FAQ

 

 

How often should I clean the inside of my computer?

 

It is recomended that you clean and dust the inside of your computer every 3 tto 6 months. Clean time? It shouldn’t take more than half an hour to remove the dust from your computer. But a professional cleaning should be scheduled at least once a year to remove dust and dirt from the processor heat sink and fan assemblies. The dustier the environment you work in, the more often you should dust. Cleaning your display shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes.

 

How long should I expect the hard drive in my computer to last?

 

Today’s hard drives are faster, store more information, and are more reliable than ever before, but just like any other electronic devices, they have the possibility of failing. Current hard drives are designed to run non-stop for years and have warranties that range from one to five years, but that is of little comfort if a six-month-old drive full of your family photos, address books, or financial information fails and you don’t have a current backup. A thin attempt at trying to rate the life of a hard drive through MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) has been around for a long time, but the reason I call it “thin” is that every manufacturer uses different parameters for publishing this spec. An MTBF of 700,000 hours equates to about 80 years, which is NOT how long you can expect the hard drive to last, but a rating based on a bunch of math that the manufacturer chose that can be misleading. MTBF has become in the words of a pundit on the Internet “a statistical measure that we are not supposed to believe,” so don’t take it at face value. Based on our Data Recovery lab’s experience over the years, a high MTBF rating is fairly immaterial because the vast majority of the failed drives we are asked to recover data from are less than three years old.

 

How long can I expect my workstation and server to last?

 

The lifespan of a computer is going to vary. Depending on how often you use the computer and what you use it for is going to factor in the equation. Also, the original equipment of the computer is going to play a big factor. If you buy a low-end computer, you are typically getting dated hardware. Not used per se, but you'll typically be sold hardware that is 2 or 3 generations behind the newest hardware. And these lower end machines will obviously have cheaper hardware. The cheaper hardware won't last as long as the more expensive hardware. The best way to make sure you get a machine that was have lots of longevity is to have a custom system built. They will be built with quality components with execellent life cycles. With a good foundation of hardware components, you'll be able to keep your investment going strong for many years to come.