The growing popularity of cloud computing, flash memory storage and “always-on” personal computing devices are leading some individuals to believe that hard drive failure is a thing of the past, and this can be a problematic misconception. While it is true that solid state drive technology has vastly improved over the last few years, this does not mean that these storage devices are impervious to hardware failure.
Solid State Drives Are Not Immune to Breakdown
The misconception about SSD storage is related to its lack of moving parts. With legacy hard drives, failure can often be heard or felt. The click of death associated with hard drives is heard when the actuator component repeatedly tries to recover from a critical error. Depending on the brand and build, spinning hard drives can be quite noisy when they enter an irretrievable error state; a knocking or clicking sound indicates physical failure while whirring sounds are more indicative of logical issues. At any rate, these noises signal the end of life for legacy hard drives.
Preparation Against Data Loss
There is no true formula to figure out the longevity of SSD or legacy drives; nonetheless, drives that have been operating for longer than eight years are more likely to fail. It should be noted that hard drive failure does not automatically render data inaccessible. Data recovery is a service that focuses on rescuing data from storage devices that are no longer functional, and it can be a virtual lifesaver in many cases.
