Does Wiping Decrease Hard Drive Lifespan?

[Guest]

Does wiping cause wear out of the hard drive. The read/write operations will
be excessively a lot since every single block will be overwritten when doing
operations like wiping free space. Such an extensive movement of the
read/write heads across the paltter, could not even be carried out when using
the computer normally.

The hard drive is brand new, may be wiping of the entire free space is not a
good idea afterall. Even during normal usage of the computer,the hard drive
has been occupied so little, thus less movement of the mechanical arms and
wear tear.

Regards,

Mike

 

[R. McCarty]

The premise that there is only "So Many" mechanical operations before
a device fails is questionable. That's like counting how many times you
turn a light off or on - trying to extend it's life. I just buy hardware and
use it. I have Cyberscrub that I frequently run on my drives when there's
been significant changes to warrant a security scrub. It's always a crap
shoot on how long a device will work. I've had drives that lasted for a
number of years and others that failed just after installing. Perhaps the
better question is how often to perform certain operations. Normally, I'll
run Cyberscrub maybe once every two months or when I can remember
to run it.
Drive prices are reasonable for cost per Gigabyte so replacement isn't
as big a deal as making sure the data on them is backed up.

 

[Rock]

Does wiping cause wear out of the hard drive. The read/write operations
will
be excessively a lot since every single block will be overwritten when
doing
operations like wiping free space. Such an extensive movement of the
read/write heads across the paltter, could not even be carried out when
using
the computer normally.

The hard drive is brand new, may be wiping of the entire free space is not
a
good idea afterall. Even during normal usage of the computer,the hard
drive
has been occupied so little, thus less movement of the mechanical arms and
wear tear.

If the drive is new why are you wiping it? In any event, just use the
drive. If it's going to fail it will fail, don't worry about whether some
write operation you're doing will decrease it's life. Better to put your
energy into making sure there is always a full and complete backup. Data
loss can and does occur for many reasons. Drive failure is just one of
them. Get a spare drive, put it in an external hard drive enclosure,
connect it to the PC and get drive imaging software such as Acronis True
Image. Image the drive regularly to the external drive, and you have a low
cost backup and recovery solution for many types of data loss.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the replies.

I think you did not understand the question. Backup is not the question, I
already have everything backed up. Cost is not the issue here. And by new, I
meant only a few months. Just trying to find out how wiping files and wiping
free space affects the hard drive.

Regards,

Mike

 

[Rock]

Thanks for the replies.

I think you did not understand the question. Backup is not the question, I
already have everything backed up. Cost is not the issue here. And by new,
I
meant only a few months. Just trying to find out how wiping files and
wiping
free space affects the hard drive.

I understood the question and gave you an answer. Don't worry about it. If
the drive is going to fail it will fail. Doing drive wiping is not going to
hurry it along.

 

[Rock]

Thanks for the replies.

I think you did not understand the question. Backup is not the question, I
already have everything backed up. Cost is not the issue here. And by new,
I
meant only a few months. Just trying to find out how wiping files and
wiping
free space affects the hard drive.

By the way what kind of backup do you employ?

 

[Noncompliant]

You turn on the PC. The spindle spins up. Most likely, the entire OS and
stuff is on one platter. That particular platter is abused all the time.
Most likely, only part of the platter is mostly used generally speaking.
Day after day after day.

So, I don't understand the question for something that may occur once a
year, if that.

 

[Bob I]

It uses up an infinitesimally small portion of the drives life expectancy.

 

[mikeyhsd]

if you look at the characteristics of the drive there is a MTBF (mean time before failure) which usually indicates operations before failure.
frequently in the hundreds of millions.
so the more excess drive operations you perform the sooner it is possible to fail.
under normal usage the MTBF is years.



(e-mail address removed)



Thanks for the replies.

I think you did not understand the question. Backup is not the question, I
already have everything backed up. Cost is not the issue here. And by new, I
meant only a few months. Just trying to find out how wiping files and wiping
free space affects the hard drive.

Regards,

Mike