Hi guys, I just wanted to know, How long would a normal HDD last if it was on a computer that runs an average of 6~7+Hr?

I'm asking because my HDD all of a sudden have gone alot slower than usual. And i didn't do anything out of normal. It's a Seagate 80Gb Pata 5,200rpm.

And what are the 'classic' symptoms of a failing HDD? Thx for ur help...

Originally posted by Anonymous User:

Hi guys, I just wanted to know, How long would a normal HDD last if it was on a computer that runs an average of 6~7+Hr?

I'm asking because my HDD all of a sudden have gone alot slower than usual. And i didn't do anything out of normal. It's a Seagate 80Gb Pata 5,200rpm.

And what are the 'classic' symptoms of a failing HDD? Thx for ur help...

my maxtor 250GB IDE 7200rpm has been running 24/7 for months and still running.

classic symptoms ar...clicking sound...sometimes cannot be detected...

ur HDD slow in what sense...did restarting ur pc help?

Originally posted by Anonymous User:

Hi guys, I just wanted to know, How long would a normal HDD last if it was on a computer that runs an average of 6~7+Hr?

I'm asking because my HDD all of a sudden have gone alot slower than usual. And i didn't do anything out of normal. It's a Seagate 80Gb Pata 5,200rpm.

And what are the 'classic' symptoms of a failing HDD? Thx for ur help...

Have you tried reformatting and re-installing Windows on it?

 

Originally posted by LatecomerX:

Have you tried reformatting and re-installing Windows on it?

Once... but it's quite a while ago... :p

 

Originally posted by Xcert:

ur HDD slow in what sense...did restarting ur pc help?

Slow in a sense that it would take quite a bit of time to say switch between app. Like from IE7 to Adware scanner, or even in between tabs in IE7.

Btw mine is about 4~5yrs old, with about average usage of 6~7hr a day for that duration. And by clicking you mean normal "search" clicking or abnormally loud clicking? Mine just seems to do alot of searching...

 

my old quantum fireball 1GB and 2GB still working, but the company has since ceased to produce hard disk.

 

 

Originally posted by Anonymous User:

Once... but it's quite a while ago... :p

 

Slow in a sense that it would take quite a bit of time to say switch between app. Like from IE7 to Adware scanner, or even in between tabs in IE7.

Btw mine is about 4~5yrs old, with about average usage of 6~7hr a day for that duration. And by clicking you mean normal "search" clicking or abnormally loud clicking? Mine just seems to do alot of searching...

it may not be hard disk fault.

it could be ram or mobo.

Originally posted by alwaysdisturbed:

it may not be hard disk fault.

it could be ram or mobo.

Gotta good point here... because this comp is a older system, i only have 512Mb Ram plus its ddr only... i've been compensating for the lack of ram by increasing the virtual memory to 1Gb for almost 2yrs now...XD

My old comp uses a 2nd hand HDD, used 2 years before i got it

around 6 years already, including the extra 2 years will be 8 years

it is a deskstar dunno wad 60gb IDE hdd

There's a certain lifespam for HDD de.. dunno write how many times and its ard there liao

Originally posted by Midlusionz:

There's a certain lifespam for HDD de.. dunno write how many times and its ard there liao

yea, but i don't think thats very significant.

Originally posted by alwaysdisturbed:

yea, but i don't think thats very significant.

It's a guage bah

Back up your data. you never know when you will need that.

 

MTBF

 

Over 10 years for mine. Have some newer ones, but have they die faster than a lightning could strike.

Seeing all the P2s and P3s that I have.

 

one of my cousins while travelling on a motorbike, dropped it from the bike while the bike was moving, left a big dent on the Quantum hard disk, but the hard disk worked fine.

 

So it's more on how it was used rather than how long it has been used, huh?

But how much affect would virtual memory have on the hdd? Standard value is 2x of ram right?

Yes.

How long it has been used is probably not an issue when you're talking about old HDDs. Old hardware are more hardy than new hardware. You can do quite a lot of damage to them and they will survive.

Try that on new hardware and they will probably die.

 

more microelectronics means more sensitive to damage.

 

Another thing, should i ease off loading alot of things into the old hdd? Because it is almost aways full, i have to constantly delete & transfer things away.

How much free space do you usually leave in your hdd? (Like in terms of a certain xx% of hd space free?)

MS recommends that it's at least 5% free. Anything lower, it will boot up very slowly. Try adding some junk and reduce it to less than 5% and boot up.

See how it crawls.

Personally, I will keep it at least 20% free before I move important stuffs elsewhere or delete unwanted stuffs.

Originally posted by ndmmxiaomayi:

MS recommends that it's at least 5% free. Anything lower, it will boot up very slowly. Try adding some junk and reduce it to less than 5% and boot up.

See how it crawls.

Personally, I will keep it at least 20% free before I move important stuffs elsewhere or delete unwanted stuffs.

How should it crawl if i reduce free space to <5%?

Originally posted by Anonymous User:

How should it crawl if i reduce free space to <5%?

If you want junk files, I have a lot.

Install everything, then restart computer.

Then see how long it takes to boot up, compared to one with at least 20% free space.

the 100gb on my C drive is almost up

now my games are on the D drive, which still have 300+gb

OT: why my HDD lights keep getting lid up even when i am not doing anything?

google say HDD crashing, virus(maybe 1 or 2).

 

Originally posted by MyPillowTalks:

OT: why my HDD lights keep getting lid up even when i am not doing anything?

google say HDD crashing, virus(maybe 1 or 2).

Hey, mine had similar effects as yours... It would blink like nuts out-of-the-blue & the whole system lags quite a bit...

Btw, would flash games affect the 'reaction' time as well?
Because i've been playing a flash game & randomly it would spawn a "---.exe had stopped running unexpectedly." thing, then the whole system slowed down even more... :s

Originally posted by ndmmxiaomayi:

If you want junk files, I have a lot.

Install everything, then restart computer.

Then see how long it takes to boot up, compared to one with at least 20% free space.

Here's my test results (I did 2 test only though):  

 

19% free (14.66Gb/76.32Gb)

Boot up till login pic shows: 1st- 1m 42s

                                                2nd - 1m 39s         Average = 1m 40.5s

From login till Norton AV status pop-up (excluding PW time):

                                                   1st- 2m 12s

                                                   2nd- 2m 23s       Average = 2m 17.5s

(+30 sec till hdd completes all activity)

 

4% free  (3.52/76.32)

Boot up till login pic shows: 1st- 1m 36s

                                                2nd - 1m 41s         Average = 1m 39s

From login till Norton AV status pop-up (excluding PW time):

                                                   1st- 2m 44s

                                                    (+50 sec till lower hdd activity)

                                                   2nd- 2m 35.5s       Average = 2m 40s

                                                   (+53 sec till lower hdd activity)

(hdd activity @ that capacity just won't stop, so i pick a gap in which would happen after norton pop-up that seems to seperate 'quite-high' activity & 'morse-code' activity[I.e frequent clicking] )

 

Seems the same eh, for boot up...& relatively predictable time for almost full hd... 

Any thoughts? =s