[ifinnegan]

If only there were a way to save the data before the drive blows up.

[Artemis Webb]

When my computer or phone goes “KAPOW” I buy a new one. Same with the fridge and lawnmower. Stop being so dramatic.

[Jewbacca]

Time to adjust the meds, captain
.

[USS Alaska]

For when the Spares are gone, God only knows what will happen.

It's not a matter for God. If you lose/break your smart phone, shudder, shudder, God only knows what will happen.

Get a grip, it's only a device.

[ShadowAce]

Didja lose a drive or something?

[Sirius Lee]

If a laptop fails to boot up and nobody cares, did it make a sound?

[devane617]

hmm...Sam’s has new one’s on sale.

[Travis McGee]

Ping

[Drago]

Mechanical failure in standard hard disks (bad bearings. etc.) and SSD “write-cycles” will probably kill your drive before it runs out of “spare bits”.

https://www.volico.com/the-most-common-causes-of-hard-drive-failure/

https://www.enterprisestorageforum.com/hardware/ssd-lifespan-how-long-will-your-ssd-work/

[Flavious_Maximus]

Dude should be writing for comic book publishers.

Boom, Pow, Kaput!

[knarf]

If only I knew what this meant to my FR surfing, hidden object gaming, reading every source of truthful political intrigue ... me.

I just checked my 'puter and I have 85% unused

[Lazamataz]

It is under the heading of SPARES. Specifically when your drive runs out of them. And a couple of areas on your system disk. Sector 0. If sector 0 is bad, typically it's all over on the next boot. KAPOW!! Your Smartphone is DEAD AND GONE. Your $1000 apple watch is Kaput. The Data on your PC system disk is GONE and not recoverable. In a Nutshell, the Time Bomb is WHEN, NOT IF, YOU RUN OUT OF "SPARES" and the next SECTOR IS CRITICAL. KABOOM!!

I'm a computer developer by trade.

I have never heard of SPARES in relation to a hard disk drive. Sure, there is a Sector 0; sure, you don't want that going out.

But I have no Earthly idea what SPARES is, unless you mean a spare drive. And spare drives are cheap.

So, explain your concern, and do so technically, or I will assume you are a technical dolt.

(PS: 99.99999% of the time, almost all your data is recoverable. You may have to pay a pretty penny to get it back, but it is recoverable in the vast majority of cases.... even if your boot and other important sectors go out.)

[Lazamataz]

Oh, and here is a Dell page regarding your assertions. Doesn’t seem like a ‘ticking time bomb’, but instead, a nice way to (lightly) protect your data, and/or utilize virtual disks.

So stop hyperventilating.

https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-us/idrac8-with-lc-v2.05.05.05/lc_2.05.05.05_ug-v1/setting-virtual-disk-attributes?guid=guid-7d8b08f7-ba47-4188-a956-8a33cfeeebe3

[mabarker1]

[Lisbon1940]

Are spares like pcaps?

[trebb]

I’ve lost a few hard drives - some were accessible via CDROM/USB apps to be able to recover data...but I back up all important files - some of them via USB as I modify them.
Why make a fact of life (shit wears out) sound like a crisis?

[Don W]

Sounds just like Y2K all over again, except this time there is NO escape. Unless you replace your drives when they start getting worn out. Like you do with everything else you own.

What a load. More fear pron.

[gitmo]

It does not matter what type of disk it is. Whether it is a Hard Drive, Solid State Drive, or even the new NVMe Drives. THE TICKING TIME BOMB IS THERE.

And thats true for every other object in the universe. Everything has an expiration date.

[nhoward14]

I can understand your fear. Just make sure you check and refill the oil in your hard disk every 3 months and the spares won’t dry out and go bad.

[McGruff]