I am planning on buying a 1TB Seagate External Hard Drive(non-SSD), but I am concerned about the life expectancy of the drive. How long do they last? Are they worth buying?
-
Drives fail, sometime in minutes, sometimes in years. Look at the warranty that comes with the drive(s) you are considering; that's your best metric for this.– Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007Aug 9, 2016 at 15:38
-
1Why not look at one of the many studies of HDD with time, such as backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-reliability-stats-q1-2016, and form your own opinion?– DrMoishe PippikAug 9, 2016 at 15:40
-
Couple related questions: How reliable are 2.5" external hard drives?, Are there differences in life expectation for 1~2TB external (portable) HDD and external (desktop) HDD– Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007Aug 9, 2016 at 15:40
1 Answer
In my and my co-workers experience It is a complete wash. I have personally owned Seagate external's that have died within almost exactly a year and some that are still chugging 4 or 5 years later.
If you are after life expectancy and dependability I would recommend going for an SSD like the samsung 500gb external. Which have been applauded for dependability and have a warranty of 3 years. While there internal 2.5" products like the vNand 500GB 850's have 10 year warranties.