I have read that external HDDs have a possible lifespan of just 3 - 5 years, which obviously rules them out as a long term storage device, however others on Superuser suggest this is wrong:
Who is right and what are the facts?
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Backblaze has the HDDs _always_ on. – Daniel B Sep 15 '20 at 12:50
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Please make use of the formatting bar when crafting questions and answer, ensuring the correct markdown is utilized. – JW0914 Sep 15 '20 at 13:49
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Broadly the advice in the linked duplicate is still valid and the general consensus is "it depends" on far too many environmental and operational parameters to say how long any device will last. They might last a week, or they might last decades. Magnetic degradation is a thing, but a lot of physical processes are dependent on temperature and other factors. Just asking "how long will a drive last" with no qualifiers whatsoever makes this question impossible to answer. The duplicate is the best we have. – Mokubai Sep 15 '20 at 14:03