hardware failure - Does copying for hours wear the hard-drive?

07
2014-07
  • F. Rakes

    I got a new harddrive where I want to backup a lot of my old files. Is it a bad idea to copy (rsync) all files in one chunk and let it run for a day. Or is it better to copy in smaller bursts.

    Does it wear on the harddisk if I copy straight for ~24+ hours?

    • Answers
  • Fiasco Labs

    In electronics, it's known as infant mortality.

    If it's going to be damaged by normal use, it'll probably die in the first month.

    Otherwise it will live out the normal lifespan with no problems at all.

    Better to find out early on, I've always found.

    If it doesn't give out in your 24 hour run, you've got a good one that will give you 5-6 years of reliable service. The drives produced now are so much more reliable that your proposed one chunk copy won't damage them.

    We used to do exactly this kind of operation for a day or two to burn in server drives back when they were likely to have manufacturer's defects.

  • davidgo

    There is very little in it, but it is probably better to copy it all at once - fewer starts and stops means less dramatic head movement. Also less reads from rsync. Also (and this may not be an issue depending on your hardware/software), if you have power saving on, starts and stops will spin up and spin down the disk creating inrush current every time it starts, which puts more wear on the disk.

    I note that most RAID devices will start rebuilding immediately they are set up, there is no delay or cooling off period where its done in bits.

    The only "concern" might be heat buildup of the disk, but if cooling is good, its theoretically better to keep the disk spinning so the heat is constant rather then heat & cool which leads to expansion and contraction and more wear and tear.

    In summary - its marginally better to copy it all at once, but it should not make a discernible difference on the drive unless the drive is faulty.


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  • James Smith

    One of my hard drives is slowing down and makes intermittent clicking noises. I'm pretty sure it's about to die and have backed up all it's contents. Is there some hard drive stressing utility or software that I can use on it to accelerate its death so that I can send it in for warranty repair?

    If not, any ideas to write such a script/program? I guess I can write a program that will just write contents from /dev/random until disk is full, then erase and repeat.


    • Related Answers
  • Journeyman Geek

    I'd recommend you run shred on it, with a very large number of iterations - this should constantly fill the drive with random data. else, run dd on a loop on the disk for the same effect.

  • Shakehar

    Fill your drive to the brink with stuff and then use one of the paranoid disk wiping tools that make several passes to delete stuff and then fill them with with random data.
    Keep doing this and you might bring the disk nearer to its death .

    Also i would recommend exposing it to higher temperature than normal.
    You could also try shrinking and expanding you partitions , and formatting the drive over and over again.

    But remember temperature is the key factor.

  • Matthew Steeples

    It's a less technical option, but you could try dropping it from small heights (so as not to leave dents in it) or tilting/shocking it while it's running.

    Edit: Another idea that I've just thought of is to use the hdparm utility (or equivalent) to repeatedly spin the disk up and down. That's where most of the wear and tear will occur.