0

Digging inside my father wardrobe, I found a really old hard disk. If sticker on it is correct, it is over 15 years old and wasn't run for at least past ten years. It is still on ATA strip, but it is put inside 3,5'' box case with USB 2.0 cable.

Is there anything special I should do or take into consideration, before powering this up and connecting it into my computer? Is there anything that could damage the disk or data on it only cause it wasn't powered for past ten years or more?

trejder
  • 10,821
  • 18
  • 59
  • 117
  • From a mechanical point of view: nothing that I can think of. Maybe clean off the dust, if there is any (hypothetical + crazy + unrealistic scenario: dust-buildup on the controller-chip can lead to overheating problem on the chip). From a **data** point of view: there is a non-negligible chance of [Data degradation](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_degradation) of the existing files on the disk. So expect data errors. – Slizzered May 14 '15 at 19:29
  • 1
    All I can think of is a mechanical failure of the drive that would prevent it from spinning up. Perhaps in that case [this](http://serverfault.com/a/388719) will help. Related interesting info about old hard disks [here](http://superuser.com/questions/284427/how-much-time-until-an-unused-hard-drive-loses-its-data/312764#312764). – Karan May 14 '15 at 19:33
  • 2
    Determine if it supports the SMART stats interface, and check its current SMART status early, so you can make sure it isn;t on the cusp of failure. if it is, get everything off it as quickly as possible. Avoid tools like chkdsk/fsck or spinrite until you have determined that it is mechanically healthy, as they can push it over the edge into failure. consider imaging it first thing (perhaps using ddrescue) so that if it does die a final deal, you can recover data off the image, and repair data/filesystem metadata on differant hardware. – Frank Thomas May 14 '15 at 20:15
  • 1
    If it was stored somehow where there is increased moisture, that would be a huge concideration to move it to a dry location, and let it dry out first. If it was in an extreeme cold situation, to let it come up to temperature and dry if needed first. Tiny bits of condensation on the platters would ruin your day, few hard drives are sealed from air. – Psycogeek May 15 '15 at 03:38
  • @FrankThomas Looks like your comment would be a best answer here, as it brings the longest list of things one should take into consideration in situation like mine. Consider rewriting this as answer, if you care for rep. – trejder May 15 '15 at 07:55
  • 1
    Common problem of long term storage of older hard drives is [stiction, where the read heads stuck to the platters](http://www.sentex.net/~mwandel/tech/repair.html), not a problem with modern drives that do not park the read heads on the platter. Stiction prevents the hard drive from spinning up. – Moab May 17 '15 at 19:32

2 Answers2

1

Nope. Power it up. It's not like there's a bike chain in there you need to grease. If it doesn't just work you could try the freezer trick. Other than that, unless there's data on there you really need, I'd just toss it if it didn't work the first time.

http://lifehacker.com/5515337/save-a-failed-hard-drive-in-your-freezer-redux

EvilKittenLord
  • 3,218
  • 16
  • 14
1

I still use a 13Gb disk from 1999 for storage of stufff that i don't need to access very often, and it works like a charm. I too have it in a USB case.

No special considerations to take, just be aware that drives weren't as robust as they are now when it comes to rough handling.

Jarmund
  • 5,988
  • 5
  • 33
  • 57