HDD question

Well it's not going to die as quickly as if an o/s were being run from it, with all the reads and writes, but Definitely yes, back it up to a portable usb drive

...T

 

The most notorious cause of drive failure is a head crash, where the internal read-and-write head of the device, usually just hovering above the surface, touches a platter, or scratches the magnetic data-storage surface. A head crash usually incurs severe data loss, and data recovery attempts may cause further damage if not done by a specialist with proper equipment. Drive platters are coated with an extremely thin layer of non-electrostatic lubricant, so that the read-and-write head will simply glance off the surface of the platter should a collision occur. However, this head hovers mere nanometers from the platter's surface which makes a collision an acknowledged risk.

Bad sectors can occur on both traditional magnetic hard drives and modern solid-state drives. There are two types of bad sectors — one resulting from physical damage that can’t be repaired, and one resulting from software errors that can be fixed. You can get a brand new drive that can fail, and see 7 year old drives that still run without any issues. A typical lifespan for rotational disc drives is anywhere from 3-5 years with standard use. My WD Black drives are over 10 yrs. old with heavy use.

CHKDSK may be old, but it can still help you scan and fix bad sectors on your mechanical hard drives.

"HDD on nearly end of life span die, even if not mounted/using currently in caddy"

There is no best before date on HDD. They fail randomly under use, not by age when not in use. If they sit in unsuitable conditions, extreme heat, cold, humidity or shock from dropping it, chances are greater of premature failure. If you don't use it you don't lose it.

There are tests done by MFG. called MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) Servers run 24/7/365 and have billions of read/writes. Think DNS servers. MTBF is the reliability rating and probability of failure for that drive. Drives don't fail the same way. Could be a sudden failure or gradual read wrtie failure, access failures etc. Running CHKDSK once in a while will reveal bad sectors. The sectors will then be excluded access, by being marked as bad. If there are sectors identified as bad, that would be a good time to consider a replacement drive.

 

I'd back up just to be safe.

As long as they're not powered up they should last.

 

If you buy a hard drive today, there’s a 90% chance that it will survive for three years. If your drive makes it to the three-year point, you would be wise to back up your data, as there’s a 12% chance per year that your drive will die

 

WD Gold™ hard drives Enterprise-class storage to rely on
With up to 2.5 million hours MTBF, WD Gold hard drives deliver reliability and durability, are built for yearly operation (24x7x365) within the most demanding storage environments, and are backed with a 5 year limited warranty.

How many years is 2.5 million hours? A few moar than 3 yrs. Like I said, mine are 10 yrs old and run over 12 hrs. a day. Buy a good drive, not a Seagate Fujisu Maxstor <-- paper weights. WD. #1

 

You can have the pile of failing WD's i have here, most are 2.5" but no WD for me

 

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You know im the HDD cruncher and destroyer? Given to me by @GezoeSloog '
No HGST/IBM or WD for me. We all have our personal experiences, for me it's samsung (old spinpoints and 850 Pro ssd) and seagate (constelllation enterprise es.3 hdd and the barracuda's).

 

Being in maintenance and reliability for 42 yrs. I go by data for root cause failure analysis. Data is the only way to manage/prevent failure. I look for reliability and life expectancy when I spend my money. I'm not into bands. A PSU can cause premature failure on numerous components, so it's an important component to consider when building a unit. This might be yoar cause of premature failures, but you may have already checked the voltages.
As you say each to his own. We all have different criteria, mine is focused on value.

 

I still have hard drives which are 540mb is size that still work fine! LOL

A lot of people mishandle hard drives...they treat them like USB drives and just toss/drop them without a second thought...and crash the heads/damage the armatures. I've seen people with hard drives, with important client records for their businesses, get so stingy and NOT replace the drives until they die...then cry about the lost data. For 2 months, they would "just tilt the computer this way and hit it here..and it works just fine" then boom...and then almost pass out when they are quoted Data-recovery prices. Ah, procrastinators...the life blood of data recovery businesses! -)

TQQdles™