HDD Fails at 11 Years

[engine]

After 11 years of use one of the backup HDDs has finally failed. I can hear the disk still spinning, do it must be the controller or head mechanism.

I don't know about you, but I think 11 years for something pretty much in constant use, spun down and back up daily is not.
11 of more years is the claimed/expected MTBF.

As it's a backup, i'm not too troubled, because, I'm sure you would guess, I keep more than one backup.

[Dimitri]

Peace first, then , ... peace for the HDD too, after a good serving.

11 years is good. Did you monitored the S.M.A.R.T. values, may be there were signs the HDD was getting exhausted, and could have alert you of a breaking.

[engine]

No monitoring on this particular HDD as it was an external device connected to a NAS, and the NAS software doesn't monitor external devices.

It'll be sent to recycling after I've removed the platter and destroyed that to protect the data.

Anyone else have hdds running for a long time?

[graeme_p]

I tend to use hardware for a long time, but cannot think of a hard drive I know has been used for that long (I buy desktops second hand so am not always sure of the age). I am cheap and its green to reduce manufacturing and e-waste :)

I had a laptop I used for 13 years but I upgraded the hard drive at some point.

I just replaced the hard drive on my desktop (it had an SSD for the OS and software - i.e. / for unix folks) and /home on an HDD. SMART numbers for the HDD were not looking good so I replaced it with an SSD and copied everything over last night. I used a newer file system (btrfs) so a quite few improvements all round.

[LifeinAsia]

Anyone else have hdds running for a long time?

Because of the risk of jinxing things, my answer can neither confirm nor deny.

Is the discussion restricted to desktop/laptop HDDs or are you willing to include server HDDs in the mix? If so, then I can definitely neither confirm nor deny if I have a server that has been in constant use for about 15 years (except for 2 data center moves and a few scheduled and unscheduled power outages) with almost all of the original HDDs. May have replaced 1, possibly 2, of them. If such a server exists.

[mack]

You certainly got your money's worth from that drive, although 11 years ago HDD's were still pretty expensive. Would be interesting to know what capacity you can get today for the same as you paid 11 years back.

Glad you have more than one backup and no data was lost.

Mack.

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

C'mon engine, it's like new, open it up and use some crazy glue in there, maybe a little duct tape, it should be good another 11 years.

All you have to do is grab a repair guide on youtube now that the downvotes are gone and it's all good. I bet others were able to take one they found on the bottom of a lake that had rusted away, been microwaved, burned and chewed on by a cow and fix it up like new.

You can do it!

[tangor]

I have all kinds of drives that still run, read, write, that are in the 20+ year range ... but most of them aren't even close to the density of an ordinary DVD disk. I suspect that when the older computers I have which can interface these drives die, the drives will become useless ... unless there's a USB dongle for that. :)

Meanwhile, the oldest drive I have in current use is 15 years, a sturdy little Seagate 8 gb (gigabyte) used as a scratch drive for graphics overflow, thus doesn't really get a lot of work since the computer/memory these days kind of makes it moot. Just haven't taken it off the system.

My systems run 24/7/365, so after 4 years I start watching them closely, always ready to move data to a new, and usually much larger, drive. Those drives then sit on the shelf as backups via usb docking and archival purposes. I suspect that as SSD capacity and pricing come down (if inflation does not make the prices rise!) I'll move that spinning rust history to that medium.

[engine]

You might wonder why I used it for the backup: It was redeployed from elsewhere. I don't plan to replace that faulty hard drive for the time being as there is already two other backups.

@Sgt_Kickaxe haha, the cost of duct tape is more than the drive is worth!

@Mack I really can't remember what it cost all that time back, but it wasn't cheap, unlike now. Today, you can get a 1tb external hard drive for as little at $25. I just looked and a 1tb SSD external drive is about $70. Obviously, there are more expensive options, and much higher capacities available.

[timchuma]

11 years is pretty good for a HDD. I usually replace mine every 5 years at the maximum. Also running out of space is a big motivator.

[Kendo]

11 years is excellent. One of my servers had a mirror RAID that lasted something like that. But I was unlucky because they both died at the same time.

Manufacturer's warranty is usually only for 2 years.

[Brett_Tabke]

I've had a Buffalo NAS up and running since 2007. 3tb. Never replaced or repaired anything. Always on.

Compare that with 3 Synology NAS's I've had that have replaced more drives than I can remember. I can't remember the last time I've had a desktop drive fail, but I moved to all SSD on desktop about five years ago.