How long do you keep a HD?

[Yaboze]

I have a HD, a SATA2 Seagate, still kicking and doing great from late 2005, so it's just over 2 years old. No issues to report, but I was wondering if I should replace it, just because drives are cheap and it might start having issues soon.

So how long do you guys typically use a drive for? Until they die?

[nekrosoft13]

since 80% of my stuff is in two locations, and i have back-up. I usually keep them as long as they kick. unless i need more space, and replace smaller driver with larger. last week i replaced a 300gb for 750gb.

if one drive fails, i have a back-up located on second drive in second machine.

only thing that is not backed up is game install drive.

[amk21]

You need to ask yourself if the data on a drive with and x amount of capacity is worth buying a second drive with x amount of capacity to back up the first drive. I am thinking about getting a raid 5 environment setup.

[SH64]

As long as it survives ..

[wolfgar]

my rule is: replace every 3 years. heavily used or 24/7: more frequently.

[Monolyth]

OS drive I replace regularly as they will usually incur the most usage (pagefile, etc). Game drive I haven't had to update in awhile, in fact up until a few weeks ago I was using an old 74GB WD Raptor. It is still in my office sitting on a shelf, but I've never had a problem with it. Storage drives I usually upgrade about once every 3-4 years.

I was on a storage system kick there for awhile and have at least 3TB's of storage just sitting around not being used. I already have a bare-bones wish-list for a large file-server to house as much information as I need to backup (DVD's, HD Movies, CD's, etc), but in budgetary terms I'm not placing any money towards it just yet, I would really like 1TB drives to drop in price say to the $100-150 range, that would place them well-within the amount I am looking to spend and will give me much more storage.

I'm much more likely to go full networked storage once I buy a house which is part of my 5 year plan since at the moment most of my entertainment is located in 1-2 rooms so I don't necessarily need a centralized storage system.

[Bman212121]

I'll keep drives until their space isn't enough to hold all of the data needed. I still have every HD I've ever bought and they all work fine. Usually a drive will get used in a main pc for a year or two, and then gets put into another computer that is used a lot less freqeuntly, so they last a long time. Either way I always keep backups of important data because a drive could fail at any time.

[$n][pErMan]

I regularly replace my hard drives... not because they fail.. but because something bigger comes out. What I do as a backup is I copy everything important on the drive I am going to remove, then take the drive out of the PC, put it in a static bag and put it in my safe

[amk21]

Originally Posted by $n][pErMan

I regularly replace my hard drives... not because they fail.. but because something bigger comes out. What I do as a backup is I copy everything important on the drive I am going to remove, then take the drive out of the PC, put it in a static bag and put it in my safe

Really?

[stncttr908]

Quite a while. I have a 200GB Western Digital that has been around for nearly four years, while my twin 320GB drives are a year and a half old. My 500GB IDE drives in enclosures are about 18 months and a year old respectively.

[$n][pErMan]

Originally Posted by amk21

Really?

Yes. Drives are dirty cheep these days... and to be honest it would cost me more money (via time) re-downloading things or hunting through backup DVD's to find files I am looking for. I feel better knowing I have a full hard drive sitting around with all my important data on it as a backup that I can hook up at any time incase of a failure Granted it acts and an archive from only the time I took it out and previous but its better thn starting from scratch. Currently I have 4 500GB hard drives in my PC operating... sitting in various safes and other locations I have 2 300GB, 1 250GB, 2 120GB, 1 80GB and 1 60GB drive litterally just acting as archives. Of course some other ones that I don't use in my main PC anymore also get farmed out to other PC's I have laying around and get used in servers or my DVR PC I have never added it it... but I probably have a TON of hard drive space just sitting around... lol.

Originally Posted by SH64

As long as it survives ..

Same, I got an old 5400rpm 80Gb drive in the closet... think it might still have some stuff on it, no clue... lol