Does continuous install-uninstall of programs damage Hard Disk?

[Aneek]

Hi friends,
I have a 4 yr old HDD (160Gb).
I have formatted it many times.Also it has gone through innumerable installation & uninstallation of programs.
Does this damage the Hard drive?
What is the average longevity of a Hard Drive?
And what are the factors that determine the longevity of the HDD?
Thanks for any help.

 

[Hawkeye22]

It doesn't damage the hard drive, it's normal wear. All drives die eventually. Manufacturer's used to list the MTBF (mean time between failure), but they no longer do this because it's deceiving. If you have SMART turned on in your bios you should be informed of any bad hard drive conditions. I've had hard drives run 24/7 for 10 years and not fail. I've also had some last 3 months and die. The point is to make sure you backup what's important to you.

 

[jsc]

And what are the factors that determine the longevity of the HDD?

Time.
Power on/off cycles.
Vibration. (Try not to move a running drive.)
Heat.

 

[Aneek]

It doesn't damage the hard drive, it's normal wear. All drives die eventually. Manufacturer's used to list the MTBF (mean time between failure), but they no longer do this because it's deceiving. If you have SMART turned on in your bios you should be informed of any bad hard drive conditions. I've had hard drives run 24/7 for 10 years and not fail. I've also had some last 3 months and die. The point is to make sure you backup what's important to you.

Many thanks for making me informed about the fact.

 

[Aneek]

Time.
Power on/off cycles.
Vibration. (Try not to move a running drive.)
Heat.

Thanks jsc for making me aware of the fact.But what do you mean by Power on/off cycles?

 

[Chainzsaw]

Thanks jsc for making me aware of the fact.But what do you mean by Power on/off cycles?

Turning off your computer completely will stop power going to your hard drive. This is a power off cycle. Turning on your computer will bring power to your hard drive, this is a power on cycle.

Think of it this way....

A light bulb will last much longer if you just leave it on. The fact of turning it on/off constantly actually wears out the little piece inside that lights it up. This is somewhat true with electronics as well.

 

[Aneek]

Turning off your computer completely will stop power going to your hard drive. This is a power off cycle. Turning on your computer will bring power to your hard drive, this is a power on cycle.

Think of it this way....

A light bulb will last much longer if you just leave it on. The fact of turning it on/off constantly actually wears out the little piece inside that lights it up. This is somewhat true with electronics as well.

Thanks Chainzsaw,for the valuable information.
But does that mean-----Restarting computer many times will gradually wear off the HDD?

 

[Chainzsaw]

The fact of restarting your computer would probably wear it woud .001% everytime.

I just made up that fact lol. But you should get what I mean.

 

[gokanis]

The worst thing you can do is power it on and off, well besides knocking the case over while it is running. I leave my systems on all the time and have only had one die from that in the last 8 years. The drives that took the most failures were the ones I had in an external SATA enclosures. You had to eject the drives to turn the power off. Now I have key switches on the snap in modules which turn the drive on only once it is in place and turned off before you eject. Oh yeah, heat is not a good idea either.

 

[Guest]

i have 4.3 gb seagate hard disk more 12 years old. it is still ok though with some bad sectors. I no longer use that drive still i will keep it. I just 😍 that drive..."Old is Gold" 😀

 

[Aneek]

The fact of restarting your computer would probably wear it woud .001% everytime.

I just made up that fact lol. But you should get what I mean.

Thanks for posting.
That was a great information.Appreciate it.

 

[Aneek]

The worst thing you can do is power it on and off, well besides knocking the case over while it is running. I leave my systems on all the time and have only had one die from that in the last 8 years. The drives that took the most failures were the ones I had in an external SATA enclosures. You had to eject the drives to turn the power off. Now I have key switches on the snap in modules which turn the drive on only once it is in place and turned off before you eject. Oh yeah, heat is not a good idea either.

Thanks for posting.
By the way,what is "key switches on the snap in modules"?

 

[Aneek]

i have 4.3 gb seagate hard disk more 12 years old. it is still ok though with some bad sectors. I no longer use that drive still i will keep it. I just 😍 that drive..."Old is Gold" 😀

Yeah,"old is gold".

 

[Aneek]

Hi friends,
I just found my HDD attributes using SPEED FAN software.The attributes are---


Marks out of 10 Attribute Current Raw Overall

10 Raw Read Error Rate 200 12 Very good
6 Spin Up Time 155 3241 Good
0 Start/Stop Count 96 4103 Watch
Warning: Start/Stop Count is below the average limits (99-100).
10 Reallocated Sector Count 200 0 Very good
10 Seek Error Rate 200 0 Very good
6 Power On Hours Count 94 4450 Good
10 Spin Retry Count 100 0 Very good
10 Calibration Retry Count 100 0 Very good
0 Power Cycle Count 97 3597 Watch
Warning: Power Cycle Count is below the average limits (99-100).
10 Power Off Retract Count 200 405 Very good
0 Load Cycle Count 199 4103 Watch
Warning: Load Cycle Count is below the average limits (200-200).
10 Reallocated Event Count 200 0 Very good
10 Current Pending Sector 200 0 Very good
10 Offline Uncorrectable Sector Count 200 0 Very good
10 Ultra DMA CRC Error Rate 200 0 Very good
10 Write Error Rate 200 0 Very good


Will anyone please clarify the condition of my HDD?
And what should I do to the warnings (posted in the above chart),to restore the heath of HDD?

 

[Hawkeye22]

When you see the value "FAILED" next to one of those, then you have a problem, otherwise your drive is good. The warning on the power cycle just means you don't turn your computer off much.

You can see what the parameters mean here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.

 

[Aneek]

When you see the value "FAILED" next to one of those, then you have a problem, otherwise your drive is good. The warning on the power cycle just means you don't turn your computer off much.

You can see what the parameters mean here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.

Yeah,I have seen it already.
But my HDD's power cycle is below average value.Is it alarming?
What can I do to prevent it?

 

[Hawkeye22]

Nothing really, other than changing how often you turn your computer on and off. This paremeter isn't as important as some others, so don't worry about it.

Power cycle count - This attribute indicates the count of full hard disk power on/off cycles.

 

[Aneek]

Nothing really, other than changing how often you turn your computer on and off. This paremeter isn't as important as some others, so don't worry about it.

Power cycle count - This attribute indicates the count of full hard disk power on/off cycles.

Thanks Hawkeye22 for your post.