Question Hard Disk doubt loose magnetic and mechanical fail

cloudff7ps1

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Sep 3, 2020
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There was an article about hard drives from the 90s dying. What is the reason for this problem? Mechanical or magnetic loss?

Is it possible to prevent HDDs that are not used daily and in storage mode from losing magnetic and mechanical failures?
 

Misgar

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Mar 2, 2023
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I'd better dig out my old 20MB LaPine Titan LT200 drives with ST412 interface and see if they're still working.
https://theretroweb.com/harddrives/303
20220719-222051-663167487bd35050999470.jpg


Then there's the full height 5.25in 30MB SCSI drive. Reaches for Adaptec controller.
 
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USAFRet

Titan
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There was an article about hard drives from the 90s dying. What is the reason for this problem? Mechanical or magnetic loss?

Is it possible to prevent HDDs that are not used daily and in storage mode from losing magnetic and mechanical failures?
The drives in that article are ~30 years old.

This ties in directly into the numerous questions, and answers, you've had here before.

1. Don't just make a copy and let it sit on the shelf for decades and hope it works
2. Make multiple copies
3. Check them once in a while.


Eventually, everything dies.