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Old October 20, 2008, 03:15 AM
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Default how to prolong Hard drive life?
hi there, i have a 1 tb HDD and i am really scare if that drive fails and lose my data, does anyone know a good way to prolong the life of a hard drive, will leaving it on 24hours help? always put my PC to self standby.

thanks
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Old October 20, 2008, 03:32 AM
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dont use it:P just leave it on,the stress of the electricity heating up and coolomg off daily will male the boards flex. Turn it lon, and leave it on
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Old October 20, 2008, 05:24 AM
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Once every 6 months or so you could run spinrite to find and repair any bad sectors.
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Old October 20, 2008, 06:18 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MelodyofOblivion View Post
hi there, i have a 1 tb HDD and i am really scare if that drive fails and lose my data, does anyone know a good way to prolong the life of a hard drive, will leaving it on 24hours help? always put my PC to self standby.
thanks
If you data is important to you buy a second 1TB drive and make a backup.

The $130-180 spent now will be literally priceless should your first drive fail.
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Old October 20, 2008, 06:26 AM
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Raid 1 FTW . If one dies, you'll have no need to worry.
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Old October 20, 2008, 06:29 AM
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Raid 1 FTW . If one dies, you'll have no need to worry.
I've always wanted to use RAID 1, but I'm too paranoid that whatever kills the first drive will take out the second.

So I just clone a drive and store the backup
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Old October 20, 2008, 06:33 AM
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While there is very little you can do to predict the failure any mechanical device such as a HDD, leaving any electronic device on 24hrs is better than turning it on and off. As an electrical device warms up the PCB and surrounding ICs expand with the increased amount of heat until they reach their peak running temperature. I believe heat is the determining factor of the longetivity of any electro-mechanical device attaching a HDD heatsink fan solution will help prolong the life of the drive as for the mechanical properties that is where the consumer must put their trust in the qaulity of the manufacturing and qaulity control. Many HDD manufacturers spend as much time testing the reliability of their HDDs as they do building them, please review Western Digitals "promise" here WD Promise

To better understand MTBF and its common misconceptions please read this: http://www.apcmedia.com/salestools/V...GTSB_R0_EN.pdf
Last edited by Eagle Eye; October 20, 2008 at 06:41 AM.
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Old October 20, 2008, 08:21 AM
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Keep it cool, use it in a well ventilated environment.
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Old October 20, 2008, 11:09 AM
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Also, make sure your drives run at as cool a temperature you can. In my antec 900 case, neither of my HDDs go over 30C (including boot HDD)
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Old October 20, 2008, 11:13 AM
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My advice is always back up your data on a second drive. You can even get programs that will do that automatically for you like acronis true image.
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