hard drive failure rate

  • Thread starter Thread starter Peter D.
  • Start date Start date
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Peter D.

hi all

over the past few years i have noticed the increased public awareness of the
fact that hard drives being mechanical devices are theoretically more prone
to failures than pure electronic components

one indication of this is that many cdrw buyers when asked what they use the
optical drive for, reply
"i use it for backup"

i am wondering whether new hard drives really die so often today?
how about manufacturers' warranties from a decade ago, stating 10k...20k hrs
avg between
failures, do they practically still apply today? back then, hard drive
failure was a completely
unspoken topic (among home users anyway) and despite the lack of rewritable
digital media
or any other convenient and affordable backup options, hardly anyone was
concerned with
data loss. i generally do not use new equipment, so i'm not up to date on
present reliability of
hard drives but the drives i have and use (0.5...4GB in size), albeit old,
seem to work perfectly fine

peter
 
over the past few years i have noticed the increased public awareness of the
fact that hard drives being mechanical devices are theoretically more prone
to failures than pure electronic components

one indication of this is that many cdrw buyers when asked what they use the
optical drive for, reply
"i use it for backup"
Click to expand...


Probably a scare tactic to sell more CDRs..

There are other things you can get that will help a HDD failure too.. like a
RAID setup. 2 HDDs and the same data on both (or such) and then if 1 dies,
replace it, and the other is rebuilt.

Back then Floppies were less safer for backup, and small too..

There are HDD monitors there (smart drives) that MAY be configured to tell
you before hand that a HDD is failing. Buy a new drive soon, and back it up.

Lastly, Doing regular (monthly/every few months) doing a scandisk, or
chkdisk and look for bad sectors. Find any, get a new drive.


The only way I lost data on a drive was in:

1. a mistaken rough handling of the drive out of box (or banging the tower
with the drive while the system is running can damage them too)

2. Win XP PRO somehow making an encrypted folder and on a fresh install of
winXP, couldn't access the data

3. Crashed windows (but bootdisks can get in to move data to anohter drive
for a fresh install)

4. Deleting the wrong files, or formating the wrong drive.

I only lost 1 drive so far, the other one I had lasted 6 years or so (with
the system on 24/7 (the drives powerdown the spinm otor though) and it still
is going in the computer I sold.
 
hi all

over the past few years i have noticed the increased public awareness
of the fact that hard drives being mechanical devices are
theoretically more prone to failures than pure electronic components

one indication of this is that many cdrw buyers when asked what they
use the optical drive for, reply
"i use it for backup"

i am wondering whether new hard drives really die so often today?
how about manufacturers' warranties from a decade ago, stating
10k...20k hrs avg between
failures, do they practically still apply today? back then, hard drive
failure was a completely
unspoken topic (among home users anyway) and despite the lack of
rewritable digital media
or any other convenient and affordable backup options, hardly anyone
was concerned with
data loss. i generally do not use new equipment, so i'm not up to date
on present reliability of
hard drives but the drives i have and use (0.5...4GB in size), albeit
old, seem to work perfectly fine

peter
Click to expand...

I have a slew of old harddrives that range from 1.2 gigs to 6 gigs in
size that get used every day. I got them used from the "junk" bin at
work and use them in my WinNT server, my Linux box, and my son's Win98SE
box. All are working fine. Noisy at times but still working.

--
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
El Gee

Did you hear the one about the dyslexic, agnostic, insomniac?
He would stay up late every night and wonder if there was a dog.


Remove yourhat to reply ... but it may take a while.
Best to go to www.mistergeek.com and reply from there.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
over the past few years i have noticed the increased public awareness of the
fact that hard drives being mechanical devices are theoretically more prone
to failures than pure electronic components
Click to expand...
======================================
Since 1996 we have had only one HD fail, and after only 6 months. HP just
replaced it along with the Floppy drive which also failed, and the failing
CD-DVD/RW drive. We've had 4 other PCs and never had problems with the
HDs, Floppy's or CD drives.

Karen
 
There are HDD monitors there (smart drives) that MAY be configured to tell
you before hand that a HDD is failing. Buy a new drive soon, and back it up.
Click to expand...
I had a drive fail with NO indication From SMART that anything was
changing. The statistics may prove that only a few percent fail, but
that is no help at all if it's your drive. Backup data if you can't do
without it.
 
I have a slew of old harddrives that range from 1.2 gigs to 6 gigs in
size that get used every day. I got them used from the "junk" bin at
work and use them in my WinNT server, my Linux box, and my son's Win98SE
box. All are working fine. Noisy at times but still working.
Click to expand...

Same here - in fact, I sometimes pick up crashed drives at the local
tip...still under warranty. For the cost of purchasing them ( a quid )
and the postage to send them back to the manufacturer ( four quid ), I
get a nice new drive :)

I'm gradually tossing away drives smaller than 2GB on account of 4 to
6 GB drives turning up more often at the tip.

Standard procedure is to run a decent disk analyser on them to flag up
any problems.

As for reliability, I use a set of three drives in removeable caddies
( along with the most excellent XXCopy ), and I've never yet had a
backup problem or a disk go down.

Regards,
 
....is 100%. Given time.

--
dadiOH
_____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.0...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico
____________________________
 
i am wondering whether new hard drives really die so often today?
Click to expand...

In my experience, HDD's last longer today. A few years back, HDD's seldom
outlived their 2-3 year warranties. Now, almost all of them seem to live
until their warranty is expired. Even the 7200 RPM drives are doing well.
Out of dozens, I have never had a 7200 RPM drive fail.

Bob

Remove "kins" from address to reply.
 
hi all

over the past few years i have noticed the increased public awareness of the
fact that hard drives being mechanical devices are theoretically more prone
to failures than pure electronic components

one indication of this is that many cdrw buyers when asked what they use the
optical drive for, reply
"i use it for backup"

i am wondering whether new hard drives really die so often today?
how about manufacturers' warranties from a decade ago, stating 10k...20k hrs
avg between
failures, do they practically still apply today? back then, hard drive
failure was a completely
unspoken topic (among home users anyway) and despite the lack of rewritable
digital media
or any other convenient and affordable backup options, hardly anyone was
concerned with
data loss. i generally do not use new equipment, so i'm not up to date on
present reliability of
hard drives but the drives i have and use (0.5...4GB in size), albeit old,
seem to work perfectly fine
Click to expand...

1992 Dell 80meg here. And I thought Dell was crap
 
Peter D. said:
hi all

over the past few years i have noticed the increased public awareness of the
fact that hard drives being mechanical devices are theoretically more prone
to failures than pure electronic components

one indication of this is that many cdrw buyers when asked what they use the
optical drive for, reply
"i use it for backup"

i am wondering whether new hard drives really die so often today?
how about manufacturers' warranties from a decade ago, stating 10k...20k hrs
avg between
failures, do they practically still apply today? back then, hard drive
failure was a completely
unspoken topic (among home users anyway) and despite the lack of rewritable
digital media
or any other convenient and affordable backup options, hardly anyone was
concerned with
data loss. i generally do not use new equipment, so i'm not up to date on
present reliability of
hard drives but the drives i have and use (0.5...4GB in size), albeit old,
seem to work perfectly fine

peter
Click to expand...


Well, heckaroo, I guess I'll chime in also. Rooty toot toot and all that
yah' know, old chap.

Kept passing along from machine to machine the HD that was in my 1st
machine. It cost an arm, a leg and my first-born son but I grabbed a 2.9
giger in 1997 and added it to my earlier Cyrix DX4-100 electronic brain
thing. It took over as the main HD for that machine then was used as a
back-up in later machines. The critter gets used fairly regularly and is
still chugging along 7 years later. It may outlive me.
 
dszady said:
1992 Dell 80meg here. And I thought Dell was crap
Click to expand...

That beats my 250mb Samsung. It went through two owners, five years, ten
hours a day active use. It's still alive today, although retired (nestled
respectfully in storage).

As to failures. I had three consecutive Maxtors die in year 2000, average
age about 6-8 months each. Then I had my three-year-old notebook drive die
just a couple of months ago. And I've had a number of dealings with drive
crashes on machines of others... OP might be interested to witness how the
tides of sad tales never cease: <comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage>

What I have decided is that there is a general rule of thumb, regarding
failure timings. HDDs are designed to die whenever they detect that our data
is not backed up. Comes to this, I believe they're rather intuitive...
 
That beats my 250mb Samsung. It went through two owners, five years, ten
hours a day active use. It's still alive today, although retired (nestled
respectfully in storage).

As to failures. I had three consecutive Maxtors die in year 2000, average
age about 6-8 months each. Then I had my three-year-old notebook drive die
just a couple of months ago. And I've had a number of dealings with drive
crashes on machines of others... OP might be interested to witness how the
tides of sad tales never cease: <comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage>

What I have decided is that there is a general rule of thumb, regarding
failure timings. HDDs are designed to die whenever they detect that our data
is not backed up. Comes to this, I believe they're rather intuitive...
Click to expand...

I've just had a 3 gb Western Digital die. Good riddance.
New Seagate 40 gb. :)
Me happy now.
 
dszady said:
I've just had a 3 gb Western Digital die. Good riddance.
Click to expand...

Historically at least, that family had some really bad runs.
New Seagate 40 gb. :)
Me happy now.
Click to expand...

I know what you mean.

My disk crash forced me into spending the $200 to replace the drive on
my notebook -- whose entire street value is probably less than that sum.
But got to say, it has proved a most happy relief to get the increased
local space. From 6gb to 40gb, in one vroom. =)

I may still be headed for another crash, very soon. The larger of my two
removable drives has data that I've not backed up to any other location
for some five months; so Murphy dictates that one to be due for a nose
dive at any moment...
 
hi all

over the past few years i have noticed the increased public awareness of the
fact that hard drives being mechanical devices are theoretically more prone
to failures than pure electronic components

one indication of this is that many cdrw buyers when asked what they use the
optical drive for, reply
"i use it for backup"

i am wondering whether new hard drives really die so often today?
how about manufacturers' warranties from a decade ago, stating 10k...20k hrs
avg between
failures, do they practically still apply today? back then, hard drive
failure was a completely
unspoken topic (among home users anyway) and despite the lack of rewritable
digital media
or any other convenient and affordable backup options, hardly anyone was
concerned with
data loss. i generally do not use new equipment, so i'm not up to date on
present reliability of
hard drives but the drives i have and use (0.5...4GB in size), albeit old,
seem to work perfectly fine

peter
Click to expand...
Had a Maxtor 30 gig 7200 rpm drive die after only 7 days of use. Even
though it had a 3 year warranty, I was unable to take advantage of it
because I refuse to send them a drive with all my personal data on it to
be recycled.

Mike
 
Had a Maxtor 30 gig 7200 rpm drive die after only 7 days of use. Even
though it had a 3 year warranty, I was unable to take advantage of it
because I refuse to send them a drive with all my personal data on it to
be recycled.

Mike
Click to expand...

I know what you're saying. I had two drives fail in the last year,
a 50 gig Maxtor, and an 80 gig Western Digital, both under
warranty. I was able to write zeros to the drives before sending
them off, but if I hadn't been able to wipe them clean myself, I
never would have taken advantage of the warranties. Rather than
risk my personal data being exposed, I would have bitten the
bullet and just bought new drives.

I wonder how much money the drive manufacturers save, just because
people won't send in a drive with personal data on it? I'm betting
a lot.
 
Peter D. said:
hi all

over the past few years i have noticed the increased public awareness of the
fact that hard drives being mechanical devices are theoretically more prone
to failures than pure electronic components

one indication of this is that many cdrw buyers when asked what they use the
optical drive for, reply
"i use it for backup"

i am wondering whether new hard drives really die so often today?
how about manufacturers' warranties from a decade ago, stating 10k...20k hrs
avg between
failures, do they practically still apply today? back then, hard drive
failure was a completely
unspoken topic (among home users anyway) and despite the lack of rewritable
digital media
or any other convenient and affordable backup options, hardly anyone was
concerned with
data loss. i generally do not use new equipment, so i'm not up to date on
present reliability of
hard drives but the drives i have and use (0.5...4GB in size), albeit old,
seem to work perfectly fine

peter
Click to expand...
Well I have had three drives fail in the last few years.
1 was 3gig and the other two was a 20 gig and a 40 gig.

I have several old drive that still work 1 a 1 gig and 2 130 MB so I thing
the newer ones fail more than the old.

I have noticed that maxtor has changed their warrenty
from the three year;s it is now a 1 year warrenty.

Bobby
 
omega said:
That beats my 250mb Samsung. It went through two owners, five years, ten
hours a day active use. It's still alive today, although retired (nestled
respectfully in storage).

As to failures. I had three consecutive Maxtors die in year 2000, average
age about 6-8 months each. Then I had my three-year-old notebook drive die
just a couple of months ago. And I've had a number of dealings with drive
crashes on machines of others... OP might be interested to witness how the
tides of sad tales never cease: <comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage>

What I have decided is that there is a general rule of thumb, regarding
failure timings. HDDs are designed to die whenever they detect that our data
is not backed up. Comes to this, I believe they're rather intuitive...
Click to expand...

It makes me wonder about today's quality in a new machine. I've had very
good luck with a 1996 Western Digital hd, and a 7200 RPM Western Digital
15 GB hd from 4 years ago. I have 2 old 1992- 486 machines, hd's still
work fine.

Today a new Dell desktop costs $480. I wonder if the current hard drive
is the same quality as the old ones? In this thread, it does not sound
like it.

Mike Sa
 
Today a new Dell desktop costs $480. I wonder if the current hard drive
is the same quality as the old ones? In this thread, it does not sound
like it.
Click to expand...

Dell does not (and never did) manufacture HDD's. They use whichever HDD they
get the best buy on in mass quantities. The HDD's are not even made
specially for Dell. They are off the rack units just like you buy from
NewEgg or Frey's.

It's interesting that all of Dell's components are fine and compatible
except for their cases, motherboards, and cables, which are their own
designs.

Bob

Remove "kins" from address to reply.
 
well,
bk then (10 yrs ago) most new hard drives had 3 year warranties and only a
handfull had 1 yr warranties
today, this ratio has reversed completely

peter
 
lol,
cheap joke
but i'm more interested in what percentage of drives fail before they are
10...15 yrs old

peter
 
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