Solved how long usually a hard drive last ?

[zap9x]

just out of curiousity .... i was just wondering how long usually hard drives last ? if anyone could tell it based on manufactor it would be nice ...

 

[TVeblen]

Hard question. I believe that the life expectancy of drives is based primarily on the environment they live in. Others believe it's just genetics (brand name). There is truth to both beliefs.

Easy answer: 4 years. Better answer: Your mileage may vary.
But I've got IDE hard drives 12 years old that still work. They don't run every day and I would not trust them with important data but they still work if I hook em up.

Here are some good articles on the subject:
How long do hard drives actually live for? | ExtremeTech

The Most (And Least) Reliable Hard Drive Brands | Lifehacker Australia

Estimating Life Expectancy of Hard Drives is Tricky Business | Maximum PC

 

[LMiller7]

Hard drives do not have a specific life expectancy. Many fail with a year of purchase while others last much longer. I have a 6 GB Fujitsu drive that will soon be 16 years old. It is still in daily use and SMART shows no issues. But that is very unusual.

At the present time most conventional hard drives (non SSD) are from either Western Digital or Seagate. Most others were bought out or are no longer in the hard drive business. There are many manufacturers selling external drives but the drive itself will be by WD or Seagate.

Pick a drive, take good care of it, and take your chances.

But ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS have a backup of important files. 2 or more backup copies if the data is of particular value. No drive ever built or ever will be can be trusted without a backup. Even a hypothetical drive guaranteed to never fail under any circumstances would need a backup. Data can be lost due to a variety of causes other than drive failure.

 

[strollin]

Operate on the assumption that the hard drive could fail at any time. As LMiller7 said, keep backups.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

X3 on backups! (I would rep LMiller7 but the site won't let me). HDDs, SSDs, etc. all can fail, usually with little or no warning, no matter how new or old they are or whatever brand they are. Since the drives backups are kept on can also fail, it's imperative to have multiple, duplicate backups, preferably separated by physical distance.

I personally prefer WD (Western Digital) HDDs over Seagates. Of the four Seagates I've owned, two failed prematurely, one was a disappointment (an SSHD that didn't live up to claims), and the other one ok. Seagate has shorter warranties (which recently became even shorter) than WD and a bad reputation when it comes to honoring warranties. Of the 15 or so WDs I've owned, only one failed: a Green that had the head parking issue the early Greens had trouble with (that has long since been resolved). I use the Blacks for my internal HDDs; they have a five year warranty, which suggests more reliability and longer life expectancy, and are plenty fast for data storage and retrieval. I use Greens for backups. Even though the warranty is shorter than the Blacks, since they run only when I'm making a backup, they should last a lot longer. They are a good compromise between speed and price.

 

[Layback Bear]

I have use both Seagates and Western Digital with only one failure.
It was a Western Digital but I can't confirm it was the hard drive fault.
It came out of a computer that the power supply literately blew up.
So their is a good chance the power supply problem shortened the life of the hard drive.
So to answer the question.
No body knows how long a particular hard drive will last.
Their has been many test comparing hard drives but that only tells you what those particular drives do. Not the one in your computer.

If they make a 1000 hard drives in one batch the odds are their is going to be a bad one. Somebody is going to end up with that bad one.

I would have no problem buying a Western Ditital or a Seagate and hope I don't get that bad one.

 

[zap9x]

ty for those very detailed opinions , i'd have gave rep to all but the site wont let me to -.-

 

[zap9x]

.... btw , could i ask ... im pretty interested in WD as i have heard alot of negative for Seagate ... can u guys suggest a colour for internal storage please , i want a drive to store movies , games , things , i dont need really high speed like the black one but i cant choose between red and green . my PC is online 24/7 and i have no idea what RAID is so .....

 

[Boozad]

I have a Green for backups and so far it's been fantastic. It tends to run up to 10°C cooler than the two Blacks I have in my rig.

 

[zap9x]

wow your CPU is cooler than your hard drives ...

 

[TVeblen]

I use WD blacks for my desktop builds. No need of saving power here.
My current build had a bad drive out of the box (failed immediately). The RMA replacement and it's twin brother have been going strong since - not a problem.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

.... i cant choose between red and green.....

Take your pic and hope.

Both are lower speed units with an eye-opening percentage of bad reviews on Newegg--if you care to give any credence to them. 20 to 30 percent one star out of five, the last I looked. Who knows how much of it is due to bad handling and shipping as opposed to manufacturing defects.

WD customer support personnel posting in response to those bad reviews claim that ALL WD drives are tested at the factory, but I'd doubt it's more than a cursory test to see if it powers up and spins.

I'm not sure green and red differ at all other than in firmware. The red is allegedly designed for NAS use but works fine in a standard PC.

The green is typically a bit cheaper.

I've had a 1.5 TB green for 5 years and have not had any issues. I need to replace it within 6 months or so and keep hoping the reviews will improve. I don't expect that to happen. I'm vaguely thinking about Toshiba or whatever the cheapest alternative is, thinking that since it's all pretty much a crap shoot, you may as well go with the lowest up-front cost and cross your fingers.

 

[zap9x]

hehe ty , i think i'll have it tested at the store first before i buy it ... i dont really want any trouble

 

[strollin]

Whatever drive you buy, I'd suggest getting 2 of them. One to use in your computer and one for backups. At the very least, keep your critical data backed up regularly.

Having the store test it before you buy it won't guarantee that it will last any longer than any other drive once you have it in your system and start using it.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

For internal storage permanently installed in a computer I prefer the Blacks. They cost more, but they are fast and the five year warranty suggests they will last longer (and the warranty means you will be out less money if it does fail early). The Blues are also good—in fact, the 1TB Blue is a bit faster than the Blacks—but the maximum size for the Blues is 1TB (Blacks go up to 4TB).

I prefer the Greens for external storage only. Since they won't run as much, they should last as long as the Blacks and they do cost less.

 

[zap9x]

ty all for the suggestions i think i'll go with black ...