What is the best way to store old drives?

GGizmo

GGizmo

GGizmo

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I'm due to get rid of my last computer. But I usually always keep the drives and later on use an enclosure on them to pick through the files at a later date.

Because of my current medical issues going on I'm going to be out of action for quite a while.

I'm having a friend help me dismantle the computer. But I'm wondering what is the best way to store the drives? I think one is an ssd and the other is an hdd.

Do I need to buy some anti static box? Is there anything special I can do to give the best chance of preservation?
 
I keep my unused drives in drive-sized anti-static bags and SSDs in their original packaging. If you only need one or two bags then a plea for help in the Wanted section might work. For larger numbers, the rainforest has them.
 
Will you have a way to power them up now and again? Say every 6 months or so for a few minutes, even just to run CrystalDiskInfo (to get the health status) and run CHKDSK to keep the drives active.

I ask as I don't believe the data on SSD drives can stand up to the test of time like hard drives can. The way I understand it (and I might be wrong) is that SSD drives rely on a tiny voltage to store the data and this voltage can drop over time, losing your data at the same time. Powering the SSD drive on could help with this.

I must admit I've never stored and accessed data on SSD drives with more than a year's gap. But I do have some old SSD drives that I'm going to look at later on, check the dates of the files and let you know my findings. The SSD drives are 60 - 120GB and are just second handers, so they're not exactly premium drives like Samsung Pro drives.
 
I used to buy the plastic storage boxes back in the day for HDD’s and they work well, but an antistatic bag does the job also.

For SSD’s but? As above, I think they like a bit of power on time now and again regardless of how you store them.
 
It's mainly the hdd I'm looking to preserve, though if I can get the ssd powered I will.

I'll look into ststic bags.

I'll be using a laptop as my main computer. It's more powerful than my old PC.

It's amazing how computers are gradually becoming smaller.
 
I think you are overthinking this. In a drawer will do. SSDs I've never powered up every X months and they've still been fine.
 
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