when is it going to crash

[skimzzz]

i have a couple of 1-2 GB hard drives which I bought used and a 10 GB HD which I've owned for over 3 years. These are all name brands (WD and maxtor). How long do HD last? Do they give any kind of warning before dying (like sectors starting to go bad, noise, etc)?

 

[Arrow]

You might get some bad sectors before they go bad.
Hard drives usually go for about 5 years. But if you're lucky (and a lot of people are), they'll go on for more.

Rob
Please visit <b><A HREF="http://www.ncix.com/canada/index.cfm?affiliateid=319048" target="_new">http://www.ncix.com/canada/index.cfm?affiliateid=319048</A></b>

 

[svol]

The lifetime of a HD also depends on the number of startups (spinn-ups) your drive had, modern drives can have at least 50000 startups.
If you boot your computer 10 times a day, you'll have 3560 startup in a year: your drive will last 14 year.

My case has so many fans that it hovers above the ground .

 

[HonestJhon]

and in 14 years, i doubt that you will have the same hard drive!
look how far they have come in the past TWO years....i mean i remember when i bought my 10 gig hard drive...and it was like $110(us). a few weeks ago, i bought my 40 gig maxtor, for $90 (us). and this drive is bigger, faster, and quieter than my 10 gig....
and this is within 2 years....
so i can just imagine that i will be upgrading within a few years...
sure i may keep the 40 gig, and i am keeping the 10 gig, but in all likeliness, a hard drive will outlive the system itself...

-DAvid

-Live, Learn, then build your own computer!-

 

[Ncogneto]

When is it going to crash????

The answer is quite obvious...when you desperatly need it the most.

Another Cookie? Who is going to pay my dentist bill?

 

[Crashman]

WD's normally die from electrical failures, in either the interface board or the motor. These are very unreliable. An IDE drive is designed to last 3 years, if the company wants to minimize the number of returns, they will design the drive to have a mean failure time of 5 years and a standard deviation of 1 year, so that only 2.5% of drives fail before the warantee runs out. I think WD designs their drives to have a mean fialure time of 3 years, so that 50% fail before the warrantee runs out. The thing that sucks about WD is that the replacement drive they send you is normally only warranteed for the replacement period of the original drive, and they are uncanny about making sure they do not last significantly longer, almost as though they program replacement drives to fail a few weeks after the warrantee expires! As a system builder I have seen this happen often enough to believe it's more than a coincedence.
At any rate, a really good drive last 7 years or more. IBM drives have the best record IMO. SCSI drives are normally waranteed 5 years and tend to last until long after they are usefull (10+ years for many!).

What's the frequency, Kenneth?

 

[AMD_Man]

Wow! Wow! 3 years? I have a 6+ year old 2GB IBM hard drive that is still well and kicking with no bad sectors!! I have a 3 year old 8GB Maxtor hard drive that is still in perfect condition. I have heard by many companies that modern hard drives are designed to outlast the average user. 3 years is obviously not right. I've had 3 PC that are older than 3 years and AFAIK all are in perfect condition; well I don't really know about the third, because I sold it.

AMD technology + Intel technology = Intel/AMD Pentathlon IV; the <b>ULTIMATE</b> PC processor

 

[skimzzz]

How is it that SCSI drives last much longer when they spin so much faster?

Also, would 5400 RPM drives last longer than 7200 RPM drives? If not, how did they compensate for the extra speed and heat?

 

[AMD_Man]

Those numbers Crash listed don't sound right. I have heard that hard drives can outlast users!!

AMD technology + Intel technology = Intel/AMD Pentathlon IV; the <b>ULTIMATE</b> PC processor

 

[Crashman]

It comes from experience. Experience tells me that about 50% of some manufacturers drives last 4 years. (specifically, WD and Fujitsu). With a standard deviation of 1 year, that means that around 15% fail under warrantee, at between 2 and 3 years. So you can get lucky and have a good WD drive last 5 years (~15% chance), 6 years (~3% chance), or longer.
Seagate makes several qulity levels of drives, their high end models tend to last around 5 years.
Quantum drives are hit or miss.
Maxtor drives are hit or miss, but generally tend to last around 5 years
IBM drives tend to last around 7 years or more, but certain models (such as the 70GXP) had problems.
the 3-year figure comes from their warrantee period.
SCSI drives last longer. It's hard to say why, except that maybe they use better bearings in the motors and heavier duty discrete componenets/heavier traces on the PCB's. They have to last longer, because they're warranteed longer.
WD seems to have a real quality problem.

What's the frequency, Kenneth?

 

[AMD_Man]

How do you store these drives? Storage conditions and temps greatly affect the life of a hard drive.

AMD technology + Intel technology = Intel/AMD Pentathlon IV; the <b>ULTIMATE</b> PC processor