the average life span of a HD (a pun)

[dani82]

all the end of the cd-r era (the day i bought a dvd-burner), i had a about 800 cd-r in wallets

during the mid-life crisis of dvd-r, i currently have 139 dvd-r in 1/2 dvd case with 150gb need burning (about 35 dvd-r) and climbinig about 1gb a day

the nextGen dvd (BD or HD), not counting DL, will cut it down to a mere fraction, but that won't be for years to come (price factor)

since the size of hard drives never changes, but it's capacity ever growing; with a arrival of sata, the price of pata are at about $0.25 a gb or less; i decided do awaying with dvd-r as a storage medium and just forget about the nextGen and transfer everything to 4x200gb+ hard drives

before i decide to do that, a shot in the dark, how long would a HD (probably seagate) last, if only uses about 1hr a month

[foxyshadis]

Essentially forever, presumably, as long as it was properly stored and protected from the elements. (No water, dirt, excess heat or cold, or excess dust.) Just make sure you start it every now and then to keep the lubricants and drive head from seizing up, as sometimes happens if you let them rot too long (typically years).

btw, I also think hard drive backup is going to be a lot more economical and useful than tape or optical in the coming years.

[CWR03]

I have quite a few hard drives which have been running almost non-stop for years - the oldest, a Maxtor, is close to 10 years old now. I have a mix of Seagates and Maxtors, 2 to 6 years old, again all running non-stop with no failures. Needless to say, hard drives are generally very reliable and for a long time.

If you're truly concerned about making them last, you might consider a swappable enclosure so you can store them someplace cool and dry until you need them, then plug it into the computer when you need something on it. That type of enclosure is also getting very affordable - I've seen them around $30, and you can order just the tray for less. A USB enclosure would work, but they're more expensive and you'd have to plug/unplug wires and set it somewhere while it's in use.

[ux-3]

Well, if one fails, it'll kill a lot of data, thats for sure!

[HardwareGeek]

with a arrival of sata, the price of pata are at about $0.25 a gb or less; i decided do awaying with dvd-r as a storage medium and just forget about the nextGen and transfer everything to 4x200gb+ hard drivesBefore you invest alot of money in alot of PATA drives, consider that PATA will not be around forever. The ICH8 provides no support for PATA, only SATA. In other words, Intel is trying to move the industry off PATA. Naturally, the industry is resisting, so this won't happen overnight. But it will happen eventually.

how long would a HD ... last, if only uses about 1hr a monthHard drive manufactures measure longevity in terms of mean time between failures (MTBF). It's usually a very long time. However, it's only an average. Some hard drives fail within months of purchase, or sooner. Others go on, & on, & on.

[dani82]

as long as there are usb and pci, i have nothing to worry about

[CWR03]

PCI is probably the next standard that wil fall by the wayside. As noted, EIDE is virtually obsolete as most motherboards only come with one EIDE and at least four SATA. It will be a few more years, but at some point PCI-e will completely replace both PCI and AGP.