Data Fade

Hello,

How do you handle data fade (the slow dissipation/degradation of data on magnetic media over time)? Would moving things around on the same HDD be enough? What about simply deleting and moving everything back? It can't be that simple, or can it? I know there is specialized software made just for data fade but that seems unnecessary.

I have a couple hard drives which have been idle for 6 years or so. I do access files a couple times a year and they seem fine to me but better to be safe than sorry.

-Thanks

 

That's exactly what you need to do. It is call "refreshing" the data.

Since deleting doesn't really delete (it just marks the space in the file tables as available) I think it would be better to copy the data from one drive to another to ensure the data is written anew.

And for sure, I hope the data on those drives are not the only copies. All drives will fail - eventually. If not the data, then a motor. So if the data is important, keep multiple copies.

 

Exactly, deleting is not really deleting. I noticed when I copy a 3 GB video from an SD card to desktop, delete it, then move it back it takes a lot less time. I want to make sure things really are deleted or I'm just wasting time.

Nothing lasts forever. But specialized data fade software recommends moving things around twice a year, that seems ridiculous.

Grateful,

JJ

 

It sounds safe to me, not ridiculous. It is a generalized recommendation and that's the best they can do without knowing the exact drive model number, its condition during the write, how you store it, its age, etc.

You should not compare a SD card to a hard drive. The technology used to store the data is totally different.

 

That is extra cautious. Is there an easy way to test for data fade
or any kind of corruption?

 

What is extra cautious?

I am not aware of anyway to test for data fade. "Magnetic field-strength degradation" can be tested, but not from within a hard drive.

Corruption can be tested. Use Windows' own Error checking or run chkdsk /r from an elevated command prompt. But IMO, it would just be better to copy the files to a different drive. It would probably take about the same amount of time and the new "writes" would ensure data integrity.

 

I suppose I want to make sure it's not too late. Would copying already degraded files create an extra problem? I tested much of the HDD in question-mostly old pictures, home videos and MP3s-and they seem fine to me...

 

If already degraded, it is likely you will not be able to copy them successfully. So no, it will not create "extra" problems.