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can downloading excessive torrent files shortens my hdd life ?


craunchy

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i've read articles that blames hdd failures on downloading big torrent files, so is this real ?

I don't think that's true. Hard disks are designed to read and write data, not just keeping them stored and sitting idle. As long as they don't overheat (i.e. stay constantly above 50°C/120°F) they can be left chugging along 24/7. There's also a famous paper by Google which showed that extreme cooling and occasional powering off have no real benefit for the disk's health.

Besides, I tend to view hard disks as consumables: they will eventually break down no matter what. You don't need to worry about their lifetime – just keep important data backed up (those are usually just a few MB) and save enough money to replace the huge one(s) storing your media if you notice that they're starting to fail.

File transfer shortens your hdd life. You can use a usb memory stick to save the files on it.

A 2 TB hard disk is around 87€ (23 GB/€), while a 32 GB stick goes for 49€ (0.653 GB/€). That's a 35x difference right there. That's pretty expensive.

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Also, remember to rewrite your CD/DVD every 5 years, they will go bad. There's a lenghty tech explanation for it, but IDK what that is.

I've used cheaper brands which were unreadable after 2-3 years

Also, sometimes you find 8GB usb sticks which are only 10 €uros. which is 1,25 €uros per GB.

your 32GB comparison is a bit unfair. The cheap supermarkets sometimes dump 4GB USB sticks for just 5 €uros.

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I agree that optical media are not to be trusted. I've recently stopped using them altogether, because they're too slow, bulky, and error prone. I just got another 2 TB drive, copied them and then put them away. I don't see a reason for using them anymore – we've got big 3.5" HDDs for storage and USB sticks or portable 2.5" HDDs for transferring.

As for the USB sticks: sure you can get small ones for cheap, but the price per GB is still way higher than a HDD, Also 4 or 8 GB of storage is tiny by today's standards. ;)

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