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Hard drive, how long does it last

Carter29
By Carter29
in Storage Devices
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Posted

Hi I wanted to know how long a western digital blue series hdd lasts? Mine is 6 years old and still working like the day I got it. 

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Until it decides to crap out. 

 

It can be anywhere from 0 seconds to 25 years. 

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Just now, djdwosk97 said:

Until it decides to crap out. 

exactly this. HDD's will work for a couple years, but after that nobody can tell how long your specific unit lasts. some die soon, others just keep going (like yours)

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4 minutes ago, Carter29 said:

Hi I wanted to know how long a western digital blue series hdd lasts? Mine is 6 years old and still working like the day I got it. 

hypothetically they can last forever because it is just reading from a platter. the issue is when the platter becomes scratched due to an irregularity in the material or the "needle" hopping and creating an imperfection that can eventually lead to worse damage and failure.

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6 years, you lucky...

The hdd from my last laptop decided to shut itself forever after 2 weeks from the end of warranty, which was 2 years

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11 minutes ago, alanoide97 said:

6 years, you lucky...

The hdd from my last laptop decided to shut itself forever after 2 weeks from the end of warranty, which was 2 years

My hard drive from my first computer is still working.

Got it Christmas 2001.

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3 minutes ago, maulemall said:

My hard drive from my first computer is still working.

Got it Christmas 2001.

I really hope you dont have invaluable data in there... cuz its aproaching 15 years

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Just now, alanoide97 said:

I really hope you dont have invaluable data in there... cuz its aproaching 15 years

I stopped using it for anything important years ago. My daughter uses it for works suite 2000 for homework but it still ticks along with windows XP. 

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I have Windows 7, because my graphics card couldn't handle Windows 10

 

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Just now, Carter29 said:

I have Windows 7, becuase my graphics card couldn't handle Windows 10

 

Drivers?

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Yes, my card isn't supported by amd anymore so it wouldn't have drivers for Windows 10

 

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3 hours ago, SlipperyPete said:

hypothetically they can last forever because it is just reading from a platter. the issue is when the platter becomes scratched due to an irregularity in the material or the "needle" hopping and creating an imperfection that can eventually lead to worse damage and failure.

Let me explain why this is wrong.  A hard drive has moving parts.  These parts are necessary and must move weather you are reading or writing. Everything with moving parts will fail eventually, it's not 'if', it's 'when'.  There is literally zero reason to believe that a hard drive will last 'forever' if you only READ.

 

The real anwer has been already said, 'when it dies'.  Obviously drives have AVERAGE life spans, but some drives won't survive their warranty while others will go for years.  I have a pair of 2TB Seagate Greens that have both clocked over six years of power up time in their SMART data and they are still going fine without issues or any SMART alerts.  Meanwhile I had two newer 3TB Seagate Greens that didn't last 18 months for either of them.

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I know it's going to go out eventually, I just want to know how to get the most life out of it. 

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What does smart do? Because I have that feature on my computer but it is not activated. Is it good? 

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1 minute ago, Carter29 said:

What does smart do? Because I have that feature on my computer but it is not activated. Is it good? 

Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology

Basically a hard drive diagnosis

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I'm paranoid, seen too many times drives failed at work and SMART did not trip.

 

On my personal pc, I usually will run the drives the length of their warranty. I go all out and get that 5 year warranty.

 

tl:dr- your mileage may vary on every drive. just remember to protect your important data with a backup/copy of some sort.

Use the quote or multiquote, for faster responses \/ \/

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