What is the best way to store old drives?

GGizmo

GGizmo

GGizmo

Soldato
Joined
17 Jan 2016
Posts
8,844
Location
Valley of Jade
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.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom