Hard Drive Use and Failure

Linkage

This argument comes up frequently so I figured I'd post this story.

Apparently there is little or no connection between heavy use of a hard drive and increased risk of failure. Unless there is a defect which knocks it out early your hard drive will last practically forever, according to the study.

All of you frequent formatters are fine, go about your business.

 

Eh? I read the article but it seems to say there is a strong correlation between usage and failure rates, especially at the young and old extremes...

Maybe you're referring to the relation between temperature and failure rates?

 

Seems sort of weird that lower temperatures cause hard drive failures. It's frustrating the article never mentions WHAT constitutes a high or low temperature. I mean, obviously -10 degrees Celcius will damage a hard drive, but is 20 degrees Celcius also considered low?

 

Here's a link to the original paper (PDF) at Google Labs if you want the full story.

 

I haven't been able to closely read the full text but it sounds like glitches cause a lot of failures early and after that hard drives tend to die off according to their brand where use and temperature don't significantly effect the life of the drive. So Brand A will die off in three years, B in four and C in five, generally.