I've been using two drives for 11 years now, around 16 hours a day, nearly every day. According to the CrystalDiskInfo results I checked, they're both still marked as healthy. I was surprised to see this and mentioned it in a tech forum where folks seemed shocked, saying it's not typical. What do you guys think about this?
3 Answers
Normally, drives aren't expected to last beyond 5-10 years of heavy use. While yours are still going, you might be flirting with disaster. I'd keep an eye on them. SSDs don't always show reliable SMART data, so I wouldn't trust those readings completely. Hard drives can be tricky, and you're really on borrowed time here.
What about the SATA drive? Is the SMART info trustworthy? Should I be worried it might fail too? My SSD's not as crucial, but the SATA holds important data.
I totally hear you! I've got a Seagate backup drive that's been chugging along for about 15 years and it's still working fine. Just make sure you have backups elsewhere too, just in case!
It might be time to think about migrating your data to new drives. Even though they're showing healthy stats, it's better to be safe than sorry.
Thanks for the insight! So, are there any signs I should watch for when they might be failing? Will I still have a shot at recovering the data when they finally do give in?