I had a 1.6gb WD hdd from 1995 that lasted until 2002. It was used as a primary hard drive first and then just as a storage device later.
I imagine a hard drive that's used simply for storage should last longer than a hard drive that's used to hold games, the operating system, page file, etc since the latter is being accessed all the time while the former can be turned off or disconnected when not in use.
I haven't yet had a hard drive that didn't last less than 5 years. I do have a 40gb Maxtor that seems a little flaky and might break soon. But, even it I already had since 2002.
Also, every hard drive I've bought are the retail versions (plastic-sealed big box full with shock-absorbing material, utility cd/floppy) except for one......Yep. That 40gb Maxtor. It's OEM. Oh. That usb2 2.5" WDD is also OEM. It just seems to me that retail hard drives lasts longer than OEM ones.





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