The hard disk on today's PC has a very tough life. Particularly the ones on notebooks as they are quite miniaturised.

-Run applications
-Do anti virus scans of whole disks
-Defragment drives
-Back ups
-Watch movies on DVD
-Install applications like Matlab, CATIA, Pro_E ....

... the list is endless and during all these it is quite un-nerving to see the hard disk activity lamp blinking furiously.

Question is : What is the typical life of an hard disk ? After all it is a mechanical component and wear and tear is expected. And if it decides give up the ghost in the middle of a busy week ... well the implications could be far reaching. Regular data back is fine - but who is going to go through all that program installations and configurations ???

Have I become paranoid or any of you have had this thought ?

Some comforting statistics on the life of hard disk awaited ;-))

Raghu