It very much depends on the brand and model. In the past six months I've recovered data (for other people) from a 3 year old Western Digital IDE drive (not bootable) and an 18 month old Samsung SATA drive (bad sectors and not bootable). These were both desktop PCs, so not subject to the mechanical abuse that laptops receive. On the other hand, I have an ancient laptop that runs almost 24/7 on a drive that was used and of unknown age when installed 3 years ago.
Thinking "no-years" leads to good backup practices ;-) John > I heard 5 years, then I heard 2 years, then some-one told me they'd had > disks go bad in under one year. I'm down to thinking no-years. I think > it's one of those things where if it works - great! If it doesn't, good > thing I had another plan. I use external hard-drives, flash-drives, > online storage (Mozy) and email. > > JL > JLog - simple computer technology for genealogists > http://www3.telus.net/Jgen/jlog.html Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages: http://www.mail-archive.com/legacyusergroup@legacyfamilytree.com/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
