Can a bad HD die if you don't use it for 6 months?

WD External Drives External Drives for PC
1

So I have a HD I know is bad because crystaldiskinfo says so because it has 149 reallocated bad sectors, 19 uncorrectable bad sectors and 49500 power on hours.

Now I’ve unplugged the bad disk and put it aside.

I want to get myself a huge hard disk in January or Feburary (Hopefully 7-8TB 3.5" exist then), and then I intend to copy everything from the bad disk to my new one, and then just throw the bad disk away. I won’t need anything from the bad disk until that time.

Now, my question is, can not using the disk for 6-8 months cause any problems?

In the past I’ve had disks I havn’t touched for 2 years or so just not spin up when plugged in

2

Hello,

Leaving any mechanical or electronic equipment without use for a long period of time may cause some issues. But i don’t believe 6 months will cause any. Lets see what other users can comment on this.

3

I felt it depends on the condition on where you stored it.

I have a few HDD which are not used for years and it still works when I tried it few months back.

Just stored it in dry place away from any mostures or lock it up in a drawer or something.

4

It shouldn’t be the sole cause, but electric motors and some electronics equipment tend to fail at startup when they go bad.

Joe

5

Well one of my IBM hard has been 13 years turned off on the garage and worked just fine … 170 MB space built in 1993 loool

Be carefull and backup as soon as you can