External HDD Life

[Computer0304]

How come people are saying that newer portable drives like the WD My Passport lasts only about 2 years when my old portable drive bought 6 years ago still works? I thought hard drive technology barely changed but even if it did change, it should have changed for the better. Is it that smaller drives last shorter? Or is it because people usually take portable drives with them but they do not with desktop external drives? I usually keep my portable hard drive in the same place. <- Maybe I should have just bought a desktop external drive....

 

[badger906]

youre correct. portable hard drives lives tend to be shorter as theyre moved around a lot. granted most drives are good for upto a couple of G's in force. however its the movement when in use that tends to do the damage. internal moving parts being banged around dont help.

theres no way to put an accurate life of a drive, they all have limited numbers of read and write cycles as well as power up and power down cycles.
think if it like a light bulb, some last ages, some a very short time.

desktop drives are stationary so they take less of a beating. I have a 10 year old portable hard drive that's still going, admittedly it clicks and sometimes disconnects on its own, but it is well travelled.

if you want ultimate life and reliablity SSDs are the way forward.

 

[Computer0304]

youre correct. portable hard drives lives tend to be shorter as theyre moved around a lot. granted most drives are good for upto a couple of G's in force. however its the movement when in use that tends to do the damage. internal moving parts being banged around dont help.

theres no way to put an accurate life of a drive, they all have limited numbers of read and write cycles as well as power up and power down cycles.
think if it like a light bulb, some last ages, some a very short time.

desktop drives are stationary so they take less of a beating. I have a 10 year old portable hard drive that's still going, admittedly it clicks and sometimes disconnects on its own, but it is well travelled.

if you want ultimate life and reliablity SSDs are the way forward.

So is there anyone that sells external ssds? Also, what you are saying is that it lasts longer if not moved around often?

 

[madcratebuilder]

So is there anyone that sells external ssds? Also, what you are saying is that it lasts longer if not moved around often?

Portable drives can suffer damaged caused from moving them, particularly if they are powered up and moved. Another factor is they may run at higher temps because of the tight confines of the case.

There are portable ssd drives, most use a usb 3.0 connection so they can be bottle necked unless you have Super USB 3.0.