Hard Drive Life Expectancy and How It Impacts You


One of the things that most small business owners do not think about when it comes to the PCs in their office is the hard drive inside each of their computers. The common thought is akin to that of the squeaky wheel gets the grease, so as long as the computers work and employees are able to perform their duties then there is no reason to spend time thinking about the health of the computers in the office. Unfortunately there is no visible wear indicator on a hard drive unless you get a warning from your operating system that a failure has occurred. If there is any indication that the drive is starting to go bad, it might be hard to notice if it is just adding to other compounding issues.

Hard drives are one of very few items in the computer is a wear item. Solid state drives are more resilient than traditional spinning disk drives. Gaining in popularity, but due to their cost vs. storage space metric, solid state drives are not taking the lead in media storage in prebuilt desktops and laptops. Even with solid state drives not having any mechanical components; they still do have a life span. Small businesses may not have the budget for extensive backup and disaster recovery solutions so smartly maintaining the hardware that you do have is very important to ensure that your business remains operational.

There are several factors that play into the life span of the hard drive. First the style of the hard drive is important.  Thanks to their portability, laptop drives typically experience more shock damage over its lifespan compared to one in a desktop computer. Laptop drives also tend to have glass platters opposed to the metal platters in desktop drives making them just that much more delicate. How hot and the amount of airflow will also play a factor in drive longevity. Cramming the machine into a back corner up against a wall or closed off in a closet will not be doing it any favors. Another determining factor in the lifespan of the drive is the usage of the drive, if it is a laptop are you constantly traveling with it, do you leave your computer on 24 hours a day. Even if you are not using the machine hard drive wear still occurs from applications running in the background. With all of that said don’t fear using your machine after all it is just a tool that you use to get a job done. The point here is that if you are concerned about uptime or your data the lifespan of the hard drive inside of the machine is something you should keep in the back of your mind as time goes on.

Differing factors mentioned above play important roles in the lifespan of the drive but generally speaking we have seen 2-3 years from 2.5” (laptop) drives and 3-5 years from 3.5” (desktop) drives. Machines are lasting much longer and you may not be ready to replace the entire computer just yet. The cost to replace the hard drive is much less than replacing the entire machine. We recommend you start thinking of replacing the drive every three years the machine is in service to ensure that minimal downtime. While the hard drive is still operating normally it is possible to clone the drive to a new one without losing any data or settings greatly reducing the migration time and potential stress from unannounced downtime. Or at the very least you should have a backup solution already in place for when the inevitable happens and the hard drive fails, which is something that you should be doing anyways.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Back to Work: Navigating the Turbulent Waters of the Covid-19 Pandemic!

Over these past few months, American’s have been asked to change the way we do business in response to the Covid-19 Pandemic. Working from home has become common for those who are lucky enough to be considered “non-essential” but still have a job. As a result, technology has taken on an even greater level of importance as home offices became virtual meeting places.  What would have been impossible 20 years ago is made easier now because of the monumental advances in technology that have created remote links to keep us connected ( https://www.bluefountainmedia.com/blog/impact-covid-19-future-technology ). Zoom and Skype have seen a significant uptick and usage, as have tools like Google Docs, Dropbox, and other cloud-based repositories of digital data. The world is smaller thanks to technology, and we are now better prepared for a virtual / remote workplace than at any time in the history of humanity! During the pandemic, companies have had to adjust their business models in an at
Read more

XLN Systems' response to COVID-19

XLN Systems' response to COVID-19 2020 has been one of the most tumultuous years in recent memory for the economy, and for companies who are trying to survive in this economy. From political upheaval and racial tension, to a devastating virus that shut down the world for nearly 3 months, we have been faced with new challenges previously unheard of in the business world. But that doesn’t mean that the world stops turning, or that businesses stop doing business. What it does mean is that businesses must change some of the ways of doing business to account for the dramatic changes that we have faced since the onset of Covid-19. XLN Systems is no different, and we are committed to doing business efficiently, safely, and in accordance with CDC and Federal guidelines for business operation.  One of the ways that we are confronting this new normal is by working remotely as much as possible. From very early on in the Pandemic, XLN Systems relied heavily on remote working as a means to
Read more

Where should I put all my files? Cloud vs. Local storage

                 Where to store your files is becoming one of the biggest questions facing the tech industry today.   Should we as a company ‘go to the cloud’ or keep our files locally?      Why should we as a company spend the money on file storage infrastructure when we can pay a service to do it for us? While both solutions have their advantages, they both have some nasty disadvantages as well.   In this post, we will discuss those advantages and disadvantages and what they could mean for your company. What is the Cloud?   A quick Google search shows (after 4 Google Ads at the top of the page) a result from PCMag.com which states: “… cloud computing means storing and accessing data and programs over the Internet instead of your computer's hard drive. The cloud is just a metaphor for the Internet. ” (“What is Cloud Computing” PCMag.com, May 3, 2016 ) And while this gives a pretty good explanation of what the Cloud is, it can be summed up a bit simpler:   …the Clou
Read more