Age of hard disk

Forums › Desktop computing › Age of hard disk

Rickles

2933 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#100027 1-Apr-2012 22:42

A friend recently acquired a Seagate hard drive that purported to be 'brand new, unused'.

According to the Date Code on the drive, the drive was manufactured November 24th 2010.

Would it be reasonable to accept that such drives are still on the shelves after nearly 18 months?

R.

Talkiet

4792 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#603522 1-Apr-2012 22:47

Many HDD tools will give you the number of hours that it has been powered on. And yes, it's feasible it's been sitting on shelves for that long.

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

lucky015

743 posts

Ultimate Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#603537 2-Apr-2012 06:12

Provided it was still sealed in its original packaging when received I don't see much of a potential problem or anything, Model Number would have given a clue as to age prior anyway, Even if it had been opened I don't really see what you could do about it anyway.

Considering drives can sit for a few months in stock with Manufacturers then get shipped taking potentially another few months then sit on distributors shelves then the stock room shelves of the retailers its not unrealistic for it to have been sitting round for that long especially with odd or smaller sized drives.

Although in saying that I've often noticed that the drives I have bought have been extremely close to the Date of Manufacturer myself so that's not a general rule of thumb.

cyril7

9058 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Subscriber

#603563 2-Apr-2012 08:09

You could install a SMART reader app that shows the disk SMART info, power run hours will be shown there, HDDScan is such a free app, it performs a whole range of tests and monitoring. NTFS.org also has similar tools

Cyril

dan

1134 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#603579 2-Apr-2012 08:46

I would disagree i rarely see a new drive that would be from 2010.

However if it was in its sealed packaging when you friend got it it should be fine, it has to be ripped / cut open

if the drive is truley new it should have alot of warranty left on it as well, check the warranty status with seagate

btw if its fairly new would be 2 year warranty, older would be 5 year warranty

Rickles

2933 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#603589 2-Apr-2012 09:15

Thanks for all your replies ... I understand that the drive came unwrapped, ostensibly so that it could be 'tested before sale' ... odd, I know but I've no idea what the origin was at this stage.

Yes, I think running one of those test tools is next step.

R.

Rickles

2933 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#603600 2-Apr-2012 09:33

Small problem. The disk has been put into a D-Link ShareCentre, formatted and data added already.

Accordingly, the Seagate Tools that might tell me how long the drive has been powered up/hours running will not detect the drive.

Anybody know of a tool or simple way to get the SMART information off the drive under these circumstances?

Tks, R.

Rickles

2933 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#603630 2-Apr-2012 10:29

UPDATE: Have found that the ShareCentre unit has within it's management interface a tool for finding disk information.

According to the report, the disk has a value of 82 for the Power-on-Hours, so I think the disk has therefore been 'used' for 3.4 days ... I assume one cannot "wind back" a hard disk.

Looks like the disk is un-used and new, albeit 18 months since manufacture.

R.

Equinox IT

Cloud spending continues to surge globally, but most organisations haven’t made the changes necessary to maximise the value and cost-efficiency benefits of their cloud investments. Download the whitepaper From Overspend to Advantage now.

surfisup1000

5288 posts

Uber Geek

#603636 2-Apr-2012 10:38

Rickles: A friend recently acquired a Seagate hard drive that purported to be 'brand new, unused'.

According to the Date Code on the drive, the drive was manufactured November 24th 2010.

Would it be reasonable to accept that such drives are still on the shelves after nearly 18 months?

R.

I bought a disk in February 2012, had a manufacture date of Sept 21 2011.

I'm amazed at the efficiency of modern distribution systems.

richms

28168 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#606742 8-Apr-2012 17:11

surfisup1000:

I bought a disk in February 2012, had a manufacture date of Sept 21 2011.

I'm amazed at the efficiency of modern distribution systems.

5 months is hardly efficient! Unless your name is TVNZ that is ;)

Richard rich.ms