Stored hard drive failure?

Gary W. Swearingen garys at opusnet.com
Wed Oct 5 09:15:24 PDT 2005


If you're really serious (to borrow a phrase), you'll do backup to
several different media and maybe different formats.  With RAID or
backup to an always-powered second HDD, you can loose all of your
disks if the case power supply or MB fails in certain ways.  (I know
someone who lost a disk when the MB failed.)  Or if someone steals
your computer or in a fire.  With removable HDD, you risk physical
damage either from lack of use or shock.

FYI, I kept a 45 GB IBM and a 80 GB Seagate drive in a outside storage
shed which got hot, cold, and damp for 10 months and they work fine.
I guess I've been lucky because I've had only one failure from about
15 lightly-used disks and have occasionally reused 5- to 10-year-old
disks for short durations after years on the shelf.


More information about the freebsd-questions mailing list