[SOLVED] Too many HDD hours?

[dizztortion]

So I bought this used Latitude D630 back in 2013 and have been using it as a backup PC ever since. I never bothered to change anything in it except doing a clean Win7 install. When I ran CrystalDiskInfo just now, it shows the HDD (I presume is stock) having run more than 420,000 hours! That's over 46 years! Surely, the S.M.A.R.T. data is wrong!?

Thanks!

 

[USAFRet]

Yes, that is obviously an incorrect reading.

But, as with any storage device, treat it as if it might die in the next 0.25 sec.

 

[Barty1884]

The interface, SATA-II (300 MB/s) released in 2004...
160GB capacities were first released around 2006, so I'd expect your drive was manufactured around 07-08.

So, needless to say: You're correct, S.M.A.R.T is just wrong here.

As USAFRet was alluding to - ensure you have backups of your data (routine and automated, preferably), you never know when the drive might give out.

 

[fzabkar]

The drive is probably reporting the Power On Time in minutes. If so, then the correct age is 0.802 years.

The normalised value is 83, and the threshold is 0. This number could have just recently dropped from 84, or it could be about to drop to 82. Therefore the expected lifetime of the drive must lie somewhere in the range from 4.46 years to 5.01 years.

• 0x66fce x 100 / (100 - 82) minutes = 4.46 years
  
  0x66fce x 100 / (100 - 84) minutes = 5.01 years

This would suggest that 100 points corresponds to a lifetime of 5 years.

To convince yourself that this is the case, watch what happens to the "POH" number in the next hour. It should increase by 60.

Edit:

ISTR that some drives increment this counter every 30 seconds, but ICBW.

 

[dizztortion]

Thank you for your insights, I forgot to close Crystal and left it running overnight and woke up to these new numbers. Now it seems like the HDD is quite unused for a 2006/7 model! But that also leaves me with more doubt about trusting these numbers!

 

[Nemesia]

The only thing you have to trust is the fact that this drive is around 12 years old. It's preparing itself to break at any moment

 

[dizztortion]

The only thing you have to trust is the fact that this drive is around 12 years old. It's preparing itself to break at any moment

Absolutely! I'm diligent with backups and shall replace the drive in the coming couple of months. Got a 256 gig SSD, just have to get around to doing an install.

 

[Nemesia]

Absolutely! I'm diligent with backups and shall replace the drive in the coming couple of months. Got a 256 gig SSD, just have to get around to doing an install.

Make sure that HDD is unplugged when you install Windows on that SSD.

 

[fzabkar]

That's weird.

CDI is now reporting 7043 hours whereas the drive is reporting a Power On Time count of 0x672C1 (= 422,593 decimal).

422,593 minutes / 60 minutes per hour = 7043.2 hours

Edit:

Maybe CDI "learns" how to interpret the Power On Time attribute. For example, CDI would be aware of the time and date, so it would know how many times the attribute increments in one hour. If it records 60 counts in one hour, then it would know that each count corresponds to one minute.