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I have some disconnected hard disks (that is, they have not been connected to a power source for years). You know, if you do not use inkjet printers, the ink gets hardened and blocks the nozzle and ruins the printer. Of course, HDD's are not printers, but they contain moving parts. So, if I do not power them on for a long time, don't the moving parts or some sort of lubricant get hardened and won't spin up properly?

In short, is there any need to periodically power on and use disconnected disks (like once a year), or can we leave disconnected disks powered-off without using for years?

Damn Vegetables
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    I can't give a definitive, absolute answer, but as the moving parts are 'dry lubricated' they are less prone to the 'oil' drying out & seizing over time. I've never known a stored HD to refuse to spin up after being in storage. [Of course, they may die of other causes, unpredictably]. See https://superuser.com/questions/284427/how-much-time-until-an-unused-hard-drive-loses-its-data BTW, I gave up on inkjets 15 years ago & switched to lasers, precisely because of that problem. – Tetsujin May 20 '22 at 16:29
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    @Tetsujin Thanks. If it is "dry" then, I guess I won't have to worry about mechanical failures from no usage in a reasonable time period (like within my lifetime). I mean, it may still be able to mechanically fail on its own, but that does not sound very likely to happen easily. – Damn Vegetables May 20 '22 at 16:47
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    There is always the tendency towards Murphy's Law - *"If something can go wrong, it will."* Two copies are better than one… & on online backup for just in case. We all have the propensity these days to store out lives on media that for one little "Oops" is gone forever. – Tetsujin May 20 '22 at 16:58
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    A HDD should be exercised. Unlike @T.. above, I have definitely seen drives (especially consumer drives seize up from non use. Not really often - but I do not like leaving them unpowered. – John May 20 '22 at 16:59
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    Also, although magnetic media is more long-lasting than SSD electrostatic storage, eventually it does degrade./ https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/ccwl6b/shelf_life_of_cold_ssds_vs_hdds/ **If the data is of value**, you might consider some means to read and then rewrite data on a periodic basis, perhaps every six month or yearly, or make disk images. – DrMoishe Pippik May 20 '22 at 17:22
  • @DrMoishePippik One reply in the linked question in the first comment says that modern disks do not use "traditional magnetism" but quantum something so that they do not lose the data for about 2 decades. What is your opinion on that claim? – Damn Vegetables May 20 '22 at 20:07
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    There are cosmic rays sleeting through everything, and now and then bits get flipped. Quantum devices are *more* vulnerable to that, since they lack redundancy of mass devices. In any case, the advice still holds: make images of valued data. BTW, there are other choices for long-term storage, such as the sapphire disk https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/132793-the-10-million-year-sapphire-hard-disk . – DrMoishe Pippik May 20 '22 at 22:59
  • I forgot about those cosmic rays for bit rot... but what are those "Quantum devices" ? – X.LINK May 21 '22 at 01:01
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    Does this answer your question? [How much time until an unused hard drive loses its data?](https://superuser.com/questions/284427/how-much-time-until-an-unused-hard-drive-loses-its-data) – Giacomo1968 May 21 '22 at 01:17
  • @Giacomo1968 My question was more about the mechanical part getting stuck or rusty due to not moving for a long time, and the liked question is about losing data on the flatter, so in my opinion, my question is a little bit different. – Damn Vegetables May 21 '22 at 15:35
  • @DrMoishePippik I briefly read that sapphire article, and it kind of annoys me that when what normal customers want is affordable storage that can keep data intact up to a century, and those researchers always come up with some unaffordable storages that last millions of years. – Damn Vegetables May 21 '22 at 15:45
  • Just pulled 10 pata drives from storage in a shed with no climate control, all but one fired up and could read all data, passed SMART tests also. Been in the shed for 15-20 years. – Moab May 22 '22 at 10:13

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Frankly, it all depdends on the drive.

I had some unopened hard drives that would have some hard time spinning for the first time five years after I bought them (same day, same batch, only had one of both doing that, both perfectly stored), but also some 25+ years old drives that would still perfectly works right out of the bat after being unpowered for 20+ years.

For mechanical hard drives, it's all about the lubricant breaking down even if it's "dry lubed". But it looks like the newer the drive, the weaker they are about that.

You may have also have bit rot on mechanical hard drives, but it doesn't happen often. Do note that I did have some overly used mechanical drives that would aggressively bit rot after a few months.

But, better safe than sorry though (think btrfs with dup and ECC RAM for example to mitigate bit rot).

SSDs on the other hand are on another whole level of degrading over time. Bit rot is really a thing with those.

JEDEC do expect OEM to make SSDs that will hold data for at least 10 years only when they are brand new, but this downs to only 1 single year or even less (depending on writing temperature and offline storage temperature) for drives that have reached their maximum TBW, which is mostly around 100TB for consumer ones (that's very little if you consider web browsing caching and more and more bloated software that uses more RAM... and swap).

However, I did have old SD cards that could hold data for more than 15 years unpowered. But I haven't tried them for bit rot, and I do know that I didn't used them a lot, which the latter certainly helped.

If your concern is about long term-archival. Mechanical hard drives are still the best after archival-grade optical disks (normal ones are garbage for that, SSDs that aren't often used may even outperform them out) and of course, tape.

As a rule of thumbs, and to finally answer your question, you should power mechanical drives every three years, but to be extra safe once a year would be the best.

For SSDs or anything flash-based, that would be every month if you don't know how much TBW they got, just because of bit rot.

As usual, your mileage may vary. But again, better be safe than sorry.

X.LINK
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