How long can I expect my external harddrive to last?
Hard drives are highly engineered, very reliable devices. The MTBF (mean time before failure) is measured in hundreds of thousands of hours. In most cases the whole computer and it’s software will become obsolete long before the hard drive wil fail. I’ve had hard drives last 15 years and more. I know some hard drives fail completely after just a couple of years but considering the number of the things in use this is very rare. One argument for keeping a computer on all the time is that the stress of starting and stopping a hard drive will shorten its life.
It depends on who makes it. I have three a Seagate had it for 2 years, I have a WD for 1 and an Iomgea for about 6 months. The Western Digital and Iomega I have had to send them both back twice should have bought two more seagate. So In my personal a seagate would last longer never tried the Maxtor. Good luck with it though, I have read I wish I could remember the site if I find it I will post it that tells the company and average life time for a hard drive. But I think cholley_dooo was right 2 to 3 years might be about right could be longer depends on the company.
