Randomness: Harddrive(s), how old is yours?

themachinist · Post by **themachinist** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 10:14 am

My 60gb Hitachi Travelstar (nicknamed deathstar supposedly because of its high failure rates) is beginning its FIFTH year of life, and my laptop is on almost 24/7.
Now I'm getting a bit paranoid that it will just up and die on me any day now... my friend purchased his laptop the same time I did and his harddrive went lights out like two months ago. Some people say 3 years is good for a harddrive. I've begun backing up my vital data. I've been thinking of upgrading to a new larger harddrive, like a 250gb western digital (I think the biggest one available for my now obsolete connector type) but maybe it's not worth it, this dell 700m is also over 4 years old...! It only takes PATA or ATA-6 or whatever. If you compare that with SATA, the SATA drives will be bigger for less the cost.

JUX.Jaggsen · Post by **JUX.Jaggsen** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 12:35 pm

Put the 9 GB Western Digital in my old webtop to sleep; it became just unacceptably slow after about nine years of hard labor. Its sound will be missed :'(

Udderdude · Post by **Udderdude** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 2:45 pm

Step 1. Backups
Step 2. Off-site backups
Step 3. Wait for the data apocalypse .. :S

moozooh · Post by **moozooh** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 4:01 pm

Have two 6 years old drives on me, one is good but isn't in use at the moment, the other is doing well as my system drives; both are 40 GB Seagate ST3400*.

I also have two slightly younger Seagate drives, both 160 GB. They've been in use since about 2004.

My most recent drive is Western Digital WD4000AAKS. Its performance is awesome and all, but the bitch becomes so immensely hot even when idle, the logic dies every time an HDD fan fails. It happened twice; fortunately, the data is easy to get back with a recovery lab's service, but I've spent twice the drive's price on recoveries already. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who doesn't have proper HDD basket cooling.

jonny5 · Post by **jonny5** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 4:13 pm

let see...most of my drives are under 2 years old.....

although my system drive is um.....lets see.....it came out of my first PC, which was an HP something or other.....from 2001

so ya its like almost 8 years old.....its a 60 gig....still works fine

and i ve still yet to upgrade to sata....other than 1 of my externals im still using all IDE drives

i dont care.....my PC is basically just a forum browser/media center

and if my system drive dies...i dont really care cuz i dont have anything on it but programs installs and windows...so i wouldnt stand to lose anything but an hour or so of time to setup another system drive

yay...so far im in the lead for the oldest drive

Post by **Icarus** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 4:15 pm

- 2x 160GB IDEs in my PC, that are about 4 years old;
- 2x 750GB SATAs in my PC, that were installed a couple of months ago, hooked up with RAID0 for HD video capture (planning on getting two more 750GB or 1TB drives for the RAID setup);
- a 120GB drive in my Powerbook that's about two years old;
- a 1TB MyBook NAS drive that's hooked up to my Airport Extreme (the AEBS will be replaced by a Time Capsule next year, probably 500GB, for network-accessible work storage);
- an 8GB USB key which is used for university work transportation, and an 80GB pocket drive for anime storage for my laptop.

rolins · Post by **rolins** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 4:24 pm

30GB 5400rpm IDE - 10yo
120GB external HD - 3yo
250GB external HD - 2yo

The 30GB is being used in my current computer which is a PIII 650mhz. Works fine w/o any problems after 10 years of constant use.

moozooh · Post by **moozooh** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 4:27 pm

rolins wrote:30GB 5400rpm IDE - 10yo

What brand/model is that, if I may inquire?

Ex-Cyber · Post by **Ex-Cyber** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 5:15 pm

themachinist wrote:My 60gb Hitachi Travelstar (nicknamed deathstar supposedly because of its high failure rates)

The "deathstar" name came about because of flaws in a particular series of the Deskstar family made before IBM sold that division to Hitachi (I think it was the IBM Deskstar 75GXP). This happened years ago (2001 or so); it's not terribly relevant to current desktop drives, let alone laptop ones.

ED-057 · Post by **ED-057** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 7:01 pm

in my main PC: 2x WD Caviar 74GB drives purchased new this summer
oldest drive that still sees regular use: 500MB Toshiba laptop drive
oldest working HDD in my posession: the 10MB drive in a Compaq PLUS

rolins · Post by **rolins** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 7:12 pm

moozooh wrote:
rolins wrote:30GB 5400rpm IDE - 10yo
What brand/model is that, if I may inquire?

Quantum Fireball lct10 30gb

moozooh · Post by **moozooh** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 7:20 pm

Hah, Quantum, should have guessed. :)

captpain · Post by **captpain** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 7:28 pm

Icarus wrote:- 2x 160GB IDEs in my PC, that are about 4 years old;
- 2x 750GB SATAs in my PC, that were installed a couple of months ago, hooked up with RAID0 for HD video capture (planning on getting two more 750GB or 1TB drives for the RAID setup);
- a 120GB drive in my Powerbook that's about two years old;
- a 1TB MyBook NAS drive that's hooked up to my Airport Extreme (the AEBS will be replaced by a Time Capsule next year, probably 500GB, for network-accessible work storage);
- an 8GB USB key which is used for university work transportation, and an 80GB pocket drive for anime storage for my laptop.

Uhhhh wow. So do you keep the whole internet on those or what?

Momijitsuki · Post by **Momijitsuki** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 7:33 pm

I'm not sure what it is I have in my laptop here, but it's 320GB and I've had it since May.

Specineff · Post by **Specineff** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 8:33 pm

I have a 7-year old 20 GB Seagate that is loud as hell. Still spinning inside my brother's PS2, via HDLoader.

Frederik · Post by **Frederik** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 9:00 pm

What I wondered, do you have any idea if smaller harddrives from a given manufacturer last longer than bigger ones? I would think that on a bigger drive there would be a higher chance of failure - or is there no effect at all?

captpain · Post by **captpain** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 9:08 pm

Icarus, did you just post and then delete it? I could swear you had just responded to me. I hope I'm not crazy!

Limbrooke · Post by **Limbrooke** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 9:24 pm

I have a Fujitsu 1.1 gigabyte IDE drive manufactured in 95 that still works and it fell down a flight of stairs once in addition to being hit or dropped repeatedly. I might add it still worked when I last formatted it.

Ex-Cyber · Post by **Ex-Cyber** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 9:26 pm

Frederik wrote:What I wondered, do you have any idea if smaller harddrives from a given manufacturer last longer than bigger ones? I would think that on a bigger drive there would be a higher chance of failure - or is there no effect at all?

For a given design, drives with more platters are associated with a higher failure rate (and not coincidentally, more heat and noise). I have no idea how that difference compares to the differences among different designs, though.

FIL · Post by **FIL** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 10:01 pm

My Samsung HD is about 2 years old, so far it has lasted twice as long as the HD that was originally in this PC, a Maxtor.

Frederik · Post by **Frederik** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 10:36 pm

Ex-Cyber wrote:
Frederik wrote:What I wondered, do you have any idea if smaller harddrives from a given manufacturer last longer than bigger ones? I would think that on a bigger drive there would be a higher chance of failure - or is there no effect at all?
For a given design, drives with more platters are associated with a higher failure rate (and not coincidentally, more heat and noise). I have no idea how that difference compares to the differences among different designs, though.

Thanks!

Jockel · Post by **Jockel** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 10:59 pm

Icarus wrote:- 2x 160GB IDEs in my PC, that are about 4 years old;
- 2x 750GB SATAs in my PC, that were installed a couple of months ago, hooked up with RAID0 for HD video capture (planning on getting two more 750GB or 1TB drives for the RAID setup);
- a 120GB drive in my Powerbook that's about two years old;
- a 1TB MyBook NAS drive that's hooked up to my Airport Extreme (the AEBS will be replaced by a Time Capsule next year, probably 500GB, for network-accessible work storage);
- an 8GB USB key which is used for university work transportation, and an 80GB pocket drive for anime storage for my laptop.

King of Warez? ^^

Post by **Icarus** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 11:21 pm

Jockel wrote:King of Warez? ^^

720p/1080p video capture, actually. I use one of these, one of these, and one of these in my video production setup.
And multimedia/graphics work. Working on a 3200x2800 illustration or a 48000x5000 panoramic photo is space-intensive.

Frederik · Post by **Frederik** » Mon Nov 24, 2008 2:39 am

Icarus wrote:
Jockel wrote:King of Warez? ^^
720p/1080p video capture, actually. I use one of these, one of these, and one of these in my video production setup.
And multimedia/graphics work. Working on a 3200x2800 illustration or a 48000x5000 panoramic photo is space-intensive.

Sounds like a mammoth of a setup. Post some pics!

Post by **Icarus** » Mon Nov 24, 2008 3:28 am

Frederik wrote:Sounds like a mammoth of a setup. Post some pics!

Here's my messy desktop.
Need a new desk, LOL, and planning on getting another one of these 24in wide monitors for monster image work.

FatCobra · Post by **FatCobra** » Mon Nov 24, 2008 3:40 am

250GB Seagate from a five year old HP, it's on the verge of dying, so I replaced it preemptively with a 160GB Western Digital. Both are the older IDE interface model. I don't use that computer anymore since the power supply blew out when I decided to plug it back in. Either I will convert it into a USB drive or use it in that computer I plan on building.

My laptop has a 80-GB Toshiba harddrive. Not much, and I don't know if it's a reliable drive, but that's what it came with and it's been good to me so far. I do plan on replacing it with something bigger when I get the chance.

I also have a 160GB Passport. I figured it would be good to have something I can use to easily backup or transfer large files.

In my planned computer build, I plan on having multiple hard drives, you can never have enough storage space!

Am I the only one who believes that it's better to have several smaller drives instead of one big one? I mean, with multiple drives, you can easily backup stuff and you lose less data if one does go. One big hard-drive is just asking for data Armageddon.

Kaiser · Post by **Kaiser** » Mon Nov 24, 2008 6:15 am

Well here's the rundown

- I have two 80GB Seagates (one just died on me yesterday but it was 5-years old, whatsoever, the OS one doesn't have any problems (both IDE)
- One 250GB Seagate (had for a year) used for all kinds of stuff.
- 1TB External HDD to use as ultimate storage device

(Firewire/USB/Esata)

gabe · Post by **gabe** » Mon Nov 24, 2008 1:43 pm

I just gave my sister my old eMac which has a five year old (almost six!) 80GB hard drive in it. Not sure of the brand.

My work laptop has a four year old 40GB Western Digital Scorpio that is still going strong.

themachinist · Post by **themachinist** » Wed Nov 26, 2008 8:16 pm

Ex-Cyber wrote:
themachinist wrote:My 60gb Hitachi Travelstar (nicknamed deathstar supposedly because of its high failure rates)
The "deathstar" name came about because of flaws in a particular series of the Deskstar family made before IBM sold that division to Hitachi (I think it was the IBM Deskstar 75GXP). This happened years ago (2001 or so); it's not terribly relevant to current desktop drives, let alone laptop ones.

Ah I see. I guess that's good to know about my drive. I hope it lasts me 8-10 years like some of your guys's drives, hah! Even though I download a lot of stuff (mostly movies, tvshows, music) I've made do with a small amount of space by mostly deleting stuff after I'm done with it. I normally have a packrat mentality but I've gotten over it (in the digital realm anyway...).
But I will probably get an external sometime soon. Having 1TB or something would be like whoa to me.

antron · Post by **antron** » Wed Nov 26, 2008 8:36 pm

if it ever locks up, put it an a ziplock bag in the freezer for a few hours. connect it back to your pc and repeatedly try to access it as it thaws. if you eventually can, copy your data fast. worked for me and a friend.

shmups.system11.org

Randomness: Harddrive(s), how old is yours?

Randomness: Harddrive(s), how old is yours?

Re: Randomness: Harddrive(s), how old is yours?

Re: Randomness: Harddrive(s), how old is yours?