Should I worry about an 11 year old HD failing

I'm not even sure the make and model but its a 120GB 5400 rpm drive. My mom has a lot of stuff on it and I worry that being 11 years old with the computer used atleast 6 hours a day almost everyday over the past 11 years just seems like this hard drive is due for a failure. It's been used lets say 11 yr * 350 day * 6 hr = 23,100 hours of use on it. What the average rate of failure on a HD?

 

Yes, you should be worried. Why? Because all electronics fail...and that one, while still kicking, is ancient by computer standards. I'm not sure about the average lifetime for a hard drive, but if you ask me I always plan to replace them every 3-5 years because of failures.

Back it up. Now. Come to think of it, you always need a backup plan regardless of how young or old a drive is.

 

shes stubborn and doesnt want all her data files on my 1.5TB external. Her thinking is in regarding the chance of it breaking "it's never happened to me in 11 years so it will never happen"

 

Then get her an external all for herself. Just because something doesn't die in 11 years doesn't mean it won't die tomorrow.

 

Well, if there is important data you or she should've been backing up for a while. It is not like it will fail tomorrow, just that the day is coming soon. Like proposed get an external hard drive or get it into DVDs (or Bluerays if there is a lot of info and you can afford it).

 

Something doesn't add up because there were not any 120GB hard drives 11 years ago. This drive must be much more recent, although still possibly very old (7 years tops I think). I recently sold some drives of that vintage and they were working fine, although at the same time I had to throw out one or two.

 

I know I am a bit slow . . . . a 120GB HDD? Wasn't that a bit beyond the norm for 1999 ?

Trottel, Great minds think alike . . but I clearly type slower

One should always assume that a HDD may fail at any point after you break the seal on the packaging.

(On the positive side you can now get a USB stick big enough to back that disk up on . . not the most quick or cost effective solution I agree)

 

Throw $50 at a good back-up drive, then throw the back-up drive at her for not being obsessive about back-up. Harddrives can last a while, but they aren't everlasting. Sometimes you get a lemon that only lasts a few days.

 

Worrying is not going to do anything good. Instead make a backup.

 

11 years?

How much would that have cost?

 

I would recommend scanning through it with MHDD and see if there are any green/orange/red blocks.