Non-current Hard Disk Technologies
Materials saved to storage devices with a variety of underlying magnetic or solid-state technologies that are hardwired into a computer that is no longer under warranty or supported: typically, hard disks more than five years old.
Examples
Disks installed into computers or servers that are more than five years old, or out of warranty
Hazards
Lack of replication; poor storage; non-standard connections or controllers; aggressive compression; encryption; Uncertainty over IPR or the presence of orphaned works
Hardware/MediaMitigations
Maintenance schedule; renewable extendable warranty; best practice storage and operation; replication
Bit List History
Added to list: 2019Last Review
2023 Review
This entry was added in 2019 to ensure that the range of media storage is properly assessed and presented. The lifecycles of most consumer hard disk technology are relatively stable in comparison to portable devices because they are integrated into systems and therefore inherit the lifecycle and replacement of the entire system. This is less true at scale; however, where disks are used in storage arrays, and refreshment is more loosely tied to the server architecture. Storage at scale also means the percentage likelihood of finding a disk failure increases, and this likelihood of failure led to the 2021 Jury’s noted trend towards greater risk. It was reviewed in 2022 with no noted change towards even greater or reduced risk.
The 2023 Council agreed with the current Critically Endangered classification with overall risks remaining on the same basis as before (‘No change’ to trend), while also noting a greater inevitability of loss from the discontinuation of support and development for these storage technologies when compared to the 2021 Jury review.
2024 Interim Review
The 2024 Council agreed These risks remain on the same basis as before, with no significant trend towards even greater or reduced risk (‘No change’ to trend).
Additional Information
A lot of early PCI-E flash devices (e.g. Fusion-IO) used proprietary drivers before the NVME standard was developed, but are now dropping off support. Intel has stopped development of Optane non-volatile RAM, some of which required specific CPU support to access although that form was usually used for data caching rather than storage.
Accessing drives with pre-SATA interfaces is increasingly difficult since interface cards and OS support can be hard to come by.
The greater density of newer disks, as well as encryption and compression, mean they can be more fragile than older disks with less density, and less sophisticated read/write technologies. The age of a disk is not the best or only indicator of its reliability.
Case Studies & Examples
- Music industry’s 1990s hard drives, like all HDDs, are dying, Purdy, K. (2024), Ars Technica [accessed at 2024-09-13].