Abnormally hard on HDD's

[Dawson]

I'm not sure weighter I have horrible luck, or something with my setups kills my hard drives but this one is on it's last leg now too, I had to force it to run at a WAY lower RPM just to make it stable enough to run windows for a while.

Looking at my shelf of computer parts I've got like 3 video cards, 2 mobos, 3 CPU's and .... SEVEN hard-drives, all of which are dead (this will be 7 actaully, so 6) This isn't like within a small time frame I know, but over 10 years and 7 dead hard drives? Whyyyy? Hard dives should last 10 years as is.

Some of them ARE pretty old, dating back to 32GB IDE drives so those are expected, but there's sone newer 500GB+ Sata2 dives that have died, and now this one. It's making me wonder, power surges maybe my use of my computer (I do I/O rape a lot with torrents/music and generally I use a lot of I/O but still.. I can't see that doing it) Any idea on WHY I have so many hard drives die? or do I just have bad luck.


Anyone else have the same fate with hard drives?

 

[Warmonger]

Simply because they are mechanical. When on they are constantly spinning and eventually over time of spinning at 5400-7200 rpm the bearings and heads start to wear out. This is why SSD's have a 2,000,000 hour manufactured time before fail, not because they utilize nand memory. But because nothing mechanical is going on inside. Try taking one apart and looking at the guts with your own eyes and then you will realize how fragile the heads and such are. Its only a matter of time before they stop working properly.

 

[Dawson]

I know WHY they break, it's just they should be lasting a lot longer than they are. This HDD is a mere 2 years old, and I've had others that die around the same time. That's what I'm bitching about, the fact that they are dying so soon. X.x

I know people who have HDD's that last them WAY longer than mine last me.

 

[Warmonger]

It also could be brand (such as quality) of the drive. Along with run time, and loads. My hard drives normally last me 2 or so years regardless to how good the drive is. Then they start clicking and its time for a new one. But that's pretty typical as how I leave my pc running 24/7 and am always doing private server related stuff, so there is always a decent load on the drive whenever im using it. Even tho my machine is outdated to hell, I plan on buying a small 30gb SSD to put in it as I never consume over 20GB of space to begin with, and simply because me buying a new drive every 2 years is surpassing the price of just one SSD.

 

[Jolin88]

In my whole life I never had any hard drive fail on me
my oldest hard drive that's still functional is from 2003, and it's used, I also have a 3 way RAID0 setup with 3 year old hard drives of 500 GB, data loss, no clicking, no bad surprises period

That being said, hard drives can last long I don't know how you bust yours, but I've filled and empited some of my drives over 10 times, formated multiple times no problems

 

[cycoextreme]

also depends on how hot they run, how long your system is left on, how much they are moved around, and how often you clean them off, if you dont take care of them or even if you have a power surge, that can fry them easily

 

[bramdebouvere]

-make sure you don't have any magnets and stuff on your pc that could harm the working of the hard drives
-put your pc on a stable platform, a table that is kinda loose should be avoided
-never move your pc while it is running
-make sure they are ventilated allright
-...

 

[GeNyaa]

I have over 10 year old harddrives that STILL work to-date.
Like Bram said just be secure with them.

-never move your pc while it is running

Did you ever try to let a wheel spin of your bike? than turn the wheel.
I wants to stay in it's place. THIS EXACT SAME THING happens in a HDD.

-put your pc on a stable platform, a table that is kinda loose should be avoided

This is not really necessary just avoid table that move around like the minute u touch them.

I want to add to bram list: clean your PC regular from dust and so on.

 

[Warmonger]

Did you ever try to let a wheel spin of your bike? than turn the wheel.
I wants to stay in it's place. THIS EXACT SAME THING happens in a HDD.

The heads are very flexible on the end where the actual head resides. If you move your machine too much while the machine is running this could cause them to bounce and push against the platter. Causing very bad head crashes. This is what ultimately ruins a hard drive.

 

[Heights]

i have one 500gb hard drive failed on me recently and i had it paired with another 500 gb for Raid 0. poop happens.

 

[Warmonger]

Really its time to get out of the disk drives and into solid state. You should only really be running disk drives now days for storage. Even tho SSD's are still a bit pricey, you can still manage to pick up a high performing 64GB for about $80 compared to $60 for a 640GB Caviar Black its well worth the extra $20. A single SSD can out perform a mechanical Raid-0 array. Disk drives will be obsolete in 10 years, mark my words.