Comments for Your hard disk is more likely to fail than you think.

Comment from Richard on 2009-07-15

2009-07-15T20:40:14Z

I've got a whole pile of sub GB disks, in the 80MB - 800MB range, disks that will most likely still be running when all of my 250GB & up disks are dead.

there's something to be said about the older slower speed drives!

]]>

A comment on: Your hard disk is more likely to fail than you think.

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Robin Clay on 2009-07-14

2009-07-14T19:14:23Z

1. The world population is divided into two categories of people - those who have had a hard drive crash, and those who haven't - yet.

2. There is a theory that it is actually kinder to the hard drive to keep it running, so that it never gets cold - most wear occurs on cold start-up. No, I turn mine off....

3. "Full" back-up is all very well, but.... what I really REALLY want is to be able to do an incremental back-up, i.e. only back up those files that have changed. AND what *I* would like is for the program actually to re-name files that already exist on the back-up drive by adding the time-stamp, so that they are not overwritten.... NOT a lot to ask, but it's "not out there"- well, I haven't found it yet....

4. No, I'm not interested in backing-up the "pagefile.sys" file, etc. (not that one can under Windows, anyway), but presumably a "full image" backup would include them ? If not, it ain't a "full image"....

]]>

A comment on: Your hard disk is more likely to fail than you think.

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from JH on 2009-07-08

2009-07-08T09:21:07Z

If the HDD is continually spooling up and down, its mechanical components will be worn out faster. My last HDD lasted 10 years and is still working.

]]>

A comment on: Your hard disk is more likely to fail than you think.

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Serge on 2009-02-08

2009-02-08T21:50:20Z

S.M.A.R.T technology uses threshold values to estimate the health status of a hard disk. The estimation of a failing date is like a trend estimation on how attribute value will change based on past values, it's just a statistical algorithm.

]]>

A comment on: Your hard disk is more likely to fail than you think.

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Darius Dinshah on 2009-01-22

2009-01-22T20:38:53Z

All the comments refer to stopping an external drive. There was a reference to the internal drive always spinning when the PC is running. Not so. In the "Power" pull-down you can set the internal to shut down after any number of minutes or never if you wish. Much data being entered appears to go to another place, either RAM or maybe a cache. When needed, the indicator LED shows the internal being reactivated, and then writes to it. It may not save much elec, but would it not extend bearing life?

]]>

A comment on: Your hard disk is more likely to fail than you think.

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from berny marsden on 2009-01-19

2009-01-19T18:04:54Z

I teach computer maintenance, & I always stress that the reason for making backups is NOT "in case your hard drive fails" because I can guarantee that one day it WILL fail & that day could be as soon as the day after you bought the pc. If you change your mindset to "backup for WHEN it fails" you are much more likely to do regular backups. Incidentally, I can recommend DriveImage XML for "hot" system drive backups. I used to use PowerQuest DriveImage (no connection) but it was always breaking after MS system updates. The XML version has been rock solid.

]]>

A comment on: Your hard disk is more likely to fail than you think.

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Vicki Williams on 2007-12-29

2007-12-29T12:42:17Z

I've had one failure in the 15-20 years that I have owned a computer. That drive did fail during its first year.

]]>

A comment on: Your hard disk is more likely to fail than you think.

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Ken Crook on 2007-03-31

2007-04-01T05:51:09Z

Bought a new HP Pavilion notebook and the hard disk died after only 5 months of use. HP shipped me a new one, but I wasted 3 days rebuilding everything. I now, as Leo, use Acronis TrueImage to backup my hard disk so next time my disk crashes or is trashed I'll save those wasted 3 days.

]]>

A comment on: Your hard disk is more likely to fail than you think.

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Ann E. Hynes on 2007-03-31

2007-04-01T03:09:13Z

I just listened to the podcast on hard drive failure. Expensive, yes,to the tune of about $465. I wish I had known this sooner. Thank you for your newsletter. I'll keep reading!

]]>

A comment on: Your hard disk is more likely to fail than you think.

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Gideon on 2007-03-30

2007-03-31T06:39:05Z

I think Google probably runs their hard discs pretty hard that way they get a better ROI. I doubt any of us are running HDs 24/7. From a HDs point of view you could easily think of 2 years work at Google being the equivalent of 5 years in a home or office environment.

]]>

A comment on: Your hard disk is more likely to fail than you think.

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Michael Horowitz on 2007-03-30

2007-03-31T04:03:12Z

Acronis True Image can make image backups either from within Windows or outside Windows running from a bootable CD. I would only trust an image backup made from outside Windows, but that's me. The entire True Image v8 manual however was geared to backups from within Windows.

Recently I tried to make True Image backups from a boot CD on a machine without a PS/2 port. Despite being Linux, both v7 and v8 failed to detect the USB keyboard.

But my biggest gripe with True Image is that it can not make a true image. That is, it is incapable of doing the basic job of an imaging product, make a sector by sector copy. For details see http://www.computergripes.com/trueimage.html

]]>

A comment on: Your hard disk is more likely to fail than you think.

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Gerald Malcolm on 2007-03-30

2007-03-31T02:09:47Z

7%-- I have had # failures in the last ywar. one only lasted 4 months--i back up full all the time.

]]>

A comment on: Your hard disk is more likely to fail than you think.

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Louis Benn on 2007-03-26

2007-03-26T10:58:43Z

7%? That is Much higher than we have, we've been lucky i guess.
1 failure in 3 years. :)

]]>

A comment on: Your hard disk is more likely to fail than you think.

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.