Why do hard drives die so fast?

[meat_helmet]

Most are guaranteed for 3 years. If it isnt, dont buy it. Ive never had a drive that lasts less than 3 years.

Its not in their interests to make them last longer than that. 1. Hard drives increase in size so quickely, 2. It means people will buy more of them!

 

[ricanflow]

Seagate drives hold a 5 year warranty. I have a drive that is a good 4-5 years old that still work great to this day, its a 40gb seagate.

 

[meat_helmet]

Seagate drives hold a 5 year warranty. I have a drive that is a good 4-5 years old that still work great to this day, its a 40gb seagate.

Oh yeah if forgot that, lucky all my drives are seagate, haha.

 

[Ric0h]

So, its people fault?

I bought a CERTEFIED WD 500gb My book, because they were only 85 dollars with tax and shipping, But I just look at newegg reviews and make me think if this was a wise decision.

 

[Akubane]

Newegg reviews will lower your intelligence just by reading them. Seriously :/ Every once in a blue moon someone might get a defect but I'd say the vast majority of pre-mature external drive deaths is due to negligence or just being a tool with it. Just because its in a small box doesn't mean it's invincible. Unless you get that crazy drive thats guarenteed to work through an 8 foot drop onto concrete or something. Can't remember where I seen it, looked cool though ^_^

 

[meat_helmet]

Hahaha! Newegg reviews. They are fun to read just for a laugh.

Hard drives have moving parts and are sensitive to magnetism... They are not solid state and so there is alot more that can go wrong with them... especially if your throwing the thing around.

 

[Evolv]

I've been using a 80 gig Hitachi for 5 years now, still works as good as the day I bought it.

 

[zmatt]

You only hear about ones that died young. Most of the time you will get several years out of them. ****, I have some from the 90's that still work day to day, although in no serious capacity. I guess they don't make em like they used to.

Hard drives have moving parts and are sensitive to magnetism... They are not solid state and so there is alot more that can go wrong with them... especially if your throwing the thing around.

Physically SSDs are more robust than hard drives, but they also have shorter lives in terms of read/write. hardrive's lives are measured in hundreds of thousands of hours, SSDs fall somewhere shorter than that, but they are improving.