Do Hard Drives Wear Out Over Time without Use?

[Starfyre]

If I store data onto a hard drive like an Apple Time Machine, then one day leave it on a shelf for 15+ years (not plugged into anything), is there a risk that by then the hard drive degrades even without being plugged into any machine and without use? Does the same apply to SSDs/Flash Memory? If both apply, what is a better storage medium for long term storage without any use?

 

[GGJstudios]

If I store data onto a hard drive like an Apple Time Machine, then one day leave it in a closet for 10+ years, is there a risk that by then the hard drive degrades even without being plugged into any machine and without use?

It should still work. You could always plug it in every year or two to make sure.

 

[iMarvin]

If I store data onto a hard drive like an Apple Time Machine, then one day leave it on a shelf for 15+ years (not plugged into anything), is there a risk that by then the hard drive degrades even without being plugged into any machine and without use? Does the same apply to SSDs/Flash Memory? If both apply, what is a better storage medium for long term storage without any use?

Hard drives will degrade, like anything else. But there is specifications for storage that will keep degradation to a minimum, what they are i don't know. It probably says on the box.

 

[scott.n]

Besides degradation, you would also need to consider changes to interface standards and file systems.

Consider an HFS-formatted SCSI disk that you might have archived in 1997. The correct adapters are very difficult to find, and even if you could find them you'd only have read-only access in 10.6 or later.

 

[applerepairs]

Yes Hard drives would degrade over a period of time...

 

[SR45]

Read this that I found...

http://lifehacker.com/5808858/how-long-can-a-hard-drive-hold-data-without-power

 

[drsox]

Everything degrades in time - it's called Entropy.
That said, it depends over what period of time and how far degraded. CDs written 30 years ago can be degraded by now and refuse to play. Vinyl from the 1930s, however, still plays fine.
This used to be a hot topic in the IT centres of old - how often to re-spool a magtape to ensure viability. Nothing beat paper tape for an archive except that the information packing density was very poor !
Photos degrade - that's why pros from 40 years ago used to make colour separations of the ones that they wanted to preserve rather than keep photos.

 

[Gav2k]

Everything degrades in time - it's called Entropy.
That said, it depends over what period of time and how far degraded. CDs written 30 years ago can be degraded by now and refuse to play. Vinyl from the 1930s, however, still plays fine.
This used to be a hot topic in the IT centres of old - how often to re-spool a magtape to ensure viability. Nothing beat paper tape for an archive except that the information packing density was very poor !
Photos degrade - that's why pros from 40 years ago used to make colour separations of the ones that they wanted to preserve rather than keep photos.

It really depends on the cd used!

 

[drsox]

It really depends on the cd used!

My experience is that even commercially released CDs are unplayable after 30 years (not all, but all the failures have been old CDs - notably EMI)

 

[rgarjr]

Hard drives use magnetism store it's content, so yeah it could lose its strength. I don't think the mechanical parts of it would degrade since its not being used.

 

[flynz4]

If I store data onto a hard drive like an Apple Time Machine, then one day leave it on a shelf for 15+ years (not plugged into anything), is there a risk that by then the hard drive degrades even without being plugged into any machine and without use? Does the same apply to SSDs/Flash Memory? If both apply, what is a better storage medium for long term storage without any use?

My personal preference is to keep all data "Live". By that, I keep it on a computer that is getting actively backed up. For "most" people... the advancements in storage capacity increases at a faster rate than data collection.

By keeping the data "live"... I know that it is being backed up to multiple destinations, and furthermore... as I replace my computers on a regular basis, the data is regeneration onto the new computer... and then re-backed up multiple times.

/Jim