My desktop computer was built circa 2003, it has been running 24-7 since. I would be a little flustered if the hard drive crapped now, is there a way to get a new drive and do a mirror transfer or something so I don't end up having to start from scratch.

What is the life expectancy of a Hard Disk?

11/20/2007 10:43:55 PM

depends on which brand you buy. I'd expect a seagate to last maybe 5-7 years depending on the model (class action lawsuit covers some that did not last that long.)

also depends on laptop or desktop.

Laptop I'd guess 3-4 years average, but decent chance of it dying before then.

Desktop maybe 5 years on average.

11/20/2007 11:29:37 PM

Its a Samsung

11/20/2007 11:33:55 PM

buy a new hard drive, install, copy, profit

you can image the drive you have now, and make a partition on your new drive and restore that image to the new partition.

[Edited on November 21, 2007 at 1:25 AM. Reason : .]

11/21/2007 1:23:58 AM

new drive, throw it into an external enclosure (or in your case), use casper xp.

I've got it running on my parent's computers making multiple backups a week. The software allows you to unplug one drive, swap connectors, start up and not need to run any additional software.


this way, if your drive cops out, you'll be back up and running in as soon as you can swap the drives

11/25/2007 10:34:14 AM

google did a very good study on hard drive life expectation a year ago or so

11/25/2007 3:59:37 PM

Expect them to fail.

11/25/2007 11:03:13 PM

external hd ftw.

11/25/2007 11:28:06 PM

^^^i think you mean "someone at google" did a study. please. it makes them sound less like the borg.

^^wins

a lot of it depends on how often your hard drives are spinning. if you tell your machine to stop spinning them after like 1 hour of idle time, it helps a lot.

11/26/2007 4:25:09 AM

norton ghost, use it

has anybody else found IBM drives to fail at around the one year mark very consistently? I've had 3 fail within a month of being a year old...

[Edited on November 26, 2007 at 9:02 AM. Reason : asdf]

11/26/2007 9:01:55 AM

arent ibm drives just rebranded from someone else?

11/26/2007 10:09:29 AM

dunno, ill google it

11/26/2007 10:11:48 AM

yes, hitatchi i believe

Seagates have 5 year warrantee on them now, so 5-7 about?

depends on usage like folks have been saying

11/26/2007 11:16:41 AM

I have a HP desktop I bought back in 2000. Still running Win 98 and has run pretty good. Last night I go in there to pay a few bills and the screen says "No operating system found"

I reboot and get same message cept this time I hear the all too familiar clicking and crunching sound coming from the hard drive Just for the kick of it I threw in my system recovery CD and it tells me it can't find my hard drive All my boobie pics are now gone.

best place to pick up a cheap hard drive???

[Edited on November 26, 2007 at 11:33 AM. Reason : .]

11/26/2007 11:25:17 AM

meh maybe, get a new hd, unplug your old one, install windows on new drive
stick old hd in a ziplock and stick in freezer, remove after a few hours, plug old drive in, copy as much as you can off of it before it dies...

if your lucky the data might still be there... if not, then its all gone

you need a new hd anyways soo...

11/26/2007 11:33:00 AM