Actual observed failure rate of hard disks

[dhruv17singhal]

I want to know your experience with hard disks by different companies.

If your failure rate is above 25% (that is more than 1 in every 4 drives failed) for a particular brand within a year, then vote for it.

Also post your experiences with the longetivities of various hard disks.

 

[sminlal]

I haven't had any drives fail for my own computers since starting to use hard drives in them in 1986. That includes drives made by Mitsubishi, Hitachi, Seagate, and Western Digital.

Most of my current drives are Western Digital. They include:

- two 160GB drives (6 years old)
- two 500GB drives (3 years old)
- three 1TB Green drives (18 months old)
- two 2TB Green drives (7 montsh old)

...all are working perfectly.

By and large hard drives are pretty reliable as long as they're treated well and not run at excessive temperatures.

 

[COLGeek]

How about a "none of the above" selection? I am with sminlal, in the last 10-12 years, I personally have had one HD failure (out of hundreds)....period. It certainly doesn't fit your question. BTW, what is the purpose of this poll?

 

[dhruv17singhal]

I haven't had any drives fail for my own computers since starting to use hard drives in them in 1986.

Oh my, you are quite lucky. I have "about" 6 or 7 dead drives in my drawer. They are mostly Samsung (pretty old - 7 to 8 years) and Seagate (relatively new - 2 to 4 years) and 1 Hitachi laptop drive (which never worked since I bought it).

 

[dhruv17singhal]

BTW, what is the purpose of this poll?

The purpose of this poll is to compare the reliabilities of various hard disk brand.

How about a "none of the above" selection?

Sorry, I should have added a choice for none.

 

[COLGeek]

The purpose of this poll is to compare the reliabilities of various hard disk brand.

How about a "none of the above" selection?

Sorry, I should have added a choice for none.

Not a problem. The one HDD failure I had (in my wife's PC) was a WD. I am a huge user of Samsung HDDs and have had zero of them fail. I probably have 25 Samsungs running now (most for more than a year) in my home network in various systems.

Many variables can affect the longevity of any given HDD. That, in and of itself, could constitute a thread of rants and complaints.

Still, worth seeing how folks measure this. HOOAH!!!

 

[dhruv17singhal]

Many variables can affect the longevity of any given HDD. That, in and of itself, could constitute a thread of rants and complaints.

Glad that you mentioned it! I wish to know under what condition you run your drives so that I may correct my environment and save a few hard disks.

 

[COLGeek]

The things that kill HDDs: Heat, dust, poor/inadequate power, vibration, and shock. Poor mounting can also have a negative impact.

Proper cooling and cleaning are essential, as is stable power. I put all of my systems on a UPS to minimize any flucuations.

 

[dhruv17singhal]

The things that kill HDDs: Heat, dust, poor/inadequate power, vibration, and shock. Poor mounting can also have a negative impact.

Proper cooling and cleaning are essential, as is stable power. I put all of my systems on a UPS to minimize any flucuations.

Can you tell me what is poor and what is proper mounting? Might be that all the time I have been mounting my drives wrongly and spoiling them.

Also, I have never cleaned my drives more than wiping their surface with a cloth. Is there another way to do that?

What is the temperature range the drives should remain in? What to do if the drive becomes too hot? Is there a cooler or something available for them?

I hope the info you guys will provide will surely help us in making our drives last long.

 

[drevin]

Out of all the HDDs I've owned (about 15 - Hitachi, IBM, Maxtor, Quantum, Samsung, Seagate, WD) only one has "failed", it was a 60Gb Maxtor DiamondMax (2003). Some others do have bad sectors but otherwise they still work fine - even my old 550 Mb Seagate.

 

[sminlal]

From Google's study of disk failure rates, it looks like the optimum temperatures for hard drives range from about 30C to 50C, with the high 30s being best.

 

[COLGeek]

Poor mounting allows HDDs to move around. I have seen them taped and even just laying in cases. The best mounting has good airflow (like having a fan blowing cool air across them with vibration dampening. Also, bumping cases while HDDs are spinning is not too good for them either, epsecially if reading or writing at the time.

Good HDD maintence (and long lifespans) is really just a matter of common sense. Make sense?

 

[dhruv17singhal]

COLGeek, in that case my mounting was correct but there was no fan for the chassis as such, only for the processor and PSU. So, do I need to get a new chassis?

Sminlal, as for the temperatures, the temperatures where I live frequent above 95 - 104 degrees Fahrenheit (35 - 40 degrees Centigrade).

So perhaps temperature was the killer.

Can you suggest a remedy for the heating problem because even my processor Intel Q9650 often reaches temperatures above 70 degrees Centigrade.

 

[dEAne]

Since 1998 using the computer I have lots dead hard disk collections. In my experience temperature always is the culprit of all. In 2002 I use RAID 0 set up for gaming and most of it endure for 1 year so I suspect it's the RAID 0 but when I saw my friends set up with a cooler fan on hard disk I incorporate it on my set up and it last even this year though I have a SSD in one of my unit. Another way to kill your hard disk is power failure.

 

[sminlal]

Sminlal, as for the temperatures, the temperatures where I live frequent above 95 - 104 degrees Fahrenheit (35 - 40 degrees Centigrade).

So perhaps temperature was the killer.

Can you suggest a remedy for the heating problem because even my processor Intel Q9650 often reaches temperatures above 70 degrees Centigrade.

The CPU temperature really doesn't matter as long as the temperature of the hard drives is reasonable. You can keep drive temperatures low by:

1) Make sure that the drives have plenty of air moving past them to keep them cool.

2) Make sure that there is space for the air to flow past BOTH sides of the drive.

3) It's best if there's not TOO much space around the drives - if the space is too open then the moving air might not be right next to the drives. Something like 1/2" to 1" of space may be optimum, as long as there is a good flow of air through that space.

4) The air flowing past the drives should be fresh, cool air and not air that's already been heated by some other component in the system.

5) For tough cooling problems where you can't supply enough airflow (in external hard drive cases, for example) use "Green" drives which produce a lot less heat.

 

[dhruv17singhal]

Dear sminlal,

Thanks for your suggestion. I have bought a Western Digital Caviar "Green" 1TB. I hope it is reliable and relatively cool. Unfortunately, I noticed that it was slower than my Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 drive and so I cannot use it as my main drive. Still, it would be a good backup drive.

One more thing, is there any specific cooling device for hard disks?

 

[COLGeek]

Go to newegg.com. There are MANY types of HDD coolers. However, if you case allows it, as many do, placement of your HDD directly in adjacent to your front case fan (pulls cool air into the case) does pretty much the same thing as many HDD coolers.