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macj3

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 5, 2010
35
4
east coast, USA
Using an external drive for Time Machine.....when should the drive be replaced? 3, or 5,yrs...or when a new computer is purchased? Would you replace the entire external drive or just the drive inside?...do you keep the old/exchanged drive? or erase and use for storage?
 

kohlson

macrumors 68020
Apr 23, 2010
2,425
737
How long a drive will last is a topic with many answers. I've probably purchased 50 drives over the years. Some are doing well at 7+ years, some give failure signs in as little as a year. I try to purchase drives with more than a 1-year warranty, but don't have any evidence to say that's a good idea. I've replaced the drive in a Time Capsule after 5 years, increasing the capacity. More recently, I purchased an 8TB Seagate external drive from Costco for $120. That's somewhat less expensive than an bare drive. @Dave Braine is right - why worry? Drives are pretty inexpensive.
 

macj3

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 5, 2010
35
4
east coast, USA
Well...it's just that I ordered a new 27" iMac to replace a 2009 iMac which was still using the original external OWC Drive for time machine.....I realize it's not more $ but...I was wondering if I could still be safe with the OWC as the back-up for the new computer. Overthinking it i guess....
 

HDFan

Contributor
Jun 30, 2007
7,222
3,276
I was wondering if I could still be safe with the OWC as the back-up for the new computer.

A good backup rule is 3 different backups in 3 different media types in 3 different locations. One off-site such as a safe deposit box.
 

HDFan

Contributor
Jun 30, 2007
7,222
3,276
Backblaze collects a lot of statistics of drive failure rates. It turns out that of the drives that failed 76.7% of them had one or more of 5 specific SMART stats > 0. The article is from 2016.

 
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