2x HDD's still working, but should I replace them anyway?

[Eighjan]

I have one each of the following in my system on the corresponding duties:

ST31000333AS - "My Documents" drive; to keep the data off my System drive

ST3500418AS - Mostly for secondary storage of stuff that I've done on my PC for my wife

 

Both are "ancient" drives; the 1TB unit used to be a USB external drive for a friend's movie storage that had an interface fail & he sent me the drive to see if it had any use left after he got a new movie storage solution.

 

Does there come a time where it's better to just replace working drives due to age...?

Would a new 2-4TB unit be a better all-round solution, anyway?

[WereCatf]

6 minutes ago, Eighjan said:

Does there come a time where it's better to just replace working drives due to age...?

Not really, no. There are plenty of drives that work perfectly well for well over a decade -- including some I have in actual, active use myself.

 

The far better strategy is...to have backups. Do not rely on your drives not failing on you, because even a brand-new drive can fail all of a sudden; what you should do is maintain backups of all the stuff you don't want to lose.

[Eighjan]

6 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

Do not rely on your drives not failing on you

That's exactly what I want to avoid...

5 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

what you should do is maintain backups of all the stuff you don't want to lose.

... add more drives (in another 'box'), rather than replace what I have?

 

 

Edited May 4, 2021 by Eighjan

[Latvian Video]

5 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

The far better strategy is...to have backups. 

Yep, I try to make backups monthly to a old external 500gb hdd, but I plan to get some cheap laptop hdd/ssd, so I can use my sata to usb converter.

[WereCatf]

1 minute ago, Eighjan said:

,,, add more drives (in another 'box')

That, or USB-drives or a premade NAS or similar stuff, yes. Whichever option suits you best, as long as you take backups periodically (or setup some sort of an automatic backup-scheme) and the storage isn't directly connected to your PC at all times -- if e.g. the PSU blew up, it might take both of your regular drives and your backup-drives with it, so it's a good idea to keep them at least partially separated.

[Eighjan]

9 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

That, or USB-drives or a premade NAS or similar stuff, yes. Whichever option suits you best, as long as you take backups periodically (or setup some sort of an automatic backup-scheme) and the storage isn't directly connected to your PC at all times -- if e.g. the PSU blew up, it might take both of your regular drives and your backup-drives with it, so it's a good idea to keep them at least partially separated.

MAJOR facepalm...

Just looked & realised I had the backup file for F:\ drive stored ON the F:\ drive. 

 

Now rectified.

9 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

and the storage isn't directly connected to your PC at all times

Think I'll look into a 2TB 2½" SSD that I can use with a USB to S-ATA convertor I bought recently...

[Eighjan]

Dunno that it'd make a difference, but CrystalDisk just told me that both HDD's as S-ATA 300... didn't realise they were THAT old.

 

Also; could this be why the external device that the 1TB HDD came from failed?

 

[Eighjan]

Just ordered a Seagate ST2000DMZ08...

[frozensun]

Reallocated sectors count error usually it's related to bad sectors on the drive,so make a copy of important docs.

Segate is not trusted HDD  manufacture,I have 4 WD drives which still work after 9 years no issues yet.

WD for life.