how long can hdd last?

[sideqcktv]

ive had my hdd since 2013/2014, will my hdd last another 5 years or will it actually stop working i have 500gb of data on my 1tb hdd its really important like licensed programs and streaming/recording stuff etc.  

 

[sideqcktv]

also will i have to get a whole new drive or can this one still work

[Crunchy Dragon]

It really depends.

 

Some HDDs are better quality than others.

 

Personally, I wouldn't plan on running an HDD like the one you describe for another 5 years without backing up your data first in case the drive does fail.

[GDRRiley]

About 10 years is the max for most drives, at my school we have 160+ HDD half 1TB WD black and the others seagate 3TB enterprise and while we have only had 1 or 2 blacks fail we are reaching the point where they will.(installed 2011)

My parents HDD died after 10 years.

[Electronics Wizardy]

5 minutes ago, sideqcktv said:

ive had my hdd since 2013/2014, will my hdd last another 5 years or will it actually stop working i have 500gb of data on my 1tb hdd its really important like licensed programs and streaming/recording stuff etc.  

 

Do you have backups? You should always have backups. Drives can fail at any time with no warning. My estimate for hdds is about 50k hours or about 6 years before I replace them.

[ARikozuM]

Back up your drives if you’re concerned. 

 

I’ve had drives last a decade before failing and I’ve had some fail in months. It really depends on the conditions they’re running in. You can’t reliably foresee their longevity. I would just make a backup of the drive’s contents while you can and hope the drive lasts another five years. 

[Razor Blade]

I would HIGHLY suggest backing up your data.

 

You can get a brand new 1TB external drive for $50

https://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-HDTB410XK3AA-Canvio-Portable-External/dp/B079D359S6/ref=sr_1_4?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1536206866&sr=1-4&keywords=external+hard+drive

First I would invest in that and backup your data. Keep a copy of the files on the external drive and your internal drive. If one of them fails, you still have the other.

 

Hard drives can last a very long time but can fail with little to no warning.

[sideqcktv]

8 minutes ago, Razor Blade said:

I would HIGHLY suggest backing up your data.

 

You can get a brand new 1TB external drive for $50

https://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-HDTB410XK3AA-Canvio-Portable-External/dp/B079D359S6/ref=sr_1_4?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1536206866&sr=1-4&keywords=external+hard+drive

First I would invest in that and backup your data. Keep a copy of the files on the external drive and your internal drive. If one of them fails, you still have the other.

 

Hard drives can last a very long time but can fail with little to no warning.

 

11 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

Back up your drives if you’re concerned. 

 

I’ve had drives last a decade before failing and I’ve had some fail in months. It really depends on the conditions they’re running in. You can’t reliably foresee their longevity. I would just make a backup of the drive’s contents while you can and hope the drive lasts another five years. 

 

18 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

It really depends.

 

Some HDDs are better quality than others.

 

Personally, I wouldn't plan on running an HDD like the one you describe for another 5 years without backing up your data first in case the drive does fail.

i have a WD 1tb and why dont i get a samsung 1tb ssd wouldnt that be better then hdd

[SupaKomputa]

It's all depend on the usage and durability of the drive.

I still have a bunch of 120gb old hdd from 2006 and still working, not for main usage though just for moving things around.

My PC still running a couple of 8 year old 500gb hdd.

 

every hdd have a mtbf (mean time before failure) which mean how long it would last, usually by hours.

Its a rough estimation from the drive manufacture.

regular hdd have rated between 100,000 and 1 million hours, or between 11 and 110 years of continuous operation.

well that's very optimistic as some hdd fails after 5 years.

for real life statistic you can find this article useful:
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-failure-rates-q1-2017/

[SupaKomputa]

1 minute ago, sideqcktv said:

 

 

i have a WD 1tb and why dont i get a samsung 1tb ssd wouldnt that be better then hdd

SSD use to have a notorious failure records, but it's getting much better now, especially samsung, they are the king of ssd.

Lower mtbf doesn't mean that you must avoid it, the speed of ssd cannot be ignored.

SSD is a must by today standard, just remember not to put anything important in those drives.

I use my ssd as my main hdd to boot windows in it and store my files in a regular hdd.

[sideqcktv]

7 minutes ago, SupaKomputa said:

SSD use to have a notorious failure records, but it's getting much better now, especially samsung, they are the king of ssd.

Lower mtbf doesn't mean that you must avoid it, the speed of ssd cannot be ignored.

SSD is a must by today standard, just remember not to put anything important in those drives.

I use my ssd as my main hdd to boot windows in it and store my files in a regular hdd.

i was planning on getting either a 500 gb m2 samsung 970 or a samsung 1tb but if i have to i would get a 500gb m2 samsung and another wd hdd

[Electronics Wizardy]

2 minutes ago, sideqcktv said:

i was planning on getting either a 500 gb m2 samsung 970 or a samsung 1tb but if i have to i would get a 500gb m2 samsung and another wd hdd

Id get a 1tb drive like a hp ex920. Fairly cheap, fast. And its a single drive. ALways have backups.

[sideqcktv]

14 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Id get a 1tb drive like a hp ex920. Fairly cheap, fast. And its a single drive. ALways have backups.

what if i just use mediafire or dropbox to store files does that work fine?

[kirashi]

11 minutes ago, sideqcktv said:

what if i just use mediafire or dropbox to store files does that work fine?

Storing files in cloud storage is always a good option, but should never be relied upon as your only backup. What if the cloud service goes out of business? What if you're in an area with limited data, or your home internet is unavailable when you need to restore a critical file? What if you have more data to backup than the cloud service allows, or than your're willing to pay for space for?

 

I'm not saying don't backup to the cloud - in fact, I'm a huge proponent of using DropBox, since it's the ONLY easy to use file sync service out of the big 4 (Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, and iCloud) with a compentent client that actually supports Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android, and iOS. But I also have my important documents backed up on a software based "RAID" array (read: Drive Pool) so if one drive fails, I still have a local copy, as well as periodically backup anything I cannot re-download to an off-site backup stored on another computer.

[SupaKomputa]

27 minutes ago, sideqcktv said:

i was planning on getting either a 500 gb m2 samsung 970 or a samsung 1tb but if i have to i would get a 500gb m2 samsung and another wd hdd

you should get a ssd if haven't. no need for 500gb, a 256gb is just enough.

install windows and important apps, not games.

games can be installed on the hdd, they cost too much space.

store important files like your document and selfies on the hdd, anything irreplaceable should be an hdd.

anything you can reinstall on ssd.

 

13 minutes ago, sideqcktv said:

what if i just use mediafire or dropbox to store files does that work fine?

yeah they work fine as long as you can secure your account.

[SupaKomputa]

3 minutes ago, kirashi said:

Storing files in cloud storage is always a good option, but should never be relied upon as your only backup. What if the cloud service goes out of business? What if you're in an area with limited data, or your home internet is unavailable when you need to restore a critical file? What if you have more data to backup than the cloud service allows, or than your're willing to pay for space for?

 

I'm not saying don't backup to the cloud - in fact, I'm a huge proponent of using DropBox, since it's the ONLY easy to use file sync service out of the big 4 (Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, and iCloud) with a compentent client that actually supports Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android, and iOS. But I also have my important documents backed up on a software based "RAID" array (read: Drive Pool) so if one drive fails, I still have a local copy, as well as periodically backup anything I cannot re-download to an off-site backup stored on another computer.

too advance to talk about raid, just keep it simple for now.

 

Agree you should have multiple cloud backup, one just not reliable.

[sideqcktv]

6 minutes ago, SupaKomputa said:

too advance to talk about raid, just keep it simple for now.

 

Agree you should have multiple cloud backup, one just not reliable.

 

10 minutes ago, kirashi said:

Storing files in cloud storage is always a good option, but should never be relied upon as your only backup. What if the cloud service goes out of business? What if you're in an area with limited data, or your home internet is unavailable when you need to restore a critical file? What if you have more data to backup than the cloud service allows, or than your're willing to pay for space for?

 

I'm not saying don't backup to the cloud - in fact, I'm a huge proponent of using DropBox, since it's the ONLY easy to use file sync service out of the big 4 (Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, and iCloud) with a compentent client that actually supports Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android, and iOS. But I also have my important documents backed up on a software based "RAID" array (read: Drive Pool) so if one drive fails, I still have a local copy, as well as periodically backup anything I cannot re-download to an off-site backup stored on another computer.

so i can ignore buying a 70$ external and just use cloud because obviously they are top trusted websites 

[kirashi]

15 minutes ago, sideqcktv said:

so i can ignore buying a 70$ external and just use cloud because obviously they are top trusted websites 

I wouldn't advise that. Even the top trusted websites can go down, due to CEO's and staff members closing up shop taking all the users' subscription monies with them on a trip to the Caribbean islands suddenly running out of money because of "stock market fluctuations" or getting hacked. For a full list of web services alone that have been hacked, see the link below.

 

https://haveibeenpwned.com/PwnedWebsites

 

This includes "top trusted websites" such as Adobe, Avast, Bell Mobility, BitTorrent, CD Projekt RED, Coachella, Comcast, Domino's, Epic Games, Experian, Gawker, imgur, Kickstarter, last.fm, League of Legends, LinkedIn, Malwarebytes, Money Bookers, MySpace, Nexus Mods, OVH, Patreon, Plex, ReverbNation, Snapchat, Ticketfly, tumblr, Unreal Engine, vBulletin (not surprised at all), VK, Warframe, WHMCS, XSplit, Yahoo, and Sony and Dropbox too.

 

No site or service is 100% safe or secure, so backup anything you can't bear to lose, and don't share anything online that you can't bear to have leaked to the outside world.

 

[Razor Blade]

13 minutes ago, sideqcktv said:

 

so i can ignore buying a 70$ external and just use cloud because obviously they are top trusted websites 

For 500GB of data, you will likely have to buy a premium plan for cloud storage.

 

I use cloud storage as a fast means to share files cross platform and as an isolated share for computers I am not willing to put on my home network.

[SupaKomputa]

14 minutes ago, sideqcktv said:

 

so i can ignore buying a 70$ external and just use cloud because obviously they are top trusted websites 

external drive is way cheaper in the long run. but still not secure, it can go dead at any moment.

cloud storage is expensive for that kinda size, prioritize what you save on the cloud, have multiple copies.

most essential files goes to the cloud, non essential to the hdd, replaceable files on the ssd.

[Pasi123]

It depends. I have a 40gb Seagate drive with 50k hours from 2004 on my Pentium 4 PC and it still works just fine. And on my server I have 4x 146gb SAS drives from 2007 and all of them still works.

[YeuJin]

Normally it would work for 5-10 years but the hard drive speed will degrade for sure, it's hard to tell if you handle your hard drive properly (keep it cool, not dropping it etc). It's good to have cloud backup or something like that.