Sharon,

The thing that will definitely shorten hard disk life is the number of times
it spins up.

In a server for instance the disk is always spun up, so even with a
commodity level drive you should expect better than 3 years.

Unfortunately with Notebooks, the drive is constantly being spun up and
powered down to conserve battery. If you have your notebook powered on the
mains most of the time consider setting your hard disk to stay spinning
Control Panel->Power Options.

Gerard
TapeTrack Pty Ltd

-----Original Message-----
From: Sharon Burnett [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, November 10, 2004 8:21 AM
Subject: Speaking of hard drives...

Last night the hard drive on my work-issued laptop bit the big one. Yes, the
sound of wind chimes emanating from a laptop is not a good thing.

Thankfully I am a records manager that actually practices what I preach. All
my documents and work files were saved to my personal network share or to
our legal team network share. I did not loose anything important. New hard
drive in place,  I have been restoring my settings and fussing with other XP
particulars off and on this morning.

My laptop is an IBM Thinkpad about 3 years old. Our tech person told me that
they are experiencing many hard drive crashes lately as 3 years is about the
lifespan of one of these drives. I don't know if that's a typical lifespan
for a well used hard drive in a laptop - I am guessing the answer is yes.

So along the lines of hard drive destruction is hard drive preservation. I
think it is prudent to back-up all data regularly. This is the first time
I've ever had a crash like this in all the years I've had PC's. I assume
I've been lucky.

Rock on!
Sharon

Sharon Burnett
Seattle Washington USA

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