“Is there any way to estimate how long external HD's last? I have an older one I've been backing up on for 2+ years. I wonder if they wear out when do backups about once a week.”
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The life of a drive depends on how you handle the drive. Yes, external drives are portable, but they are not meant to be dropped any more than internal drives. Also, using a drive across platforms (Mac-PC) can lead to corrupt directories. I tend to have important data backed up on more than one drive just to be sure I don't have a problem. Unless you are buying a solid state drive, you have a device with mechanical moving parts moving at very high speeds. These DO wear. Bumping a drive when it is spinning can cause mess up the alignment causing read-write failures. I listen to my drives as they are reading-writing. The minute I start to hear clicking or erratic sounds, I back the data up elsewhere - JUST IN CASE. Frequent clicking can be a clue to drive mis-alignment. A drive that is sitting on a desk, just for backups is probably not subject to much wear and tear and could certainly last a while. Hope this helps.
Sorry, there was a problem. Please try again later.I have a toshiba for 5 or 6 years and no sign of end of life yet
Sorry, there was a problem. Please try again later.Keep it still don't toss it around[moving parts inside] it should last four years with lots of use.Put it away and who knows
Sorry, there was a problem. Please try again later.Unlikely.
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