When to replace a HDD ?

bibs · 23 May 2008 at 21:33

Hi, this is my 1st post, so sorry in advance if this is a noobish question.

I am currently looking to build a new pc & was wondering if to keep my old
Maxtor (6Y120m0) 120gb 7200rpm hdd.

The thing is, it's about 5 years old now and i here that the average shelf life
is around 3 - 5 years. Also the pc is on virtually every day.

Do people just wait for their hdd's to totally die before replacing them ?

I have no problems with it at the moment, the new rig will be for gaming.

Thanks.

SlyReaper · 23 May 2008 at 21:44

I'd say keep the old drive, but be vigilant with your backups. When it finally does give up the ghost, buy a new one.

oTTo · 24 May 2008 at 22:18

Do you need more storage ? Can your new PC build budget afford a new hard drive ?

A new hard drive will definitely be faster than a 5yr old model.
Storage prices have dropped loads recently, 500gb <£50.
You could sell the 120gb for a few £ towards the upgrade, probably not worth much more than £10-£15 though.
Your hard drive is ok today but 5yrs of use takes its toll .....

If it was me, I would definitely be upgrading to a new drive.

PS. Welcome to the forums by the way

Ben M · 24 May 2008 at 22:44

Welcome to the forums.

I'd look to replace any drive after that time, modern drives will be much quicker. Definately replace your drive, especially as it's a Maxtor.

Phil2008 · 24 May 2008 at 22:52

The old maxtor drives are quite reliable, I have a 40gb maxtor drive, its prolly older then 5yrs old too and thats still working fine in my old system,

paradigm · 24 May 2008 at 23:46

Phil2008 said:
The old maxtor drives are quite reliable, I have a 40gb maxtor drive, its prolly older then 5yrs old too and thats still working fine in my old system,

Reliable?

I just had 3 fail at once in a 5 disk RAID5 array

On 6x Hitachi's now, lets see how this goes...

Phil2008 · 25 May 2008 at 00:23

paradigm said:
Reliable?

I just had 3 fail at once in a 5 disk RAID5 array

On 6x Hitachi's now, lets see how this goes...

The OLD maxtors were I said, the recent maxtors are not too great.

paradigm · 25 May 2008 at 01:02

Phil2008 said:
The OLD maxtors were I said, the recent maxtors are not too great.

There were old, 80GB DiamondMax Plus 9's

Phil2008 · 25 May 2008 at 03:50

oh..lol sorry

Ben M · 25 May 2008 at 10:30

Phil2008 said:
The OLD maxtors were I said, the recent maxtors are not too great.

I thought it was the other way around, and that they used to be **** and now they're improving. I still wouldn't buy one of their drives.

bibs · 25 May 2008 at 17:05

Thanks for your replies.

I have decided to buy a 160gb hdd.

Which one do you recommend for around £30 ?, there are 4 of them
for around that price.

paradigm · 25 May 2008 at 18:18

I'm finding the Hitachi's to be good

binaryknight · 25 May 2008 at 18:33

only ever had one hd fail and that was down to a total pc failure still using various 20gb, 40gb and 120gb drives have an external 500 gig for stuff i cant afford to use though. most of these drives have been used fairly solid with my pc being on pretty much 24/7

personally id consider a new drive especially as the machine is for gaming if you have any sort of other tasks for the pc im sure you will run out of space quickly, new games seem to be taking fairly large chunks of drive space that combined with downloads etc a big drive will be handy.