Though incredibly reliable, given their complexity, many factors determine the lifespan of an HDD. The most significant being how long the disk her been spinning, and how much data is being written and read. For those interested in specifics, cloud storage vendor Backblaze publishes stats on their findings across many thousands of hard drives of different brands that they operate for their customers.
However, there are various strategies to employ to mitigate the risks:. When it comes to the question of how long will a hard drive lasts, the software you use to protect your data is vital in mitigating against failures.
Archiware has a number of data-management products that can assist with the safekeeping of your precious HDD-based data. P5 Archive and Backup employ LTO tape, cloud, and disk storage to automate making copies of important data. One piece of software utilising various different storage technologies is a smart way to secure your data. P5 Synchronize , can keep a replica of an important disk-array and update it every hour on a schedule. This keeps staff downtime at a minimum in the event of a disk failure that stops people from working.
Before we get to that, remember that there are always exceptions to the general rules. It just means it can. Lifespan depends on everything from environmental factors to usage rates to component quality and manufacturing. Thus, the figures here are very general guidelines.
The only true way to protect data is to have multiple copies of everything, and the best way to do that is to invest in a good backup solution. Magnetic tape can either lose data by losing its magnetic charge any magnetically charged storage medium will eventually lose its magnetic charge and subsequently its data , or when the layers of the tape start to separate.
According to a handful of sources ehow , Wikipedia , and Searchdatabackup. This can make it a useful medium for archiving. The problem with that number is that magnetic tapes will only last that long under absolutely optimum environmental conditions.
That means you need to keep magnetic tapes in a place where both humidity and temperatures are stable. A more realistic lifespan for magnetic tape is about ten to twenty years. We might want to take note that they are more susceptible to wear and tear if used frequently. Since cassette tapes and data tapes are very similar, the lifespan of cassette tapes is similar to that of magnetic tapes. Some have been known to wear out quickly due to excessive use.
A safe bet is that a cassette tape lasts between ten and twenty years. Photo by Tony Webster. The number one reason computer users replace hard drives is not because they had died, but rather because the user needs more space. Each computer file is a certain size, and that size is calculated in bytes.
Both the hard drive and RAM can only handle a set amount of bytes. A kilobyte, the smallest file storage capacity, is 1, bytes.
A megabyte is 1, kilobytes. A gigabyte is 1, megabytes, and a terabyte is 1, megabytes. You always want to try and buy a computer with a hard drive that will be larger than you would need for at least 5 years.
But many inexpensive computers are fitted with smaller capacity drives, and if you save large data files, such as video files, music and gaming programs, the smaller hard drive will run out of space quickly.
Therefore, the life span of a smaller hard drive is relatively short, as the user will likely need to upgrade faster. Aside from running out of space, computer hard drives fall prey to other issues. If the computer is not cared for properly, the hard drive might fail. Anytime a computer receives a jolt, whether that is an improperly grounded power outage or physical stressor such as being dropped, the hard drive suffers.
If the computer is improperly ventilated and overheat, the hard drive could also be damaged. A computer should also always be plugged into a properly grounded surge protector.
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