Couple questions about hard drives

[xkill911]

hello!

I was wondering if there is any software tools around that can tell if a hard drive is spinning at 7200rpm? or way to test for performance?

the reason i'm asking, given the price of new hard drives now a days, I am looking to upgrade my gaming system and would like to hold off buying a new hard drive. mine is a SATA Seagate 500gig and is working great but it's about 5 years old.

the age kinda worries me but it still works great, did you think I should delay getting a new one for a while?

 

[Leeky]

I would hold off for now, if your current hard disk is working fine, and offers enough storage there is no need to upgrade it.

There are many factors that dictate the overall lifespan of a hard disk, but essentially is boils down them either dying quickly or lasting years. Among my many hard disks I do have one Western Digital hard disk that is now older than your current disk. It is perfectly healthy, and I imagine it will last a few more years yet.

Performance might downgrade ever so slightly over time due to general wear and tear, but if its working, I'd just carry on using it until prices come down. I doubt we'll see them back to previous lows until at least the fourth quarter this year, or possibly the first quarter of 2013.

On another note, it is important to keep regular backups of important files and data though, as hard disks have been known to fail giving very little warning, or in some cases no warning at all. The age of your hard disk has nothing to do with keeping backups though, that is something everybody should do to safeguard important data.

So keep regular backups, and continue to use it as you do now, and once prices are back to normal upgrade it for something newer, should you need the extra capacity.

 

[xkill911]

thank you very much!