How to increase Hard-Disk LifeSpan?

Question

1) What factors affect the life of a hard disk?

2) Does frequent writing on the disk reduce its life?

3) What is the average life span of a hard disk under normal condition?

4) Does less writing and more reading actions taking on the hard disk increase its life?

5) What way the virtual memory ( file paging ) on the disk effect its life ?

6) Is there any particular hard disk especially built for the excessive writing ?

Answer 1

Google actually did a big study on this. It is available here./ Biggest thing to do, really, is to keep those drives cool. Heat does a LOT more damage then just reading/writing.

Answer 2

Here's an interesting critique of the Google study:

http://www.quora.com/Hard-Drives/What-are-the-best-things-to-do-to-extend-the-life-of-my-hard-drive

Comment on linked paper: Saying that temperature and utilization doesn't seem to affect disk life may be misguided; figures 3, 4, and 5 tell a more obvious story: ~20% of consumer drives failed in the first year while used in a data center environment. -- Sub-20°C temperatures indicate cold/hot aisle containment (forcing cold air through the server racks), which is typical of data centers. Data center environments tend to be associated with higher utilization; figure 3 shows a high correlation between disk utilization and failure rate.

Anyways, his suggestions are this:

There are a number of things that can extend the life of the disk:

• Maintain a stable temperature that is within the manufacturer's
  specified range (typically 5-60°C); heating and cooling cycles put
  stress on the disk
• Minimize rotation on axes parallel to the disk's platters (wears out the spindle bearings)
• Minimize the number of spin-up and spin-down cycles (puts stress on spindle bearings)
• Avoid shock and vibration that exceeds the manufacturer's
  specifications

However, my personal philosophy is to hope for he best, plan for the worst, and to not let a $50 component dictate how I use my laptop. Instead, keep important data backed up, expect the disk to die within 2 years, replace the disk and battery when they die, and use the machine in the way that makes me feel the most comfortable. --It's a tool, not an investment!