General Hardware Question - Harddrives
Hi, recently I bought an external harddrive and transferred all my photos (30 GBs worth) to the external to save my quickly depleting MBP haddrive space.
So when I was deleting this huge chunk off my harddrive, I thought it would be best to use the "Secure Delete" function. My theory is that it would be somehow better for the harddrive. This got me thinking, I really don't know anything about my hard-drive and how to keep it in good shape.
I do a lot of downloading and save and delete lots of files. I know that harddrives do have a limited lifespan, only so many writes and rewrites. But my questions are, is using secure delete when deleting large chunks like with my photos a good idea? Whats with this limited lifespan? Should I just be using normal delete? I know when leopard comes out I want to buy it, and I know I'll probably want to do "clean install" (I hear its the thing to do), so will that be doing a secure-delete-type of erasing or what? any other info I should know about??
Thanks!
So when I was deleting this huge chunk off my harddrive, I thought it would be best to use the "Secure Delete" function. My theory is that it would be somehow better for the harddrive. This got me thinking, I really don't know anything about my hard-drive and how to keep it in good shape.
I do a lot of downloading and save and delete lots of files. I know that harddrives do have a limited lifespan, only so many writes and rewrites. But my questions are, is using secure delete when deleting large chunks like with my photos a good idea? Whats with this limited lifespan? Should I just be using normal delete? I know when leopard comes out I want to buy it, and I know I'll probably want to do "clean install" (I hear its the thing to do), so will that be doing a secure-delete-type of erasing or what? any other info I should know about??
Thanks!
Comments
Secure delete is usually only used for information removal that you definately don't want people to be able to retrieve.
The drive has to write over the information many times, usually with random '0's or '1's, so that no 'ghost' of the info remains.
If anything, you're doing your drive a disservice, as it only means more time writing, thereby reducing its life span (very, very marginally).
A normal delete only alters the 'pointers' to the information, so that that area is flagged as ready to take new info. This 'unsecure' deletion means that it can be retrieved by special software.
It's also a good idea to keep all your vital info in at least two places, if not three (two backups), whether on HDs, tape, CDs or DVDs.
Edit BTW Hard drives on Macs don't need defragmenting, as OS X does it automatically.
Regards
Santa
Hi, recently I bought an external harddrive and transferred all my photos (30 GBs worth) to the external to save my quickly depleting MBP haddrive space.
So when I was deleting this huge chunk off my harddrive, I thought it would be best to use the "Secure Delete" function. My theory is that it would be somehow better for the harddrive. This got me thinking, I really don't know anything about my hard-drive and how to keep it in good shape.
I do a lot of downloading and save and delete lots of files. I know that harddrives do have a limited lifespan, only so many writes and rewrites. But my questions are, is using secure delete when deleting large chunks like with my photos a good idea? Whats with this limited lifespan? Should I just be using normal delete? I know when leopard comes out I want to buy it, and I know I'll probably want to do "clean install" (I hear its the thing to do), so will that be doing a secure-delete-type of erasing or what? any other info I should know about??
Thanks!
Hard Drives can last anywhere between 1 month to 8 years. It just depends. A lot of people get by on a solid 3-5 years. Some have it die in 2 years.
Most importantly, backup, but also be aware of warranty options. The Apple Extended warranty gives you a full 3 years (including 1st year of use) and this covers hard drive failures.
If buying an external hard drive, consider Seagate drives that come with a 5 year warranty and put that in an "enclosure" for external use. This can be a better approach than buying a pre-built/ all-in-one "external drive".