Joel:

A minor correction: MTBF is the Mean Time Before Failure, not Maximum.
It is a calculated parameter based on extensive testing of the various
components that are used in the drive, and is an estimate of how long an
"average" hard drive of this design would last under typical operating
conditions. In theory, if we tested a large number of these drives to
failure, the average of the failure times would be 150,000 hours -- some
will fail sooner, and some will last longer. In practice, of course, no
hard drive is going to survive 17+ years.

Hard drive manufacturers sometimes list other reliability parameters
that may be of more relevance. I have a Maxtor drive that is rated as
being capable of at least 50,000 stop/start cycles. It also has a rated
MTBF of 500,000 hours -- that's about 57 years! If we believe both of
these numbers, then the 500,000 hours life will occur only if this drive
experiences one stop/start cycle every 10 hours. Oh, by the way, the
warranty is for three years. Fujitsu quotes similar numbers (500,000
MTBF, 40,000 stop/start cycles), but they also state that the component
life is 5 years. I expect that the actual limiting factor is read/write
cycles -- but neither of these manufacturers provides this rating.

Regards,
Carroll Grigsby

"Joel M. Blackman" wrote:
>
> My Western Digital 7200 rpm 30 gig ATA100 drive is only 2 months old, but it
> did come with a 3 year warranty and says the maximum Time Before Failure is
> 150,000 hours.  That's more than 15 years of 24X7, and there really aren't
> too many of us who are going to keep something that long.  As the prices get
> cheaper, they are more easily replaced.  Mine cost $120 on the Internet, and
> there were stores selling them cheaper than that.  Now, two months later,
> you can probably get that drive for not much over $100.  Joel
>
> > I am writing to ask if 7200rpm drives are significantly shorter
> > lived than 5600rpm drives or have any other drawback which I
> > might be overlooking.
> >
> > Thanks in advance for any info.
> >
> > Michael Eisenstadt

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