How often should I change my external drive

Computer0304 · 09 Mar 2015

I currently have a WD Passport I bought back in Summer 2013. It is still working as well as it always has. How often should I change my external drive? I know that a lot of people say their drives last about 2 years but are these people all just having bad experiences? My old external drive is 5+ years old and it still worked last time I checked except that videos play slow off of it.
Also, I use my drive only when I need to backup my photos from my camera and computer which is about every 3 months. Should I check on the drive just in case more often?
One last thing, do external drives use SMART alerts like internal drives do? Or will I have to time switching my external drive before the failure happens if there are no alerts? (I do have backups though)

CKWD · 09 Mar 2015

Hey!

Hard drives are very delicate hardware, like any other. Truthfully, it could be hard to determine how long one external drive should last, a few years most probably.

But technology advances more with every day, and the HDDs life depends not only on its manufacturing quality, but also on its shipment, packaging, where it was bought from, how it was stored and kept, how it's used, maintained and taken care of, if its been hit, dropped, or with a virus at some point, if it has endured a power surge or corrupted file transfer, etc. Additionally, the cable also plays a role. Many of the drives issues are due to faulty or damaged cables. Any drive that's beginning to fail would show signs of deteriorating performance.

Another thing, having one copy of your files is not a back up, nor a safe keeping. You should have at least two copies of your information and then you can be more relaxed about it.

Do regular check ups on your WD My Passport, defragment it regularly, use an antivirus, safely remove the hardware after use. Using the drive more often or more rarely shouldn't make a noticeable difference unless something done wrong, like unplugging unsafely or something else.

If it is really working nicely after these two years, that's good, and I am happy to hear it. :)

CK_WD

RolandJS · 09 Mar 2015

recommend having two external HDs for backups

Computer0304 · 09 Mar 2015

Well, for now, I have two copies of the photos. One copy on the computer and the other on the drive. I only use the drive at home and I have never dropped it. I am most likely going to buy a new drive this year. Should I use the WD software to check it as I'm not sure other software work? Are Seagate drives reliable? I am most likely going to have to buy a Samsung drive which is basically a Seagate drive rebranded for Samsung. Sorry CKWD, but I don't know where to get WD drives here. I would get a WD drive but they are hard to find here.
Also, how often should I check on the drive?
And, can you answer my question on SMART alerts for external drives? Do they work like it does for internal drives?

LMiller7 · 09 Mar 2015

As long as the drive has no problems I would continue to use it. Using only new drives does not avoid the necessity of maintaining backups. How long a drive will last varies WIDELY. I have a 6 GB Fujitsu drive that is now 17 years old and has no issues.

Most external drives themselves do support SMART but the problem is obtaining this information over the USB interface. Many USB enclosures do not support this. At the present time there are no firm standards that govern this.

ignatzatsonic · 09 Mar 2015

Computer0304 said:

It is still working as well as it always has. How often should I change my external drive? I know that a lot of people say their drives last about 2 years but are these people all just having bad experiences?

Also, I use my drive only when I need to backup my photos from my camera and computer which is about every 3 months. Should I check on the drive just in case more often?

One last thing, do external drives use SMART alerts like internal drives do? Or will I have to time switching my external drive before the failure happens if there are no alerts? (I do have backups though)

If it's working as well as it always has and has enough capacity and speed, you'd be foolish to give up on it. Any new replacement might be prone to problems not found on the existing drive. What's the payoff for taking that chance?

No need to check on it "just in case" if you use it only periodically. Check on it when you use it. I just had a WD drive die on me with no warning whatsoever--it had been in a closet for several months after working perfectly. There's little you can predict and SMART values don't tell the whole story---not to mention they are very cryptic. By design apparently.

Stick with it, back up, hope, and be prepared to buy another one tomorrow if you have a failure.

Lady Fitzgerald · 09 Mar 2015

RolandJS said:

recommend having two external HDs for backups

There are only two kinds of HDDs; those that have already failed and those that are going to fail and just haven't yet. While checking SMART attributes and running other tests may diagnose when a drive is ready to fail, it's just as likely the drive will fail without any warning whatever. The only way to protect you data from loss is to have multiple backups. While only one backup is infinitely better than no backups, even a backup drive can fail. Since there is no way to predict when a drive will die, the only defense from a backup drive failing is to basically backup the backup drive. Also, the better quality a drive is, the less likely it will die prematurely but even that is no guarantee.

I don't check the SMART attributes on my HDDs very often; maybe twice a year, if that. I have my drives backed up to the teeth so I just don't worry about it.

ComputerGeek · 09 Mar 2015

RolandJS said:

recommend having two external HDs for backups

Double ditto :) Keeping two sets of backups is the most important rule.

Google wrote an interesting research paper in 2007 Failure Trends in a Large Disk Drive Population - i think just as relevant today. Some highlights:

36% percent of drives fail without any warning
Some SMART parameters (scan errors, reallocation counts, offline reallocation counts, and probational counts) have a large impact on failure probability

I interpret that last point as meaning: consider replacing a drive once it has SMART errors - even if it hasn't hit the failure threshold. Once SMART errors are reported, the probability of drive failure greatly increases

p.s. I've also had some external drives last for 5+ years. I think it's also a function of how "portable" it is (i.e. is it an external drive that sits on your desk all the time? Or a portable drive you carry around? etc)

p.p.s I've been buying Buffalo drives for years for myself, family, friends, etc. They've had an excellent track record - and are usually priced a bit lower then the bigger brands

Computer0304 · 10 Mar 2015

Well, I want to get another drive anyway so I have 3 copies in case my computer gets infected with malware that spreads and it spreads to one of the drives. Are Seagates good too? There isn't really a lot of support for WD drives here so I most likely will have to get a Samsung drive which are rebranded Seagate drives.

ignatzatsonic · 10 Mar 2015

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/best-hard-drive/

See the above link and make of it what you will. It's a report on over 40,000 drives in a data center.

It speaks well of Hitachi, poorly of Seagate, with WD in the middle. I think that's for large capacity internal drives used in a certain way that may not match your usage pattern.

I'd just buy on the basis of price, RMA privileges, and support. Hope you catch a sale. Hope you are not unlucky. Hope you never have to deal with RMA or support.