[SOLVED] How to predict HDD failure ?

[knowledge2121]

How can one know when an HDD is about to fail ?

I do the following to see if the drive is failing:

(1) Run this as an Admin: wmic diskdrive get model,status
(2) Run CrystalDiskInfo: health status should read Good.
(3) Run HDDSCAN/SMART: the indicators in the left most column should all be green on the HDDScan S.M.A.R.T. Report page.

I also run the following Seatools scans:

(1) Short Drive Self Test
(2) Short Generic Test

Are these test enough to ensure your HDD is not failing yet ?

I have an 8TB Seagate Barracuda HDD, for how many years will the drive live ? I use it very very lightly.....

Does it make sense to spend more money on better HDDs ? Do more expensive drives last longer ? For instance, compare Barracuda vs Exos .... which one would last longer ?

 

[rgd1101]

also do backup

 

[kanewolf]

How can one know when an HDD is about to fail ?

I do the following to see if the drive is failing:

(1) Run this as an Admin: wmic diskdrive get model,status
(2) Run CrystalDiskInfo: health status should read Good.
(3) Run HDDSCAN/SMART: the indicators in the left most column should all be green on the HDDScan S.M.A.R.T. Report page.

I also run the following Seatools scans:

(1) Short Drive Self Test
(2) Short Generic Test

Are these test enough to ensure your HDD is not failing yet ?

I have an 8TB Seagate Barracuda HDD, for how many years will the drive live ? I use it very very lightly.....

Does it make sense to spend more money on better HDDs ? Do more expensive drives last longer ? For instance, compare Barracuda vs IronWolf Pro.... which one would last longer ?

There is no predicting. It can fail today or 10 years. You can monitor the SMART data for indications of failure, but those only provide general guidance.
If I could predict the future (hard drive failure), I would have long ago predict the Lotto numbers and be living a much nicer lifestyle !!!

 

[USAFRet]

You don't predict. Instead, you protect against.

Storage devices WILL fail. All of them eventually.
Some sooner than others.

I had an HDD die in 36 hours. 5 weeks old, went from seemingly perft to dead. Poof.
Had an SSD die in the space of - Power OFF, wait 10 minutes, power up.
"Hey, wheres the G drive?" Dead and gone. 3 yrs, 33 days old.
I have other drives that are near 20 years old, still going strong.

SMART and drive health software can maybe give you an indication. It cannot predict with any real certainty.

Always be prepared for your drive to go south in the next 0.25 sec.

What is your backup situation at home?

What is your backup situation at home? And if you don't do that, why not? Every single day, I read multiple threads here of "How do I get my stuff back?" or "That drive had 5 years of photos of my kids!!" Be it a dead drive, dropped phone, virus, accidental deletion, formatting the wrong...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[USAFRet]

In both cases above, my backup routine saved 100% of the data that was on those two devices.

 

[knowledge2121]

So you are saying a Seagate Barracuda could last longer than a Seagate Exos ?

Which brand/line has the lowest failure rates ?

 

[USAFRet]

So you are saying a Seagate Barracuda could last longer than a Seagate Exos ?

Yes.
Lifespan only counts in fleetwide numbers.

Any single instance of a device may die at any time.

The warranty on an Exos X is 5 years.
Some of them may last 20 years. A very few may die in a month out of the box.. Sucks if yours is one of those.
Exactly the same with a Barracuda.

Now...take 1,000 drives of each...total up the run time hours after 5 or 10 years, the Exos will come out ahead. Fleetwide.

The critical part of storage devices is the data on them.
If the thing dies, replace. If under warranty, $0.

The data on it often cannot be replaced.

 

[knowledge2121]

I bought this drive a while back, I paid 225 CDN for it...

Now I am wondering if I should have bought an 8TB Exos+enclosure with a total cost of 300 CDN...

is the extra 75 bucks worth it ?

 

[USAFRet]

I bought this drive a while back, I paid 225 CDN for it...

Now I am wondering if I should have bought an 8TB Exos+enclosure with a total cost of 300 CDN...

is the extra 75 bucks worth it ?

Not necessarily.

What counts is having your data on more than 1 device.
Generally, 3-2-1

3 copies, on at least 2 different media, at least 1 offsite or otherwise untouchable.

 

[knowledge2121]

My data is too large to have a backup...but I may look into getting a 16TB HDD later...many thanks for your replies..

 

[USAFRet]

My data is too large to have a backup...but I may look into getting a 16TB HDD later...many thanks for your replies..

No it is not "too large".
You just need to apply a little more money to the problem. How much depends on your level of pain tolerance if it were to go away.

Backups are like car insurance.
You can't buy a fancy car and skip on the insurance because it is "too expensive" and you ran out of money.
And you can't buy the car insurance 5 minutes after the crash.

 

[hotaru.hino]

My data is too large to have a backup...but I may look into getting a 16TB HDD later...many thanks for your replies..

If anything, you can also pare down data to what is absolutely irreplaceable. If I were to count up all of the "stuff" I have in my name, it would total something like 15TB. But I only actually save off 2TB because most of that is stuff that I can download again.

But I don't know what you actually have, so that 16TB may actually be irreplaceable.