Question Why do my hard drives keep failing ?

[TheDefaultGuy]

Hello, I'm having some issues with my hard drives, in the past 2-3 months I've broken 3 hard drives, (all started making weird noises, then having my files and games corrupted) i honestly don't know why and how, all i did was put my Steam games on it, one thing that i noticed that i did before their failure is that, downloading files, and removing them from the case (ofc turned off) for cable management and dusting, and putting my PC on Hibernate when not in use and Completely shutting down my PC before going to bed (completely plugged out of the wall) and I've noticed that most of them are either 10+ year old drives (Probably from a retired office PC)

The oldest of those 3 drive that broke was from 2010, the rest are from 2013 and 2015 respectively, I'm adding that info cause their age and wear might be one of the issue, and also the guy that i got my recent drives from is recommending me to turn on "Hot-plug" in the BIOS, cause he said that frequent restarts and power downs might be the cause of the breakdown, i wanna know more about that Hot-plug thing cause i don't know much about computer and i don't want to unknowingly break my parts cause its hard to get them here in the slums of a 3rd world country😅 should i do that? or if i did would it make any difference? and possibly what i did wrong that may cause this?

Id appreciate any info, and id like to hear more about taking care of my PC, software wise and hardware wise so that i can avoid damaging my parts unknowingly (I'm very paranoid, cause it cost an arm and a leg here lol), Thanks!

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Hey there,

Please list your full PC specs. Name/model of each component. Specially the brand/model of the HDD's. Also PSU, ram, CPU, GPU.

Those drives are old now, and could be failing naturally through wear. You should immediately get a known 'good drive' and save whatever data you need. Chances are you won't be able to use the drives for much longer. SSDS are very cheap now, and while the can fail, they have no moving parts. So less likely to destroy data.

 

[DSzymborski]

It's hard for a user to do anything to physically break hard drives unless you're handling them constantly and actually drop them or use a junk-tier power supply. Not sure why the guy made that suggestions as that's about other things. Whether you want your hard drive always spinning or being able to be put to sleep depends on your usage. If you're using hard drives non-stop throughout the day, having them always spinning is usually better than constant start-stops. But if the hard drives are not being used heavily, then it's best just to leave as-is, as that number of start-stops won't have anywhere near as much an effect.

The most likely story is that you're simply being a bit unlucky with ancient hard drives. These are all at or well past the limits of their expected life. Three hard drives this old failing over a few month period isn't unexpected.

 

[USAFRet]

and I've noticed that most of them are either 10+ year old drives (Probably from a retired office PC) the oldest of those 3 drive that broke was from 2010, the rest are from 2013 and 2015 respectively,

I think I see the issue.

 

[SkyNetRising]

i did before their failure is that, downloading files, and removing them from the case

Careless handling and dropping a mechanical HDD can certainly kill it.
Did you drop them?

 

[TheDefaultGuy]

Hey there,

Please list your full PC specs. Name/model of each component. Specially the brand/model of the HDD's. Also PSU, ram, CPU, GPU.

Those drives are old now, and could be failing naturally through wear. You should immediately get a known 'good drive' and save whatever data you need. Chances are you won't be able to use the drives for much longer. SSDS are very cheap now, and while the can fail, they have no moving parts. So less likely to destroy data.

Thanks for response
Here's my specs
CPU: Intel i5 7100
Motherboard: Colorful H110M-K D3 V20
RAM: Just a black stick, no branding 8Gb DDR3 i think 1600mhz
GPU: Colorful GT 1030 2G V6-V
PSU: ACBel CE2 500 (Model No. HB 9019)
SSD (boot drive): Kingston 120Gb A400

HDD: Seagate 500GB (Model ST500M002) (Date code 15302) (Broken/Failed)
i have another one on hand he says to test out while the "Hot-plug" is enabled on BIOS:
WD 500GB (Model WD5000AAKX-00ERMA0)

Yeah, i was thinking of resorting to SSDs instead, ill only be using it as my game folder, but no matter how "cheap" stuff gets for you guys over where you are, its quite a different story over here lol, 3rd world issues, i cant afford games anyways so there wont be much on it, i was thinking a 256gb is enough

Does putting games on ssd make it wear faster? should i be worried about something that might happen using SSD?

 

[TheDefaultGuy]

Careless handling and dropping a mechanical HDD can certainly kill it.
Did you drop them?

Thanks for response
I handle my parts very careful, besides that im a paranoid when, its really just expensive and hard to find for a good condition replacement for whatever broke, so no, i did not drop them, though since im not the only one to handle those drive since they were Second hand, im not so sure.

 

[TheDefaultGuy]

It's hard for a user to do anything to physically break hard drives unless you're handling them constantly and actually drop them or use a junk-tier power supply. Not sure why the guy made that suggestions as that's about other things. Whether you want your hard drive always spinning or being able to be put to sleep depends on your usage. If you're using hard drives non-stop throughout the day, having them always spinning is usually better than constant start-stops. But if the hard drives are not being used heavily, then it's best just to leave as-is, as that number of start-stops won't have anywhere near as much an effect.

The most likely story is that you're simply being a bit unlucky with ancient hard drives. These are all at or well past the limits of their expected life. Three hard drives this old failing over a few month period isn't unexpected.

Thanks for response
Being unlucky? unfortunately yeah lol
Might be

so could it be the power supply that's damaging my HDD's?

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Thanks for response
Here's my specs
CPU: Intel i5 7100
Motherboard: Colorful H110M-K D3 V20
RAM: Just a black stick, no branding 8Gb DDR3 i think 1600mhz
GPU: Colorful GT 1030 2G V6-V
PSU: ACBel CE2 500 (Model No. HB 9019)
SSD (boot drive): Kingston 120Gb A400

HDD: Seagate 500GB (Model ST500M002) (Date code 15302) (Broken/Failed)
i have another one on hand he says to test out while the "Hot-plug" is enabled on BIOS:
WD 500GB (Model WD5000AAKX-00ERMA0)

Yeah, i was thinking of resorting to SSDs instead, ill only be using it as my game folder, but no matter how "cheap" stuff gets for you guys over where you are, its quite a different story over here lol, 3rd world issues, i cant afford games anyways so there wont be much on it, i was thinking a 256gb is enough

Does putting games on ssd make it wear faster? should i be worried about something that might happen using SSD?

So, once you install your games on the SSD, then you only have read operations after that to load games. In terms of TBW, if you leave only your games on the drive, you wear will be practically zero. Whereas, if you are constantly installing/uninstalling stuff, then that can decrease the life span of the SSD.

Ideally you could get 2 SSDs. One smaller one at 256gb for the OS, and a secondary one about 500/512gb. Like this for games:
PCPartPicker Part List

Storage: ADATA Ultimate SU650 240 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($16.50 @ MemoryC)
Storage: Silicon Power A55 512 GB M.2-2280 SATA Solid State Drive ($20.97 @ Amazon)
Total: $37.47
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-09-06 14:11 EDT-0400

This would hugely increase the speed of your system.

 

[TheDefaultGuy]

Hello, I'm having some issues with my hard drives, in the past 2-3 months I've broken 3 hard drives, (all started making weird noises, then having my files and games corrupted) i honestly don't know why and how, all i did was put my Steam games on it, one thing that i noticed that i did before their failure is that, downloading files, and removing them from the case (ofc turned off) for cable management and dusting, and putting my PC on Hibernate when not in use and Completely shutting down my PC before going to bed (completely plugged out of the wall) and I've noticed that most of them are either 10+ year old drives (Probably from a retired office PC)

The oldest of those 3 drive that broke was from 2010, the rest are from 2013 and 2015 respectively, I'm adding that info cause their age and wear might be one of the issue, and also the guy that i got my recent drives from is recommending me to turn on "Hot-plug" in the BIOS, cause he said that frequent restarts and power downs might be the cause of the breakdown, i wanna know more about that Hot-plug thing cause i don't know much about computer and i don't want to unknowingly break my parts cause its hard to get them here in the slums of a 3rd world country😅 should i do that? or if i did would it make any difference? and possibly what i did wrong that may cause this?

Id appreciate any info, and id like to hear more about taking care of my PC, software wise and hardware wise so that i can avoid damaging my parts unknowingly (I'm very paranoid, cause it cost an arm and a leg here lol), Thanks!

Thanks for responses!, i found the issue, its just the SATA power cable from PSU lol
switched the cables going to my HDD, issue gone, no ticking, ramping up and down noises (yet).
still unlucky with the Hard drives tho, i cant afford a brand new one and i cant find a non 5 year old+ second hand healthy drive.