the_ryan•23d agoProlific Poster

Stumbled on a stat about how many old hard drives still spin up after 20 years

I was digging through some old inventory at a shop I do side work for in Tulsa and found a box of 3.5 inch Seagate drives from the late 90s. Out of curiosity I plugged one into a USB adapter and it fired right up. Turns out a study from Backblaze says about 80% of drives from that era still work if stored properly. Has anyone else had luck with drives that old, or is it mostly luck of the draw?

2 comments

2 Comments

felix_thomas7323d ago

Man that's wild, 80% is way higher than I would have guessed. Were those drives just sitting in a climate controlled closet or had they been through some rough storage conditions? I always figured the biggest killer was just letting them sit in a hot garage for a decade.

parker_campbell23d ago

That 80% stat tracks with how old trucks run forever if you just don't beat on them.