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This is my first time here so please excuse any errors. I have my desktop in storage in my home country and only I have the key. I had some very important family data on my USB hard drive which I was using with my laptop but recently the drive crashed and I lost everything. I don't need this data right now but I can only go home after 6 months or maybe 1 year. Desktop is already lying for 6 years but well packed in a nice cool place with no movement.

My question is will it all work after 7 years? Even if desktop doesn't work that's ok, but I am worried about the hard drives inside. My friend just now says after some time of not using them the heads will get stuck and stop moving, so I am very worried now. What should I do? Please give me some advice. Thank you.

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  • check this. - superuser.com/a/312764/440138
    – Francisco Tapia
    Commented May 7, 2015 at 21:21
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    I think mechanical failure (what your friend talked about) is what you might need to be worried about, but obviously no-one can say for sure what state you'll find the drives in.
    – Karan
    Commented May 7, 2015 at 21:25

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Rest easy! Although I can't guarantee your hard drives will work, I see little reason why they will not.

There are many factors that wear a hard drive (writing to it, reading from it, turning it on and off, exposing it to shock, et al); but letting a drive sit does not cause wear. And it sounds like how you stored it was very wise.

What does take place is very slow magnetic degradation of the magnetic fields on the platters (estimated at 1% reduction per year). After just seven years, your data is probably fine. The magnetic fields will still have 93% (estimated) of their strength, which is so high that I doubt any bits will flip beyond the capabilities of the built-in error control mechanism.

It's also great that the data is stored on a USB drive. That makes it very easy to use on any computer, and making backups becomes even easier.

Don't be surprised if your computer work as well! It will probably turn on just fine. At that time, you can enjoy spending 10 hours installing software updates for the last 7 years!

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  • "At that time, you can enjoy spending 10 hours installing software updates for the last 7 years!" - :D Sad but true, although if he has XP installed there's probably no point wasting time installing updates instead of simply upgrading to Win7/8/10. Edit: If I'm not mistaken looks like he lost the data on the USB drive and hence the worry about the backup.
    – Karan
    Commented May 7, 2015 at 21:20
  • @Karan Yes, if his system is powerful enough to handle it, an OS upgrade will be his best choice. It's likely Windows 10 will be offered as a free upgrade for his system. Once someone loses data on any storage medium, it really reinforces how much can be lost. Frequent backups are always essential.
    – End Antisemitic Hate
    Commented May 7, 2015 at 21:31
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If it did not move, is packed well.. and not abused before packing it there is quite a good chance its just fine! Assuming it didnt have issues before and its not in layers of dust i dont think you have anything to fear

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