For those of us that enjoy the advantages of HDD equipped DVDRs...

What is the average lifespan of a typical HDD?

I realize many factors influence its life such as..

1) Brand of HDD
2) Usage
3) Manufacturer of DVDR

Any thoughts?

go the the HDD manufacturers site, look up the specs for the hard drive and it will list the MTBF= mean time between failure. of course ymmv

My experience= back up. All HDD are =wish i backed up.

I find that slower hard drives last longer. I have some 5400 rpm hard drives still in use from 1996 and these computer are on all the time. Very few failures! I have much more 7200 rpm drives fail. I even had one seagate barracuda(7200 rpm) drive catch fire!

I think around 5 years is a pretty reasonable expectation for a consumer-grade HDD. It makes sense that the slower ones would last longer, since the bearings are travelling "less distance" per minute than those in a faster drive.

July 2003 Panny E80 DVDR HDD stiill going strong. And, yes, it is a slow one compared to later models.

HDDs and even high quality DVDs do not have an infinite life span.

How will you archive for the long term? Transfer from the HDD to DVD in a predefined interval? Periodic checks of high quality DVD media?

Knowing that the lifespan of a DVD is also limited what is your long range plan for your archived material? Reburn your entire collection? HDD-->HDD transfer?

Knowing that the lifespan of a DVD is also limited what is your long range plan for your archived material? Reburn your entire collection? HDD-->HDD transfer?
Put it back onto a VHS tape. :p

Put it back onto a VHS tape. :p

U-matic tape would probably be better :D

But then, who has one of those players? Not many consumers.

I find that slower hard drives last longer. I have some 5400 rpm hard drives still in use from 1996 and these computer are on all the time. Very few failures! I have much more 7200 rpm drives fail. I even had one seagate barracuda(7200 rpm) drive catch fire!
One factor besides the lower speed is those older drives seem to be built to higher duty so tend to last longer. Maybe not coincidentally, around year 2000 the drive manufacturers started limiting the warranty period to one year instead of the formerly common three years. And it is now harder to get warranty coverage--before, you can get service without a receipt to proof of purchase, now I find you often need to have a receipt and if the drive came with a computer it is only covered under the computer's warranty which was not the case before.

The good thing is warranties are getting longer again and failures seem less common in the last couple of years, but still not as easy to get warranty work approved as before.