Hard drive upkeep
November 6, 2005 6:55 PM   Subscribe

Hard Drive Upkeep: How are you keeping your hard drive(s) in tip top shape?

What tips would mefi users suggest for keeping your HD in good shape and reducing the risk of it going bad? Keeping it defragmented seems like one. Cooling it seems like another. (Could you suggest good cooling enclosures?) Other advice?
posted by parma to Computers & Internet (12 answers total)
 
I have a four hard drives. One for music. One for videos. One for data files. And one for programs. That's helpful. Less stress on the music, video and data file hard drives.
posted by panoptican at 7:14 PM on November 6, 2005


Temperature is key. Other than that, there's not much you can do. You might want to run a S.M.A.R.T. monitoring utility which will (in theory) give you a heads-up to any impending failure. Defragmenting will have absolutely nothing to do with the life of the drive.
posted by Rhomboid at 8:26 PM on November 6, 2005


Make certain that dust does not build up on the enclosure. Heat kills hard drives, and wearing a sweater does not help.

A magneto-resonant power conditioner or UPS will help keep any mains nastiness out, which is good for the overall health of the device. "Surge Strips" are (mostly) trash and should not be relied upon. My rule of thumb is if you can easily lift the power conditioner with one hand, don't bother using it.
posted by Triode at 8:52 PM on November 6, 2005


One of my computers (a Compaq iPaq) has its hard drive mounted vertically. I wonder if I'd be doing it a favor by lying the computer on its side. The old drive did crash after 4 years of minor use, and I can't help wondering if the weird vertical orientation caused any asymmetric loads. That's about my only concern.
posted by rolypolyman at 9:11 PM on November 6, 2005


Response by poster: Ok I've seen cases that you can put your HD in. What are good brands/models? (I think I will definitely be taking this route first.)
posted by parma at 9:55 PM on November 6, 2005


Response by poster: (*I meant cooling cases)
posted by parma at 9:55 PM on November 6, 2005


I really doubt a power conditioner will extend the life of your HD. It might protect the whole system (including the HD) from some kinds of power line spikes, but you're probably better off spending that money on a higher quality power supply (the one that lives inside the computer).

I second everyone else's recommendation of making sure the drive stays cool, though.
posted by hattifattener at 10:25 PM on November 6, 2005


I can't help wondering if the weird vertical orientation caused any asymmetric loads.

My understanding is that modern hard drives are happy either flat or vertically oriented. Here's an AnAndTech thread for a little support.
posted by musicinmybrain at 10:25 PM on November 6, 2005


the direction your hard drive is mounted in is irrelevant.

your best bet for hard drives is to buy new, larger ones once in a while.
posted by angry modem at 2:45 AM on November 7, 2005


According to Murphy's law, the best way to make your hard drive eternal is frequent, verified offsite backups. :)

As far as keeping this particular bit of metal around - Cooling is good - Defragging is a mixed bag: a Defragged drive puts less wear on the heads, but puts more wear on the system during defragmentation. A system that defragments in such a way as to seperate more volitile/changable files from less ones will minimize the wear on subsequent defrags. Fix-it Utilites JET Defrag does this, and others might as well.
posted by Orb2069 at 6:08 AM on November 7, 2005


Understand that Hard Disks are one of the last moving parts in a computer. And they store your data on effectively, a layer of rust on the surface of the platters.

Back up thy data, or use a 3-drive RAID 5 to help protect yourself against hardware failure which WILL WILL WILL eventually happen.
posted by Wild_Eep at 7:13 AM on November 7, 2005


Generally, 3.5" hard drive manufacturers recommend you mount them such that any face is parallel to the ground But vertical as opposed to horizontal isn't considered a problem.

Comp USA sells for cheap these hard drive heat sinks. Problem being that if you then mount them in a 5.25" bay, your drive's apt to get less airflow across it. There are other drive enclosures with built in heatpipes and/or fans. Or you can suspend it right in front of an intake fan.

But, yeah, generally backups are a better bang/effort solution to the problem of worrying about drive failure than trying to figure out every last thing you can do to maintain your drive. (Especially with how much drive you can pick up for how little if you watch the discount sites for rebates.)
posted by Zed_Lopez at 10:50 AM on November 7, 2005


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