Internal Hard Drive vs External Hard Drive Life Span

Hi, I have about 20 ext hdds and they break within a year or two and I have to replace them. Some of them are USB 2.0, some Firewire and some are SATA. Half of the ext hdds contain my original files and the other half contain back-ups. I rarely turn on an ext hdds that contain my back-ups, only to add some files, but they break quickly also. My int hdd never breaks and it gets the most use. It has Windows on it and a lot of files that I use often. It's also the drive that I use to download, install and programs and I run cleaning and anti-virus/malware programs on it, defrag often, etc. Is there an explanation why my int hdd has never broken but my ext hdds break quickly? 99% of them contain video files that I watch but 50% of those contain backups.

when you say:

they break within a year or two and I have to replace them

how are you determining that they are broken?

This link may give you the background to Denise's External Hard Drives Shelf Life

Hi tallin . . . thanks for giving the link.

Hi shelf life, thanks for responding

how are you determining that they are broken?

They no longer spin up, no tones that they've been turned on, and they aren't recognized in My Computer. Some run well only on an intermittent basis, so they're not dependable. I don't know why they'll work for a period of time and then shut off or my computer freezes until I turn the drive off. I have most of my external hard drives lined up on a shelf behind my computer and I have a small vornedo fan blowing on them to keep them cool. They're cool to the touch even after they've been on for over 24 hours. They all have their own power supply and they're connected to hubs. I've tried using different cables or different hubs/ports. Both SATA and USB 2.0 drives have broken on me. I've replaced 2 additional ext hdds that broke since my last thread here and purchased 2 more for additional room that was needed. Most of my ext hdds have at least 25% free space now, except for one, which has only 14% free space but it's working fine. I just ordered a 1Tb ext hdd so that will resolve the problem with that drive.

One of the drives that stopped working toned, as if it was going to turn on, but it never did. It wasn't recognized by My Computer or in Disk Management. I connected it to my daughter's pc and it worked fine. A few weeks later, I decided to format the drive using her pc, hoping it would work on my pc again, but it wouldn't work on her pc either at that time. I don't know why it did one time and wouldn't a couple of weeks later. I had it sitting on a shelf in a closet that gets almost no use and nothing was near it that could have zapped it.

Hi your experience of multiple hard drive failures within one to two years is atypical.

Its true that the failure rate curve begins to take off and move more steeply upwards after 2 years of typical use and even more so after 4 years. However to have 20 drives fail within 24 months or so..is very abnormal and indicates ( unless you are getting them all from one source,) more fundamental issues with your set up or operating procedures. Presumably you are getting them all replaced under warranty?..although I appreciate that this does not help with the potential loss of data.

Mean time before failure rates are largely only of use for large populations of drives but the following may provide further insight
http://searchwindowsserver.techtarget.com/…1171104,00.html
Regards
paws

I read the info at the link that you provided and another link that gives warning signs when a drive is about to fail. I buy Maxtor (before Seagate bought them out), Seagate and Western Digital ext hdds, mostly at eBay, but I've bought some at well known and respected stores on the internet. The 3 Maxtor One Touch II ext hdds that I purchased about 6 years ago are still going strong. I've seen no signs that they're about to fail. They stay cool to the touch with no air blowing on them because they're on a bottom shelf of my desk. I have them firewired. Several of the ext hdds that I purchased at eBay from one particular seller have had the shortest life span and they had only 1-year warranties. They had Seagate hdds in them. That seller is no longer on eBay. These are the ones that freeze my computer at times when they're turned on. I purchased 5 of them during a 6-month period and only one of them is still working, but it's my problematic drive at the moment. I have to hold it and exert slight pressure on it's sides in order for it to spin up, just like I had to do with the others. About a year ago, I purchased another Maxtor ext hdd. I don't remember the model name. It's grey with grey rubber sides and is about 2" wide. It worked very well when I stored my back-ups on it but it's performance deteriorated when I moved my original files to it and started using it much more often. The remainder of the drives were purchased from various sellers/stores. Three quarters of them have Seagate drives and the remainder have WD drives. Most of my drives are now less than a year old, some less than 6 months old, and they're still performing very well. Some of them have built-in fans and I have a small vornedo fan blowing on all of them except for the 3 Maxtors that are on the bottom shelf of my desk, so heat isn't a problem. They're all always cool to the touch. I recently purchased 3 Maxtor I One IV ext hdds and I'm already regretting that decision. I moved all of my back-up files to them so that they're only on for less than an hour a week so that I can copy by original files to them. The drives that I now have, I consider to be my second batch of drives since all the first drives that I purchased no longer work. I still have them but they're stored in a closet in case they can be fixed, but I haven't looked into that yet. I'm hoping that this new batch of drives last longer. Just in case, the last 4 that I purchased have a 5-year warranty and I will no longer buy any that don't offer a 5-year warranty. I'm not concerned about losing data when the drives fail because half of them contain back-ups of files that are on other ext hdds. My entire C drive is backed up onto an ext drive (except for Windows and programs that I installed myself). My concern is the money that I need to spend to replace drives that fail. I think the problem with them starts when I reorganize the files on my drives and move many or most of the files from one drive to another. After I do a reorganization, I defragment the drives. I also copy files (from my original files) to them that were on a drive that failed. I'll also move the entire contents from a smaller drive to a new larger drive and use the smaller drive as a back-up drive so that it will contain all new files. It seems like this type of use is too much work for them and they no longer work as well as they did prior to the reorganization, as if the drive surface has had too much wear. None of them have been dropped and they're only touched to turn them on and I lift them to dust the shelf. In total, I now have 22 ext hdds but I will be removing three of my 250Gb drives, first moving their files onto a new 1T drive that I just ordered. That's about all the information that I can give you regarding the types of drives I have and the use I give them. My internal drive, on the other hand, has been used and almost abused. I've formatted it several times and Repaired Windows several times. I install and uninstall programs and my pc is almost never turned off. At night, I process files or run in-depth anti-spyware/virus/trojan/other malware programs. It's a workhorse. It's a SATA I Seagate with a 16mb buffer and I'm considering buying a SATA II with a 32mb buffer. I've been reading reviews of one of the major brand SATA II drives. It appears that they're not dependable. The company moved its manufacturing plant to China and the drives have a host of problems, so I'm going to wait awhile to see if their performance improves.

wow thats a lot of hd failure. a mystery. Really cant offer anything as a solution other than more troubleshooting. Two things that come to mind and you may have already done this. One is to visit the HD makers website and check the FAQ/troubleshooting sections, the other as far as usb goes is to visit the site below. Its great for all things related to USB.
http://www.usbman.com/Troubleshooter%20General.htm

Denise, How many of your External HD's do you have powered-on at any one time typically? Each External HD may draw between 10w-24w. That could add up to a lot of power being sucked from one source and possibly create "brown-out" condition for your External HD's, depending upon how many you have turned on at once.

I usually have about 5 or 6 turned on at a time. 3 are SATA, one USB 2.0 and, if turned on, the other is firewire. Once every couple of weeks, I'll copy my originals to my back-up drives so another one will be turned on for a short period of time, less than 1/2 hour.

I just purchased a 1T external hard drive but it was DOA. The case is the type that can support any ext hdd so the company that sold it to me asked me if I had a spare case or spare ext hdd that I could swap to see if the case was the problem or if it was the drive. The only "spare" ext hdds that I have are ones that no longer work so I decided to take one apart and swap the drives. I learned that the one that was "broken" had a broken power switch. It only worked when the switch was in the middle position, neither on or off. This drive was SATA and the other 3 were USB 2.0 so I couldn't swap them with the case, but it might very well be the reason that ext hdds aren't long lasting like int hdds. Just a theory.

Two considerations here, Denise_M1, First, I would find it absolutely unacceptable for a retailer to send a DOA ext. HD and then ask me to provide service of swapping case or drive to determine the fault in their defective unit! The entire unit should be replaced by them at their expense, including freight. Second, If for some reason you do decide that you wish to perform the suggested service of swapping….. You don't need a "spare". You could use "any" known good case of the same characteristics. Place the "new" 1tb ext. HD into the known good case and fire it up. Similarly, you can install "any" known good HD of the same characteristics into the "new" case, and fire it up. ________________- What would I do? I'd ask the retailer to immediately send me a prepaid RMA shipping label and return the darn thing for exchange or refund. Sorry to hear of your continuing difficulty. Best Regards

Hi Doug,

I'd ask the retailer to immediately send me a prepaid RMA shipping label . . .

I wish I had thought of that. I paid for the return postage myself.

I didn't want to take apart an external hdd that was in good working condition so I used one that wasn't working. I figured it would give me an opportunity to see if the drive was still good but it didn't work in the new case either, but that might be because the case was defective. I'm just hoping that I don't receive a refurbished one. A well-known company did that to me two times. The third time they sent me a new one.

I think that I'll pop the broken drive that I have into the new case that I get to see if it's the drive that's broken. It may be the case since the power on/off switch doesn't work.