It appears to work fine (it contains my home partition for my main machine I daily drive) and I haven’t noticed signs of failure. Not noticeably slow either. I used to boot Windows off of it once upon a time which was incredibly slow to start up, but I haven’t noticed slowness since using it for my home partition for my personal files.

Articles online seem to suggest the life expectancy for an HDD is 5–7 years. Should I be worried? How do I know when to get a new drive?

  • 🎨 Elaine Cortez 🇨🇦 @lemm.ee
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    4 days ago

    Always make sure that important files and folders are backed up at least twice! Even when drives are new, they can and do fail at random without warning. My HDD’s are the better half of a decade old and I had no issue with them at all until last year. They’re now starting to experience random corruptions that will sometimes compromise entire folders.

    • communism@lemmy.mlOP
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      4 days ago

      I’ve not responded to the majority of comments in this thread because I’d have nothing to add except “thanks”, but here:

      They’re now starting to experience random corruptions that will sometimes compromise entire folders.

      Er why haven’t you bought new drives at that point??

      • 🎨 Elaine Cortez 🇨🇦 @lemm.ee
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        4 days ago

        I’m gonna buy a new computer when this one inevitably refuses to boot up 🤷‍♀️ there’s more age related issues besides just the HDD’s at this point so it’ll be less hassle to start over.

    • communism@lemmy.mlOP
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      4 days ago

      I’ve not responded to the majority of comments in this thread because I’d have nothing to add except “thanks”, but here:

      They’re now starting to experience random corruptions that will sometimes compromise entire folders.

      Er why haven’t you bought new drives at that point??

    • communism@lemmy.mlOP
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      4 days ago

      I’ve not responded to the majority of comments in this thread because I’d have nothing to add except “thanks”, but here:

      They’re now starting to experience random corruptions that will sometimes compromise entire folders.

      Er why haven’t you bought new drives at that point??