Hi Agent,

I guess a drive can last 20 years, I have one that age that still works, but it does not get used very much.

The real killer is heat, particularly with the newer 7200rpm drives. Quite a few people upgrade their HDD and do not upgrade their cooling/ventilation...........that is a big mistake

Modern BIOS and drives have a self checking capability so you get a warning if the drive is on its way out.

For older drives you should do a surface scan on a regular basis. And make sure you have backups. As soon as you start getting bad clusters that's your warning.

Cheers