How reliable the external HD?

Question

I backed up al my important data on an external hard drive; but I am wondering how reliable this thing is? What if someday it is dead and I cannot read data from it? Any suggestions? Thanks!

Answer 1

All hard drives have the potential to die any day. Reliability on a hard drive isn't really reliable. The average hard drive, if treated with care, would last you 4-5 years, but now, most die within the first year because of larger programs and the many many viruses, worms, trojans, etc. out there. I suggest that you also do another back up onto CD if the information is really important. Most external hard drives have a 1 year warrenty if not 3, so if it were to die on you, you can call the manufacturer and get it replaced.

I give you props for backing up your information on a second hard drive, most people don't do that and lose everything. So to answer your question in brief, hard drives usually live for 4-5 years if taken care of. If all you're doing is storing files on that hard drive, it'll last you pretty long. But if you start installing drives and extracting potential virus prone documents onto there, then you'll experience some problems. Hope this helped.