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    #1

    Checking The Condition of Hard Drives?

    We all have many recordings stored on Hard Dives, I have backup drives and have used various programs to check the condition of drives over the years.
    What are the recommended programs for checking hard drives for errors and overall condition?
    Thanks!
    Tags: None
    • Likes 3
    #2
    Not quite answering your question, but my recommendation would be to never fully trust hard drives or programmes. I have not had a Pink Floyd disaster myself but have heard about too many. My collection is backed up twice and I also use Backblaze, cloud storage. Backblaze is also great when I am away and wish to quickly lay my hands on a file. I pay roughly the price of a large hard drive a year for Backblaze.
    • Likes 6

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      #3
      I use a program called 'CrystalDisk' - it scans the hard drive and gives an indication of health.

      One thing to consider: older mechanical hard drives have a much longer shelf life than SSD drives (tiny solid state drives). SSD drives have, apparently, a shelf life of about 5 or 6 years if used constantly. Older mechanical drives can last much, much, longer if used just for archiving.

      Apparently, and I only learnt this recently, do NOT regularly de-fragment an SSD drive if you've got one running as your main drive.

      • Likes 1

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        #4
        In my experience, nothing can prevent a malfunction, any hard drive will crash eventually, It could last 2 months or 10 years. I'd go for an external HD plus a cloud storage to have a double backup.
        Last edited by gotta_be_crazy; 02-20-2024, 10:29 AM.
        If an act of empathy is considered somehow as something radical, we're living in dangerous times.
        • Likes 5

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          #5
          Originally posted by gotta_be_crazy View Post
          In my experience, nothing can't prevent a malfunction, any hard drive will crash eventually, It could last 2 months or 10 years. I'd go for an external HD plus a cloud storage to have a double backup.
          Totally agree - always make a second (or third) backup of files you think are worth preserving.

          I'm not sure I'd trust any cloud storage companies as a second backup - they can disappear at any time and have no obligation to save/rescue your files (just ask all the former customers of Megaupload). I backup everything twice on separate hard drives.
          • Likes 1

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            #6
            I agree with everyone so far that has mentioned having multiple drives and multiple copies of files. I also do that, and also don't bother with attempting to test the drives. I just assume all will fail at some point. Especially when they start making those tick tick ticking noises.

            But I will quote this bit...

            Originally posted by DiegoFermoli View Post
            I'm not sure I'd trust any cloud storage companies as a second backup - they can disappear at any time and have no obligation to save/rescue your files (just ask all the former customers of Megaupload). I backup everything twice on separate hard drives.
            I agree with your premise but not your conclusion. Sure cloud companies can disappear. That doesn't mean it's a waste of time them being your second or third rung of backup. For me, it's way too slow uploading and downloading to them to be a primary backup. But as a backup of last resort, they have their place.

            I've also somewhat researched and carefully chosen my cloud providers. The one with my core personal files is one that is very, very technical, has been in the storage business for many years and does not waste its time on frivolous side attempts at upsell or bonus services or even fancy UI (that's rsync.net). The other one I've chosen for not being so obviously associated with pirated / sketchy content, has been in business a reasonable while and strikes a decent price / quantity balance. But its business model does involve discounting from time to time, so I'll only trust it with stuff I can reasonably reacquire. It's all about your risk modelling.

            Comment

              #7
              Originally posted by DiegoFermoli View Post
              I use a program called 'CrystalDisk' - it scans the hard drive and gives an indication of health.

              One thing to consider: older mechanical hard drives have a much longer shelf life than SSD drives (tiny solid state drives). SSD drives have, apparently, a shelf life of about 5 or 6 years if used constantly. Older mechanical drives can last much, much, longer if used just for archiving.

              Apparently, and I only learnt this recently, do NOT regularly de-fragment an SSD drive if you've got one running as your main drive.
              Is SSD necessary to defragment?
              TBS14

              Comment

              • Alan
                #7.1
                Alan commented
                02-21-2024, 08:47 AM
                Editing a comment
                No, it's not necessary to defragment an SSD -- it could actually be harmful to it (in very rare cases). It is still possible to do it, but that will cause a large number of writes to the disk, and the SSD lifetime is based on the number of writes.
              • YASHA
                #7.2
                YASHA commented
                02-21-2024, 09:03 AM
                Editing a comment
                That's exactly what I meant.
              #8
              i am also active in the Dire Straits/Mark Knopfler fan community, and there, a group of the "more experienced" fans, have gotten together and ALL shared their full HD's to a google drive account that gives all of them access to all of it. at the same time a great opportunity to compare, correct dates, venues or other details, etc..
              would sure wish a comparable idea finds it way to this community, who, when it comes down to quality of collecting and knowledge of stuff is miles and miles above the Knopfler commity.

              to answer the actual story, yes, i do not bother checking the drives either and just keep backing up.
              did so for years on dvd format first, then double layer, then Bluray, double bluray etc. whilst at the same time having another HDD(s) as a secondary backup.
              Recently i had a HD crash and was forced to double check all my discs (dvd, bluray etc) to get my stuff together again and there i learned that dvd's from back in 2006 do not necesarily give a 100% success rate.
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                #9
                Like it or not, all is cloud now, and in 10 years or so, it'd be another thing. You can't trust physical technology anymore. From some time ago now, new PCs don't even have a bay for optical drives. I know maybe this is because of the gaming scene and the wonderful cases with fans and leds but what do I do with my opticals?? lol.
                If an act of empathy is considered somehow as something radical, we're living in dangerous times.
                • Likes 1

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                • daemonspudguy
                  #9.1
                  daemonspudguy commented
                  02-23-2024, 07:18 PM
                  Editing a comment
                  They can have optical drives if you custom build. As I do.
                #10
                To be sure back up back up and back up again with mechanical drives spinning at 5000 to 7000 RPM that will die at some point. I have powered down drives with content.
                When I worked in a data center, we would scan brand-new drives before we put them in service. I have used a few different consumer level programs, I was just wondering if there was one that was more popular around here.
                Thanks for the input, I will be opening Backblaze account.
                Last edited by mark2114; 02-20-2024, 10:26 PM.
                • Likes 1

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                  #11
                  I agree, keeping an eye on the condition of an HD is a good idea.
                  • Likes 1

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                    #12
                    backblaze costs $0.006 per GB/Month​
                    so am i doing my maths correctly when i say a 10TB account would cost me 60 bucks a month??
                    https://www.backblaze.com/cloud-storage

                    Comment

                      #13
                      With a provider like Backblaze I think you are paying for a complete backup solution, including software for major OSes. If you are very technical, you can get gobs of raw storage (even sophisticated raw storage) for much cheaper. But you are expected to know how to get things up there and retrieve them again. As I mentioned, I use rsync.net. Not sure what I'm paying because it's yearly or even two yearly. I'm sure it's way less than $60 / month, otherwise I wouldn't be tempted. I use something called borg backup to backup to there. That deduplicates, compresses and encrypts locally, and shoves the result up to services like rsync.net that support it. The provider has zero knowledge of the content. Yes, you need to test restoration otherwise you may as well not have a backup.

                      The other service I use is Pcloud, who offer "lifetime" deals from time to time where you pay up front once for a pile of storage. This is the one I use for less crucial stuff, because although they've successfully been in business a reasonable amount of time, I can see that business model possibly crashing and burning.

                      FWIW, both rsync.net and Pcloud have options where you can have you data stored in an EU data centre rather than a US one. For all you GDPR folk. I'm not even in the EU (or the US) and I've opted for that.

                      Oh, and one more edit: I only have 2TB at rsync.net and 4TB in Pcloud, so admittedly I'm nowhere near the 10TB mark so maybe not a good comparison after all.
                      Last edited by Son of Nothing; 02-22-2024, 11:55 AM.

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                        #14
                        I have my NAS, which is backed up to normal HDD's, which is then backed up on BD discs. I think I'm done backing up to BD discs now, it's just too time consuming and not very cost effective. Not sure how big of a Floyd collection you have but mine is about 3.3TB right now. Spinning rust 6TB and under is incredibly cheap. Do yourself a favor and grab a couple HDD's, backup to both and then take one offline and update it every so often. This is what I'd do anyway. I don't trust cloud services nor do I want to pay for any of them.
                        Click here to access my Pink Floyd lists!​
                        • Likes 5

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                          #15
                          I also have a NAS, a 4 drive Synology DS923 with multiple backups
                          Monitoring software is not perfect, I would prefer to monitor the drives with stored content.
                          Good discussion, thanks.

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