Pardon me for being blunt but a single drive, especially an external one, is asking for it. I had many a fight with the boss over this too
Many factors can reduce its lifespan. Being portable makes it more vulnerable. Using a external power brick typically isn't as consistent as a PC Power supply. Once you run it for years, unstable power fluxes would have taken its toll. In a school environment, people tend to switch off the PC but not the external drives. Leaving it on overnight when the aircon shuts down wears it down somewhat on a higher temperature.
As previous posters have mentioned, technique is more important than gear. A RAID mirror setup is pretty essential for realtime failover. It's becoming easier these days as PC makers implement this and more features to keep up the value of their parts. If that's not feasible for some reason, try replication. Schedule a regular synchronised backup onto another device elsewhere. This is good cos , when **** happens, a power surge can take out the entire system.
Tapes have great archival life. But i've always questioned the practicality of it. The hassle of restoring the content before viewing it is a great barrier. Good stuff if you're throwing it in the bank vault or time capsule, show your grandchildren photos of your younger days
As for HDD, some would call it luck but i'll call it karma kompatibility
A friend just can't touch Hitachi - 4 drives dead in 6 mths while 2 of his 6 yr old Seagates still chugging on. Another swears by his 3 infamous IBM/Hitachi 60/75GXP so many years ago (7yrs?). That said, I'd tell people to get Hitachi or Seagate. They do fail like anyone else, but I always manage to catch the signs before total failure. However, one guy thinks its a blessing to lose data once in a while - it aint funny trying to maintain a 10yr+ mail archive throughout the years. :sweat:
Lastly, if $$$ ain't a problem, like some schools with obscene amounts :think: , get a couple of those newly launch Samsung Solid State Drives, just a few grand for 64GB. These things will probably outlast you - provided you don't rewrite them aplenty.
