Do you know the lifespan of most external drives?

Knowing the answer might save your project. Or at least save you from hours of wasted time.

You might think those old drives sitting in a drawer are safe. But here’s the thing: drives degrade over time, even when they’re not plugged in.

I’ve known this for years, but like a lot of us, I let it fall to the back of my mind. Recently, I started consolidating a stack of old work drives into our central storage server. And let’s just say… the data gremlins were busy.

So far, I’ve managed to recover most of the files… but not without effort. Some were corrupted beyond repair, and a lot of time was lost trying to navigate around damaged blocks and half-broken directories.

Here’s the reality:
🔸 Most external drives are only reliable for 3–5 years
🔸 SSDs wear out based on how often they’re written to
🔸 HDDs are vulnerable even when sitting idle
🔸 Drives are more likely to fail when they’re near full capacity
🔸 Even high-end drives can fail — just ask anyone following the recent SanDisk lawsuit

That’s why redundancy isn’t a nice-to-have — it’s the backbone of our Asset Management Blueprint.

When you’ve got a real system for your files:
✅ They’re easier to access across teams
✅ They’re not tied to a single person’s hard drive
✅ They’re better protected against loss

Want help building a workflow that’s future-proof and team-friendly? That’s what we do.