Question Can I store or place all my external hard drives in one place?

MrLitschel

Commendable
Nov 7, 2021
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You can store them basically anyway you want. I have over 30 hard drives sitting in a desk drawer. Connect them when I need something from them or put something on them. Been using them all for over 10 years. Old IDE Drives to Sata6 to SSDs. No problems. (Just make sure you don't damage the connectors)
 
Nov 25, 2021
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You can store them basically anyway you want. I have over 30 hard drives sitting in a desk drawer. Connect them when I need something from them or put something on them. Been using them all for over 10 years. Old IDE Drives to Sata6 to SSDs. No problems. (Just make sure you don't damage the connectors)
Thanks MrLitschel, appreciate your answer and thanks for the idea.
 

Karadjgne

Titan
Ambassador
The only damage incurred by stacking them in a drawer is to the paint jobs.

Mitigating Hard Drive Storage Failures
Of all the possible issues with hard drive storage, two of the most common ones can have their effects mitigated by exercising the drive. In the case of mechanical failure over long time frames, the simple approach is to power on the drive occasionally, ensuring the bearings, motor, and grease are all warmed up, and preventing them from becoming stuck in one location.

Refreshing the stored data can reduce magnetic field deterioration. This would require the drive to be powered on and connected to a computer system. Reading the stored data isn’t enough; to refresh the magnetic charge the data must be read and then rewritten to the drive. An easy way to accomplish this, assuming there’s enough room on the drive, would be to copy the content to a new location on the drive, or create a disk image and copy that to a new location on the drive. Another option would be to clone the drive to another storage device, and then clone the drive back again.

WD recommends storage of between 50°F and 90°F.

Refresh should be done once per year at least, and that applies to consumer grade SSDs as well, Enterprise class SSDs should be done weekly.
 
Nov 25, 2021
66
0
30
The only damage incurred by stacking them in a drawer is to the paint jobs.



WD recommends storage of between 50°F and 90°F.

Refresh should be done once per year at least, and that applies to consumer grade SSDs as well, Enterprise class SSDs should be done weekly.
So it means I don't need to worry about the magnets inside the hard drives when stacking them?