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I want to use a external hard drive (not ssd) for backup. however I have heard that because of the mechanical nature of a HDD, it needs to be powered on and spin regularly to maximize its lifespan.

The question is: If I want to optimise the lifespan of the drive, what is the longest time I can leave it turned off and still keep it "healthy"

I plan to keep off site, and visit it every 6 month. But fear that is to long.

EDIT

@karen pointed to some very good information. -thanks

In how-much-time-until-an-unused-hard-drive-loses-its-data the minimal recomendation for is

Depending on the priority of the data you've stored, you may want to refresh the hard disk more often. If it is essential data, I would recommend no less then 2 years at maximum. If you can withstand some chance of minor data loss (e.g. a few corrupted sectors here and there), go with 5 years.

This is nice to know and show that my 6 month revisit plan is fine. However I am wondering what would be best frequency to optimise the drives lifespan.

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  • Where did you hear this exactly? A mechanical drive doesn't need to be powered in order to keep stored data.
    – Ramhound
    Commented May 20, 2015 at 10:43
  • @Ramhound. it is not to store the data, but to keep the mechanical parts from being entrenched. I read it some where on SE, but cant find it. e.g. if you leave a HDD for a couple of years it will most likely fail.
    – HC Haase
    Commented May 20, 2015 at 10:52
  • Unless I can read it, I can't tell if what you read, is about of non-sense or not. I have never heard of it in my 10 years of working with computers.
    – Ramhound
    Commented May 20, 2015 at 10:54
  • Possible duplicate of How much time until an unused hard drive loses its data?, Will desktop and hard drives stored for 7 years still work? and others. Also see Does an unplugged hard drive used for data archival deteriorate?
    – Karan
    Commented May 20, 2015 at 20:23
  • @Karan: based on the comments, the proposed duplicate (and third suggestion) aren't relevant, but your second suggestion looks like a match. I'm proposing that as a duplicate.
    – fixer1234
    Commented May 21, 2015 at 3:26

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