Hard drives, actually all drives, and power supplies have mechanical parts like motors and "lead screws." These parts have bearings, just like the wheel bearings in a car. Bearings fail. You can save the power supply by taking a vacuum to the fan area every so often. Dust build-up causes the fan to not be abnle to cool itself. Dust build up also hurst cooling of the power supply, which is what the fan is for in the first place. Another good idea is to vac the fan on the processor. Hard drive failure is another matter. I find that shutting the computer off when not in use helps a lot. There is no good reason to leave it on, it just wastes energy. I also find a higher failure rate in CD rom drives. Generally the accuracy of the lead screw, which is what moves the read (or read/wrire) head degrades. Fortunately, these drives don't run while the computer is on, only hwen they are being used. Jim Ussailis jim at nationalwireless.com On Tue, 31 May 2005, Mark Bucciarelli wrote: > ** Be a Good Dobee and help the group > ** Fill out the survey/skills inventory in the member's area. > ** Remember you must be counted to post . > > jill logan wrote: > > > also ....how old is too old for your computer hard drive? > > > After three years, count your blessings and make sure you have a good > backup process you follow. > > I try upgrade my computers are infrequently as possible. (They have a > huge negative environmental impact.) The only things that go bad are > the components with moving parts--mainly hard drives and power supplies. > > m > > _______________________________________________ > Hidden-discuss mailing list - home page: http://www.hidden-tech.net > Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net > > You are receiving this because you are on the Hidden-Tech Discussion list. > If you would like to change your list preferences, Go to the Members > page on the Hidden Tech Web site. > http://www.hidden-tech.net/members >