Does a hard drive degrade over time?
Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2010 8:47 am
As my collection of digital media continues to grow for both every day use and archival preservation, I am always interested in issues related to protecting and preserving digital media over long periods of time.
One issue that has me puzzled and one that gets relatively little press is that of degradation of hard drives, if any, over a period of time.
Hypothetically, for example, if you would continue to listen to a playlist or a single song, continuously for a long period of time, with no direct user intervention or changes to the drive, will that spot on the hard drive where that song(s) are located degrade over-time?
I understand software apps come into play with this issue as some media players will hit the drive for information more than others.
Likewise, I know flash drives and I believe even the new solid state drives run algorithms that constantly move data within it circuits to keep any one area from getting more use then others.
I would very much appreciate anyone’s input.
Thanks in advance.
One issue that has me puzzled and one that gets relatively little press is that of degradation of hard drives, if any, over a period of time.
Hypothetically, for example, if you would continue to listen to a playlist or a single song, continuously for a long period of time, with no direct user intervention or changes to the drive, will that spot on the hard drive where that song(s) are located degrade over-time?
I understand software apps come into play with this issue as some media players will hit the drive for information more than others.
Likewise, I know flash drives and I believe even the new solid state drives run algorithms that constantly move data within it circuits to keep any one area from getting more use then others.
I would very much appreciate anyone’s input.
Thanks in advance.