In the subject line would it not be correct to state the RPMs at 5400
rather than 5600.  I find the 5600 rather confusing.

Jim Hills
Houston TX

Carroll Grigsby wrote:
>
> 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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