To keep or pre-emptively throw away?

eddyr

eddyr

eddyr

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I have an old WD 250GB hdd that i've rediscovered and dusted off, unfortunately it idles at 60 celcius and hits 70 in active use. Actively cooling it with a fan drops temps to 52 but that doesnt alter the fact that there's something not right with it.

Keep or throw away? Performance wise its all ok, all smart reports are ok and no bad sectors, its a bit noisier than id like but then its an older drive so not sure too much can be read from that.
 
Get a cheap USB caddy and keep it out of the case. Use it for unimportant stuff, virtual DVD's etc., downloaded software.
 
I think the reading is near enough right, it does get pretty toasty. Moreso the PCB than the casing at first.
I was thinking of using it to mirror another 250 GB drive.
 
I think thats decided it, made a distinct and unhealthy clanking noise all of a sudden. Combined with the temps not a positive outlook.
I think I might torture it and see what happens.
 
I am still using 6 IBM 120GB "deathstars" which tend to hit around 70C when under heavy use, they click and buzz a fair bit too but I think its down to the tech being quite old, things like the heads parking have since had new tech added to make them silent on newer drives.

Having said that, I used to have 10 of these drives and the 4 that died did so when being used without active cooling, I am surprised any of them have lasted this long considering the failure rates on this model led to legal action :o

I would use something like crystal disk info to check the smart info for it, if that shows it as fine then I think its worth keeping as a spare rather than throwing it away, it might eventually come in handy if you end up building a spare pc for someone and need a drive, 250GB being enough for the OS, as well as a few programs/games.
 
It was a very loud clank, a knock type sound, rather than loud clicking or buzzing whci is what had me concerned. The SMART info reports all ok except the temp of course, but id be reluctant to rely on it as an os drive for someone.

Anyhow been torturing it using the endurance benchmark on Anvil's Storage Utilities since my last post and suprisingly and quite admirably it is still going strong. No errors logged or relevant changes in smart data.
Ive written 2.5TB of data almost continously. With the exception of reported temps hitting 96C at some stages hes chugging along fine.
 
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