What I do is every once in awhile, I create a file and put it in a folder as deep into the drive file/dir structure as I can. reboot then delete it. I was once told that doing that, the magnetic fields or whatever keep the drives alive. so far so kewl!
Hi Carmine,
I've never heard about that before (in over 20 years), but if it seems to be working for you that's great. What I don't understand is this. We actually do that in a way all the time (or at least some of us do if not many of us even if not intentionally). I'm not sure what "as deep as I can" means, but when you think about it, temporary internet files are stored fairly deep in the structure (I don't know about "as deep as you can" or how you even figure out which folder is the deepest on your system unless you checked them out individually or created one that's certain to be the deepest just to do this) and if we run TFC periodically as recommended by Jacee, then recently added files that are fairly deep in the structure are deleted and the system reboots. No they aren't folders, but I can't believe that a folder versus a file makes any difference to the magnetic fields in the hard drive.
On the other hand, I haven't had my drives as long as you - I tend to buy new computers and larger drives faster than that (though I've never lost a drive either and I'd guess they're used for about 5 or 6 years before I eventually upgrade for other reasons). But I only recently started using TFC. Before that, it was merely normal maintenance and while I did do clean-ups periodically (and sometimes reboot or shutdown for the evening right after not by plan but by fluke so perhaps I was doing what you suggest merely by accident), I never used a process like this intentionally (but I also haven't tested a drive for
11 years either and have only rarely had clients using drives that old and typically get them to upgrade computers shortly after identifying a situation like that).
Do you shutdown every night or use sleep/hibernation or just leave them on all the time? How often do you defrag? How often do you chkdsk /f /r? I know you add a LOT, but how often do you actually delete much (and how much)? How often do you install/uninstall programs (maybe just to test them out - I mean both, not just the installing part)? How full do you keep the drives (I mean, at 50% or at 95% or higher)? Are the drives heavily partitioned or mostly one or maybe two? What's the most you do that stresses the drives - I mean, makes them run more or less nonstop for long periods - defrags or chkdsks, AV scans, re-indexing, playing movies back-to-back, intensive programming, backups, ...? I'm trying to see if some other factors may be involved in your preservation success.
Thanks and take care, my friend!