how long should a hard drive last

[tali122]

my first hard drive lasted less than a year and my current one is past its 2nd year - so how long should a hard drive last ? ( i have 20gb and it is always has less than 2.5gb of free space)as i am always anxious about "not if bit when failiure"
thx

[kempie]

The expected lifetime of a hard drive is the length of time before it fails. It's failure rate is expressed as the 'mean time between failure' (MTBF), which is the "average" time between failures.

Manufacturers quote MTBFs for each model of drive they produce. They are often of the order of magnitude 150,000 hours, where 124,000 hours is approximately 10 years.

There is no way to guarantee that a hard drive will not fail within 1 minute. Likewise it could work happily for 20 years.

[Buenchico]

Kempie has approached his answer - excellent as always - from the technical side of things. I'll tackle it from the trading standards side of things:

Irrespective of the length of any warranty/guarantee provided, anything you buy from a trader must be 'of suitable quality'. European regulations suggest that the absolute minimum period for which an electrical item should be expected to work without faults is two years. (i.e. you have a right to claim redress from the supplier of electrical goods if they fail within 2 years, even if the guarantee is only for 1 year).

Trading Standards officers have, however, recently won a landmark case in which the court ruled that a customer can seek compensation from a supplier when a fault develops in certain items of computer hardware for up to 6 years. (I know this from a work colleague who recently made a claim under this ruling. What I can't remember, however, is exactly which items of computer hardware were covered by the ruling). If your hard drive packs up prematurely, I would suggest contacting your local Trading Standards office to seek advice. (It may be that, as well as being able to claim a free replacement drive. you may also be able to make a claim against the supplier for loss of data).

Chris

[tali122]

Buenchico - i lost 17gb of data due to hard disk failiure when my pc was under warranty from pc world 2 years ago -they replaced the hard drive - are you saying that i am legally entitled to claim compensation for lost data?

[Buenchico]

It's quite possible that you may be able to make a claim but this is a specialist field which your local Trading Standards team will know far more about than I do. If you live outside of a metropolitan area, the Trading Standards department will be listed, in the phone book, under the name of your county council (not the local district council).

Chris

[kempie]

You can find your local TS office and other useful advice here.

[sparkyfire]

Hard drives used to be under a 3 year warenty, however aproximatly 2 or 3 years ago, everyone changed to 1 year warenties. The reason for this is because most drives will fail after 1 year however many will still last past the 3 years. However because of the pricing of computers thies days, its more cost effective for the company to only offer a 1 year warenty. If a drive is going to fail because of manufacturing issues, its likely to happen within that first year. Many things can cause your hard disk to fail. If you take a look at your warrenty information that is included with your hard drive, you will find a stipulation where they are not responsible for data loss. I personaly support this. It is up to every individual person to back up and protect thier data. If you arn't doing it, then IMO its not that important to you anyway.

[Buenchico]

Everything Sparkyfire writes is correct but it's important to differentiate between a manufacturer's warranty and the retailer's responsibilities under trading standards legislation.

Irrespective of whether a manufacturer offers a lifetime warranty or no warranty at all, it is the retailer who is responsible for ensuring that the products he sells are 'of suitable quality'. If the products do not meet this standard, then the retailer (and not the manufacturer) is responsible for putting matters right. In effect, all manufacturer's warranties (except, possibly, lifetime warranties) are totally pointless. European legislation makes it clear that you can make a claim against a retailer who supplies defective electrical equipment for a minimum period of 2 years (and possibly much longer) after purchase. In many cases a claim for 'consequential loss' may also have validity. Yes, a court may rule that someone should have backed-up their data and therefore reduce the amount of any damages payable but this does not mean that no damages at all will be paid. (If the failure of a hard drive meant that someone lost several days business while they waited for a retailer to put matters right they would most definitely have a valid claim for consequential loss).

Manufacturers are entitled to put a disclaimer in their warranty, excluding liability for consequential losses, because there is no obligation upon them to offer any warranty at all.

Retailers, however, are obliged by law to make reasonable recompense for the failure of their products. Any attempt to get out of their obligations (e.g. by displaying a notice stating "We will not be responsible for . . .") constitutes a criminal offence under the Unfair Contracts Act.

Chris

[sparkyfire]

I don't know. In America, I don't think that would hold up. For them to be responsible I'm sure you would have to prove that they knew of the product being defective. The only way to do that is to show that there had been lots of reports along that line, and that they were aware of that. Yes there are the anti-lemon laws, but you still have to prove that they are liable. If your drive was to fail even 3 days after the purchase of the drive, It would be extreamly difficult to prove that they are responsible for it. Its possible that the device was messed up durring shipment, either to the store, or to your home. Its also possible there could be environmental effects that caused the malfunction. The only way I could see the retailer being held reliable would be if the drive was found to be defective, returned to the store, and then they put it for sale without any notice of the defect.

[sparkyfire]

oh, one other thing. If you do run into a problem where your hard drive malfuntions, there are alot of options that you can use. There are many data recovery companies out there that can often get information back off a distroyed hard disk, even if the disk was formated. If its a hardware failure, another option I've seen (and I can't believe it myself, crazy really but I've seen it multiple times) is you can stick it in the freezer for an hour or so. Alot of times that will get it working long enough to get the data off it. Crazy I know, but supposubly it works. Don't hold me liable though if it doesn't ;) Use at your own risk!

[Buenchico]

It's interesting to see how things differ either side of the Atlantic! On this side, Trading Standards officials go out of their way to make it extremely clear that (unless a retailer has gone bust) nobody should ever make a claim under a manufacturer's warranty. All claims should be made against the retailer because both UK and European law states that liability rests with the retailer. (This doesn't, of course, stop the retailer making a claim against the manufacturer!). This makes a great deal of sense because manufacturers are often overseas (and therefore not covered by UK/European law) whereas most retail purchases will have been made within the UK. There is no need to prove that the retailer is liable. The law states that he is. Full stop. (Or for our American cousins, Period!)

Chris

[kempie]

sparkyfire - as Chris has said, everything is in regard of UK (and relevant European) legislation -

Sale of Goods Act 1979;
Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982;
Sale and Supply of Goods Act 1994;
The Sale and Supply of Goods to Consumers Regulations 2002;

Overview here.