Thinkpads Forum

I use a 4 year old A31P as my desktop machine in a 2631 docking station. I like the A31P for the (3) spindle flexibility and 15" IPS screen.

My A31p has (2) IBM Travelstar HDs. These Travelstar HDs were (are) warranteed for 3 years from manufacture date. The Hitachi site says these drives have an expected life of approximately 5 years.

The C:\ drive in my A31p, a 20GB, 5400 rpm drive (IC25N020ATCS05-0) is approximately 5 years old (manufacture date DEC 02). This drive contains only the Windows OS and Program Files.

The E:\drive is a 60GB, 5400 rpm drive (IC25T060ATCS05-0) that is also approximately 5 years old. This drive contains my data files. The E:\ drive is backed up on a weekly basis to a External 80GB USB 2.0 HD that is approximately 18 months old.

Given that both the internal HDs are approximately 5 years old, should I replace these HDs BEFORE they die of "old age"?

I am looking for advice on maintaining this A31P for another 2 years.

Thanks.

HD's can last many years or many months, it's kind of a crap shoot in my opinion. My standard operating procedure (SOP) is to clone the drive when I get it to where I like it with a similar drive, usually or a better one it does not matter, long as you can pop it in, all apps installed, tweaks done, etc. and put the drive in a static bag in a box, I back up any photos or doc's to my desktop occasionally so they can be pulled if needed.

My point is I don't rely on one HD for everything, backup is just a word until your drive crashes and your left with zero options but to start from scratch with a factory install.

There are two kinds of PC users in the world:

Those who have needed their backups.

And those who will.

Hard drives are classics engineering examples of "mean time between failure". No drive last exactly that figure; some last less time; some last more. In dramatic examples, a drive may fail early (been there, done that) or last "forever". It's a crap shoot. ... JDH

There are other major factors to consider, such as:

-Do you carry your notebook computer around regularly?

-Does your computer overheat? (Thinkpads are usually OK in this respect).

I have clones of all my computer's boot drives, including the Thinkpad. Saves a lot of time in the long run.

ethink wrote:Given that both the internal HDs are approximately 5 years old, should I replace these HDs BEFORE they die of "old age"?

I am looking for advice on maintaining this A31P for another 2 years.

Since you want to keep the A31P going for 2 years more, then yes, you should replace the drives. You are now living on borrowed time with the existing drives, so any pleasure you get out of the saving from not replacing them could easily be wiped out by the pain that arises from an in-use drive failure.

Keep in mind that you'll have trouble finding much in the way of a new 2.5" drive with a capacity less than ~80Gb now a days.

Cheers,

Bill B.

My 600E was used when I bought it back in 2001. The original HD (a Travelstar) still works, even though various tech people told me it was going to die back in '02. The only reason I got a new one is because I wanted more storage space. The old one still works.

Keep in mind that I have an unusual ThinkPad... the thing shouldn't have worked. There were broken parts that I had to replace when I opened it up and I had to physically alter other parts to get them to fit where they were supposed to (somehow, they'd fit together without incident for all these years). Whatever magic that kept her working all these years might also be acting on the old HD.