Question HDDs demagnetization question

cloudff7ps1

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Sep 3, 2020
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Is it possible to prevent the demagnetization of HDDs 2.5" and 3.5" or is the demagnetization of HDDs an inevitable phenomenon caused by storage conditions (humidity and temperature of my room storage)?
 
Is it possible to prevent the demagnetization of HDDs 2.5" and 3.5" or is the demagnetization of HDDs an inevitable phenomenon caused by storage conditions (humidity and temperature of my room storage)?
Change the laws of physics, and you can 'prevent' anything.

And how is this much different than all your other questions regarding long term data storage?
 
I am referring to the loss or weakening of the magnetic platters and heads, which causes data loss or corruption.
Does the temperature and humidity of the environment where they are stored accelerate this type of degradation?
 
Some comments: One of the most common failures of mechanical hard drives is not actually demagnetization, but flaking off or small chips of the platter surface breaking loose. This is eventually inevitable if the platters spin. Or sometimes if they don't spin (the heads must ride an exact tiny amount above the surface of the platter, and this can involve both what happens as the platters spin and what happens when they don't spin, like a car sitting in a garage for 50 years).

Higher temperatures allow demagnetization to occur faster. Just heat up a natural magnet with a propane burner and check it again, it'll lower its magnetization. Going too low can destroy internals of a hard drive, e.g., seizing of bearings or metal expansion/contraction putting things out of spec.

There is nothing you can do about the earth's magnetic field, although it could be reduced in a Faraday cage. However, that field is so tiny it won't really change anything. Not putting a magnet next to the drive is of course a big win, especially when the platters are spinning. Magnetic fields are everywhere in the universe. Keeping a sane temperature and not putting a magnet next to a drive is about the best you can do.
 
I am referring to the loss or weakening of the magnetic platters and heads, which causes data loss or corruption.
Does the temperature and humidity of the environment where they are stored accelerate this type of degradation?
Temperature more than humidity, the platters are in a sealed enclosure.

“Depending on the priority of the data you've stored, you may want to refresh the hard disk more often. If it is essential data, I would recommend no less then 2 years at maximum. If you can withstand some chance of minor data loss (e.g. a few corrupted sectors here and there), go with 5 years. It doesn't take long to copy the data off the drive, and copy it back.”

That recommendation is for cold storage, I.e. the drive is not powered.

From wiki
Magnetic media, such as hard disk drives, floppy disks and magnetic tapes, may experience data decay as bits lose their magnetic orientation. Higher temperature speeds up the rate of magnetic loss. As with solid-state media, re-writing is useful as long as the medium itself is not damaged (see below).
 
My 2.5" HDDs laptop + enclosure usb 3.0 are stored. I have 350GB of data on 500GB or 1TB HDDs. I usually power them up once a year, but I still have questions about testing the drives to find out if any files were corrupted during storage on the HDD. Is it possible to test them without copying anything to the PC? Long surface tests lasting several hours heat up and put a lot of stress on the HDDs, with temperatures close to 60C? Is there any efficient and simple test that doesn't cause stress and heat on the HDD to find out if all the files remain intact after 1 year?

Unfortunately, I can't reduce the temperature to prevent the HDDs from demagnetizing. It requires a lot of money with expensive air conditioners.
 
My 2.5" HDDs laptop + enclosure usb 3.0 are stored. I have 350GB of data on 500GB or 1TB HDDs. I usually power them up once a year, but I still have questions about testing the drives to find out if any files were corrupted during storage on the HDD. Is it possible to test them without copying anything to the PC? Long surface tests lasting several hours heat up and put a lot of stress on the HDDs, with temperatures close to 60C? Is there any efficient and simple test that doesn't cause stress and heat on the HDD to find out if all the files remain intact after 1 year?

Unfortunately, I can't reduce the temperature to prevent the HDDs from demagnetizing. It requires a lot of money with expensive air conditioners.
As has been said to you multiple times....

Don't have your data on a single device.
Check the data on a regular basis. (no, I will not attempt to lay out a calendar for you)
Copy to some other device every once in a while. (no, I will not attempt to lay out a calendar for you)