In computers, you need a storage device to store data and an HDD & SSD are the popular storage options that offer reliable and fast data transfer & retention. But like other computer devices, they offer a limited lifespan. Well then, a question comes: how long do hard drives last?
HDD Lifespan
You should know that an HDD has moving parts. Simply put, an HDD relies on spinning platters, read/write heads, and actuator arms to store and retrieve digital data. When the hard drive works, these parts are under great pressure, causing parts to wear out and break.
So, how long do HDDs last? Generally speaking, HDDs can last from 3 to 5 years. According to researchers from Backblaze, 90% of hard drives can survive for three years and 80% of hard drives can last for four years. But this percentage varies from disk brands.
Then, a question comes: how long does a hard drive last if not used? To ensure a longer lifespan for your hard drive, you shouldn’t use it too frequently. That is, not using an HDD is helpful to guarantee longevity. But for some HDDs, you may run into the spinning issue if you don’t use the disk for several months. A hard drive with high quality can last 10 years if unused, even longer.
SSD Lifespan
After knowing the hard drive lifespan, you may wonder about “how long do SSDs last”. Since an SSD doesn’t have moving parts, it can last from 5 to 10 years. But you should know an SSD has limited read/write cycles. That is, the more you use it, the shorter it will last.
In our previous post – How to Know Your SSD’s Lifespan and How to Increase Its Life, you can know more details on the SSD lifespan.
SSD VS HDD Lifespan
Now you clearly learn the lifespan of an HDD and SSD. By contrast, SSDs have a longer lifespan than HDDs since they don’t have moving parts. While HDDs have moving parts and they can wear out over time, having an influence on the lifespan. Besides, SSDs don’t need defragmentation but HDDs require, which could help extend the lifespan. If you are seeking a computer storage device, an SSD can be a good option.
How to Increase Hard Drive Life
HDD lifespan is limited but you can take some measures to increase its life. Now, let’s see some tips and tricks.
Keep Hard Drive Clean
Dust, dirt, and other contaminants can heap up over time and cause issues eventually. Just gently remove any dust from the surface of your hard drive using a soft and dry cloth. In addition to the disk, you should also clean other components of your computer.
Ground Your System Properly
Computer peripherals and internals are sensitive to static electricity. To be specific, a static shock may cause harm to your internal/external hard drive and other parts of your PC. Usually, this common situation happens when the power socket is not properly grounded. Thus, make sure to ground your system properly to extend HDD lifespan.
Besides, you should avoid touching your PC hardware like the hard drive with bare hands. If needed, use a grounding bracelet before touching any hardware.
Ensure a Stable Power Supply
A stable power supply plays an important role in hard drive health. You should know that voltage fluctuations, for example, sudden power outages and power surges could be harmful to all the storage devices including HDDs.
To be specific, sometimes you shut down the system or unplug the drive while it’s spinning or in use or some software/hardware failure causes system crashes. As a result, file system errors and mechanical failure appear due to this unexpected power loss, and even the actuator head is stuck to the platter.
In order to let your hard drive have a long lifespan, use an uninterruptible power supply (UPS). This can help with voltage stability and block any unwanted voltage fluctuations. Besides, you can connect your computer or device to a surge protector to mitigate the risk of a spike that damages the PCB (printed circuit board).
Avoid Physical Shock
A hard drive is easy to encounter a physical shock, causing disk damage. So, take care of your HDD – avoid dropping it or suffering from other forms of physical shock since they could destroy delicate components or scratch the platter, leading to data loss.
Don’t Let Your HDD Overheated
One of the worst enemies of hard drives is overheating. If your HDD is prolonged exposure to high temperatures, the HDD lifespan will be influenced. Thus, you should take measures to prevent overheating. If possible, put your computer in a cool and temperature-controlled environment or use a cooler.
Defragment Regularly
A regular hard drive defrag is a good tip for prolonging its life. Over time, files on your HDD may get fragmented, which causes the disk to work slower and harder and even significantly affects the health of your HDD. This is because new data stored in fragments can bring massive movement of the read head and increase the disk spin speed, leading to overheating and more wear.
Defragment can help rearrange the files on the disk to let them store in a contiguous manner to optimize disk performance. Now, let’s see how to defragment your HDD to increase its lifespan:
Step 1: In Windows 10/11, go to File Explorer and right-click on a drive, then choose Properties.
Step 2: Under the Tools tab, click Optimize from the Optimize and defragment drive section.
Alternatively, you can press Win + S, type defragment into the search box, and click Defragment and Optimize Drives to enter the Optimize Drives window.
Step 3: Choose the drive you want to defragment and click Optimize.
Delete Temporary Files and Duplicate Files
During the use of Windows, the system could generate a mass of temporary files including browser cache, cookies, log files, memory dumps, and more. These files could have a great impact on your hard drive – disk speed may get slow and its efficiency could deteriorate by taking up much disk space. Thus, you can choose to discard these temporary files to increase HDD lifespan.
One of the best ways to delete temporary files is using the cleanup tool – Disk Cleanup in Windows 10/11. Do this:
Step 1: Open File Explorer, right-click on the drive you want like C drive to clean up, and choose Properties.
Step 2: Click Disk Cleanup under General.
Step 3: Select the checkbox of items to delete and click OK > Delete Files. If you need to delete system files, tap on Clean up system files to continue.
In addition to using Disk Cleanup to delete temporary files, you can try some other ways and just refer to this related post – How to Delete/Clean Temporary Files in Windows 11? (5 Ways). Or you can use the professional PC cleaner – MiniTool System Booster to clear junk files.
Monitor Your Hard Drive
You can monitor your hard drive health by keeping an eye on the SMART parameter. SMART, short for Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology, can help to detect and report various indicators of drive reliability to anticipate imminent hardware failures. To know details, refer to this tutorial – 2 Solutions to Check If a Hard Drive Is Failing with SMART.
These are common tips and tricks to increase lifespan of an HDD. If you want to use your hard drive for a long time, follow these tips.
How to Protect HDD from Data Loss
All the storage devices may fail and it is just a matter of time. If you wonder about signs of hard drive failure, refer to this post – Here Are 6 Signs Indicating Hard Drive Failure, Check out Now. Once your HDD gets damaged, data loss is inevitable but you can take measures to avoid this annoying situation. One way you should do is creating regular backups for disk data.
To do this thing, you can seek help from a professional and free backup software and here we recommend using MiniTool ShadowMaker. With it, you can easily backup files, folders, Windows, disks, and selected partitions. With the help of its schedule feature, you can configure a time point to automatically back up data. Besides, you can create incremental or differential backups to only back up newly added or changed files.
Now, don’t hesitate to download MiniTool ShadowMaker and install it for free use within 30 days.
MiniTool ShadowMaker TrialClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
Step 1: Launch MiniTool ShadowMaker on your PC and click Keep Trial.
Step 2: Under the Backup page, tap on SOURCE > Folders and Files, find and select items you want to back up, and click OK.
Step 3: Tap on DESTINATION to choose a drive to store the backup.
Step 4: Finally, click Back Up Now to start the full backup. At the configured time point, MiniTool ShadowMaker will automatically back up your data.
To back up the entire disk data, you can choose to clone the disk to another one by going to Tools > Clone Disk. If you don’t know how to clone a hard drive, click the given link.
What to Do If HDD Lifespan Ends
If you don’t back up your disk data regularly, what should you do once the HDD ends its life? The most important thing is to rescue your files. You can also run MiniTool ShadowMaker to get some data back via its Backup feature. Or, you can use MiniTool Power Data Recovery/MiniTool Partition Wizard to recover files from the dead hard disk.
Bottom Line
What is the average hard drive lifespan? How to increase hard drive life? You can learn much from this post.
Usually, an HDD lasts for 3 to 5 years but HDD lifespan is not absolute and it can vary from disk quality, operating conditions, and usage periods. And you can extend lifespan of an HDD via some tips and tricks. Besides, to avoid data loss caused by hard drive failure, remember to back up your important files regularly. Hope this post can help you a lot.
About The Author
Position: Columnist
Vera is an editor of the MiniTool Team since 2016 who has more than 7 years’ writing experiences in the field of technical articles. Her articles mainly focus on disk & partition management, PC data recovery, video conversion, as well as PC backup & restore, helping users to solve some errors and issues when using their computers. In her spare times, she likes shopping, playing games and reading some articles.