Question Doubts about storing/stacking HDDs ?

[cloudff7ps1]

If I place the 2.5" 7mm Seagate ST500LM030 HDD on top of another 2.5" 7mm Seagate ST500LM030 HDD, will the weight of the top HDD deform the metal of the HDD underneath, damaging the magnetic disks?

 

[USAFRet]

If I place the 2.5" 7mm Seagate ST500LM030 HDD on top of another 2.5" 7mm Seagate ST500LM030 HDD, will the weight of the top HDD deform the metal of the HDD underneath, damaging the magnetic disks?

Do you mean just laying it on top?

A spinning HDD needs to be bolted in to the case.
Otherwise, the vibration from the spinning will have effects.

But the weight of one won't "deform" the other.

But they both need to be bolted in.

 

[cloudff7ps1]

in storage mode not in use

 

[USAFRet]

in storage mode not in use

Just sitting on a shelf or in a box?

Zero problems as far as the weight of one influencing the other.

But, let them sit on the shelf for too long, you may see other issues.
We've discussed this before.

 

[cloudff7ps1]

in the horizontal position it is inside a plastic usb 3.0 enclosure case from Orico or Kesu

 

[USAFRet]

in the horizontal position it is inside a plastic usb 3.0 enclosure case from Orico or Kesu

It.
Is.
Fine.

 

[cloudff7ps1]

What precautions should be taken to maximize the lifespan of HDDs and the files inside them? Do they lose their magnetism?

for HDDs with unused files stored

 

[USAFRet]

What precautions should be taken to maximize the lifespan of HDDs and the files inside them? Do they lose their magnetism?

for HDDs with unused files stored

Have multiple copies.
Check them routinely.
Replace as needed.

This is not new information.

 

[cloudff7ps1]

I have 4 drives
What type of check should I perform once a year? Is it possible without having to copy the files to the PC and without making a new copy to these HDDs?

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

I've had two Western Digital external HDDs perched one atop the other for at least 10 years.
I use them regularly for multiple backups and never had any data loss or any other problems with them.

Of course, they will fail one day, but nothing to do with the way they are stacked.
When one of them fails I replace it as soon as possible.

 

[Viking2121]

No it wont hurt it no, not ideal, you could have a bunch of 2.5inch drives stacked even 3.5inch drives, as long as they don't fall or get bumped to aggressively, should be fine.

I got a room dedicated to computer junk, and I got piles of HDD's that are in known working condition, and I got them all stacked on top of each other on a shelve, never had an issue with it.

 

[Moonstick2]

I have 4 drives
What type of check should I perform once a year? Is it possible without having to copy the files to the PC and without making a new copy to these HDDs?

But four drives of what? Four copies of your data? Or is the data on each drive the only existing copy?

Where did you get once a year from? Nobody here said to do it once a year.

You give very little information. How important is this data to you? You seem to want to do nothing more than some five minute check once a year, and that's fine if you losing any of it is just irritating. If though one day you can't get to the data and you would end up posting here about how important it was and you'd do anything to get it back no matter what the cost, then that's a different matter.

 

[cloudff7ps1]

4 hdds are same data in drives

 

[USAFRet]

I have 4 drives
What type of check should I perform once a year? Is it possible without having to copy the files to the PC and without making a new copy to these HDDs?

At the very least, you need to power it/them up, and verify the data on them is still readable.

You can't just put a drive on the shelf, leave it for years, and assume it will work.

We've had this specific discussion before.

 

[cloudff7ps1]

Yes, I will connect these drives and check if the data is readable, but how often? Many times a year? How can I check if they are readable without having to copy everything to the PC?

is easy lost damage files in hdd

 

[USAFRet]

Yes, I will connect these drives and check if the data is readable, but how often? Many times a year? How can I check if they are readable without having to copy everything to the PC?

is easy lost damage files in hdd

Having the data on more than a single drive is your safeguard for data loss.
They won't all fail at the same moment.

There is no hard and fast rule to "how often". All up to you.

 

[cloudff7ps1]

Some HDs like mine use MLC NAND Flash chip to store BIOS/Firmware, how many years can this memory retain these files?

 

[USAFRet]

Some HDs like mine use MLC NAND Flash chip to store BIOS/Firmware, how many years can this memory retain these files?

How many years.

For the specific drives on your shelf, anywhere between 0.1 year and 50+ years.

Again, this is why you have multiple copies.

 

[Moonstick2]

Yes, I will connect these drives and check if the data is readable, but how often? Many times a year?

There's no magic rule that determines the exact perfect amount of time that will guarantee you'll catch any failure or corruption. The more important the data, the more often you should check.

If you really can't think of a number yourself, let's say you check a different drive every month (keeping track of which when). You'd have to be pretty unlucky for all four to fail between checks. But can't say it's impossible - no guarantees.

It's also important to understand that there's the random chance of failure and the systematic. Random is when drives just die without warning, a component's died, whatever. Systematic is when a drive dies because of some external event, e.g. over exposure to humidity over time, or even being dropped. The point is that while the four drives are very unlikely to all randomly fail within say one month, there's always more chance of them failing systematically, especially if you're keeping them all in the same location.

You started this thread asking about stacking your drives. If you're keeping all four in the same location then there's more possibility of losing all four at the same time due to external factors such as fire, flood, theft, excessive heat or cold and so on. So you shouldn't store the drives together. At a minimum one of them should be securely stored off-site, e.g. at work or a family member's house.

How can I check if they are readable without having to copy everything to the PC?

Just copying a file doesn't tell you if its readable - it could be corrupted. The only way to tell if a file is readable is to open it. How many should you open? Well, the only 100% guarantee is to try opening every single file when checking a disk. If you only open one file, you're very unlikely to catch any corruption. The more you open the more chance of catching anything wrong, the fewer you open the more chance of discovering some data is lost. So it's up to you. Your data, your time, your responsibility to choose.

A good alternative would be some software that could compare two hard disks and verify that they both carry the same files and that the binary data inside each file matches, but that's not as trivial as it sounds depending on how the data was stored in the first place. Really it's something that requires you storing all your data from the start using a suitable archiving program.

Or you could set up something that computes and verifies the checksums on the data on the disk. But you'd need to learn about that yourself, since somebody would need to know all the information about what kind of data this is and how it's stored/organised plus a very good idea of your technical ability before suggesting a reliable way of doing that.

 

[cloudff7ps1]

The enclosure case has a sponge to stick to the bottom side in the center of the case. When you place the HDD, it tilts a little due to the sponge. When you place the top cover of the case, it closes. Will the pressure of the sponge on the HDD damage the HDD's flat cable over time?

 

[USAFRet]

The enclosure case has a sponge to stick to the bottom side in the center of the case. When you place the HDD, it tilts a little due to the sponge. When you place the top cover of the case, it closes. Will the pressure of the sponge on the HDD damage the HDD's flat cable over time?

No.