstall windows" every year was basically a must-do. Even though you could defragment the drive with something like Symantec disk doctor or any number of other tools that were more aggressive and fragmentation, generally the OS, page file, and some programs with pain-in-the-ass copy protection would not be moved, or break if moved.

[Letgomyleghoe]

I had a hdd last 10 years, it still works, but the pc it’s in doesn’t, there’s nothing important on it so I don’t care

[lafrente]

2 minutes ago, Kisai said:

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I got an SSD that is 5 years old with around 20.000 hours ON time, with more than 15 terabytes written in total. And I still got the benchmark that I had done from years ago & benchmarked it again today. Literally same speed.

 

If harddisks defragment and get slower, that does mean they get slower. Yet I doubt that fragmentation is the case, as I low level formatted two of them, reinstalled windows, and they were just as slow. 

[Doobeedoo]

Can depend, on use, luck. I have HDD that worked for 2 decades. I had one that died rather quick after warranty. 

[circeseye]

depends on luck of the draw...i have 3 ssds that are 7 years old and still work just fine...i have spin drives some over 10 years old still chuggin along. ive had only 2 spin drives fail that i can remember and one was because it got dropped while running (external) and a internal started ticking then died shortly after

[WereCatf]

On 3/10/2020 at 3:50 AM, lafrente said:

Yet I doubt that fragmentation is the case, as I low level formatted two of them

You can't low-level format modern HDDs. It was a thing back in the 80's, not on modern drives. What you did is just a regular format.

 

On 3/10/2020 at 3:34 AM, lafrente said:

Have you had an HDD that still worked well after 3-4 years when actively used?

I've got like 20 such HDDs, some of them are over a decade old.

[lafrente]

22 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

You can't low-level format modern HDDs. It was a thing back in the 80's, not on modern drives. What you did is just a regular format.

 

I've got like 20 such HDDs, some of them are over a decade old.

Yes you can. https://hddguru.com/software/HDD-LLF-Low-Level-Format-Tool/

 

In my original post, I specifically pointed out the problem, its not "dying" but getting slow to a point that its non usable. None of my HDD's died. I already have one from 2009 and one from 2010. Another one 4,5 years old in painfully slow state, while my 5 year old SSD despite being used more performs like new.

[Spoiled_Kitten]

On 3/10/2020 at 9:34 AM, lafrente said:

In my previous 3 computers, I noticed harddrives getting slower over time. After 4 years they became especially pathetic, only used for files that you'd not need any performance for. Like movies and music. Don't ever think about having any kind of programs on them or you'd start punching the desk.

 

Have you had an HDD that still worked well after 3-4 years when actively used? 

ive had some in the past but they are not used much, it all depends on like the use and with technology upgrading and files taking more space it may be the same speed but seem slower to faster systems

[WereCatf]

39 minutes ago, lafrente said:

Yes you can. https://hddguru.com/software/HDD-LLF-Low-Level-Format-Tool/

No, I have no idea why it claims to be doing a low-level format, but it definitely doesn't do that. You could do low-level format back in the days on MFM and RLL - drives, but you can't do it on modern drives. That app you linked to does a regular format, nothing more.

 

41 minutes ago, lafrente said:

In my original post, I specifically pointed out the problem, its not "dying" but getting slow to a point that its non usable. None of my HDD's died. I already have one from 2009 and one from 2010. Another one 4,5 years old in painfully slow state, while my 5 year old SSD despite being used more performs like new.

Yes, and I replied: all of my drives function like new once emptied. HDDs do not get slower over time. What may happen is that the software using the drives does.

[8uhbbhu8]

I've had drives that are well over 20 years old that functioned perfectly fine and most of the time were actually in better condition then a lot of the newer drives I have. Only reason I got rid of them is cause I managed to damage them by drop when taking apart the machines. I seem to kill way too much hardware that way.

[Kisai]

On 3/9/2020 at 6:50 PM, lafrente said:

 

I got an SSD that is 5 years old with around 20.000 hours ON time, with more than 15 terabytes written in total. And I still got the benchmark that I had done from years ago & benchmarked it again today. Literally same speed.

 

If harddisks defragment and get slower, that does mean they get slower. Yet I doubt that fragmentation is the case, as I low level formatted two of them, reinstalled windows, and they were just as slow. 

SSD's have a lot of variables, but the thing that makes SDD's slower is the temperture before anything else. Throw a heatsink on the SSD and the performance stabilizes.

Mechanical hard drives, can physically, not get slower. They have a constant speed. They're not like a tire that wears through the tread. If they are "green" models they might spin down more frequently, but that's it.

 

The SATA SSD in my system has just short of 30TBW, 8900PoH, 36 degrees and the average block erase count is 92%. But I also don't have the pagefile enabled.

Compare that to:

 

The mechanical drives in the system:

D 45 degrees, 59083 PoH, 1480 PoC - WD2002FAEX (WD Black 7200RPM, 2TB, 3.5", 2010)

E 35 degrees, 4442 PoH, 17 PoC - WD40NMZW (WD Blue 5400 RPM, 4TB, USB My Passport 2.5", 2019)

F 41 degrees, 1939 PoH, 18720 PoC - WD30EZRX (WD Green, 3TB, USB MyBook, 2011)

G 34 degrees, 13552 PoH, 580 PoC - ST6000DM004 ( Seagate Baracuda Pro 7200RPM, 6TB, 3.5", 2018)

H 35 degrees, 17214 PoH, 597 PoC - WD6002FZWX ( WD Black 7200 RPM, 6TB, 3.5",  2016)

 

So the two worst performing drives in my desktop, the two USB drives. I'm almost sure the PoH and PoC numbers are reversed for that WD30EZRX. Actually, some generic search for the model number suggests there is actually a bug in the idle timer for this drive. I actually have three of these, one was RMA'd previously, the other two are plugged into a mac and a wii u. 

 

I can tell you for fact that none of those mechanical drives got any slower with time. H has the games on it. The Seagate replaced another 2TB Segate drive. I've had more issues with external drive chassis than anything else. Which is how any of the 5400rpm drives wound up inside at any point, because I had to scrap the chassis they were in. Of course as soon as you put them inside the PC, they're faster as well since there's no USB overhead.

[Kilrah]

If the HDD starts developing bad sectors it can become slow / less responsive. 

But that's easy to check for e.g. with CrystalDiskInfo.