How Long Do External Hard Drives Last? (desktop, reinstall, work)

[Dockside]

I've had a Maxtor external hard drive for about 3 years backing up all our data. Does anyone have any idea how long these things last? Given the choice, would you buy another external hard drive or switch over to an online backup service like Mozy or Carbonite?

[gramirez2012]

My last one lasted about 3 years, the bridge electronics died, but the drive still works (albeit with SMART errors). My current one I've had for 8 months and is going strong. I have a 20 MB SCSI external that has lasted almost 25 years.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by Dockside

I've had a Maxtor external hard drive for about 3 years backing up all our data. Does anyone have any idea how long these things last? Given the choice, would you buy another external hard drive or switch over to an online backup service like Mozy or Carbonite?

Buy another external hard drive. They are so cheap. Using Moore's Law, you should be able to buy a hard drive about three or four times larger than the one you had for the same price.

[EscapeCalifornia]

Originally Posted by Dockside

I've had a Maxtor external hard drive for about 3 years backing up all our data. Does anyone have any idea how long these things last? Given the choice, would you buy another external hard drive or switch over to an online backup service like Mozy or Carbonite?

Does the drive show any signs of failing? Are you outgrowing it? Don't replace it until it warrants replacement. I recommend online backups in addition to local backups. Neither is a good replacement for the other.

[plwhit]

Originally Posted by Dockside

I've had a Maxtor external hard drive for about 3 years backing up all our data. Does anyone have any idea how long these things last? Given the choice, would you buy another external hard drive or switch over to an online backup service like Mozy or Carbonite?

Disk drives are like any other mechanical device, could crap out at any time.........

Your system gets corrupted in an electrical storm and your ISP is down as well...

You reinstall the OS and then what? Twiddle your thumbs until your ISP comes back online which could be a few days?

You are trusting your data to a faceless organization that could possibly disappear overnight?

I backup to two separate external disks, one backup I keep here at the house the other disk over at my son's house.

An external 1.5 TB disk drive costs under $70.00..... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148337

One other thing to consider, ISP's are starting to implement Caps and depending on how much you back up per month an
on-line backup solution could cost a pretty penny...

[Tek_Freek]

I back up to a second internal drive once a week (I use scheduling software) and Carbonite. Online Backup Software | Carbonite I signed up for three years and got an excellent price per year. I did have to do a recovery for a client from them and called for support because it was my first (and so far only) time doing it. There was no wait time for a tech and they walked me through it. As it turned out doing a recovery really is a piece of cake. On the down side the Internet was slower than all get out because some jackasses decided to do a DoS attack (I think it was against Intel) in the middle of it so it took a lot longer than it normally would.

Referencing the doom and gloom post above I would say that if your ISP goes out when there are storms in your area then you need a new provider. If your system gets corrupted during an electrical storm you should try using a UPS for your components - a good UPS. And companies like Carbonite and Mozy aren't going to "crap out at any time".

[Tek_Freek]

OP. I apologize. I hate when I end up in the middle of a hijack on a thread. Sometimes things get carried away...

[Trucker7]

Originally Posted by plwhit

An external 1.5 TB disk drive costs under $70.00..... Newegg.com - Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Ehhh, that's a barebones internal drive. The only way it can hold data externally, is if you put a book on top of it.

[Tek_Freek]

Here's a whole passle of those 1TB and bigger...

Newegg.com - Computer Hardware, Hard Drives, External Hard Drives, 1TB and higher

[plwhit]

Originally Posted by Trucker7

Ehhh, that's a barebones internal drive. The only way it can hold data externally, is if you put a book on top of it.

Sorry, wrong link...

WD Elements Desktop 1.5 TB External hard drive - 480 Mbps


$70 bucks