life of inactive old hard drive ?

I had stored some drives from old PCs, removed about 1999-2000.
They were wrapped in anti-static bags, put in a metal box, which was
placed in a cool dry place.
My ex-wife wanted some data off one of those drives, but when I plugged
it in, it just went clunk, and I couldn't read it.
Disk diagnostic program gave up quickly on it.
So after 15 years, would one expect a hard drive to function?
Apart from the circuit board going south, I have also seen claims that
the bearing on the spindle or actuator arm may seize from inactivity.
These were 40 GB IDE drives. I estimate they would have clocked up only
a few thousand hours before retirement.

wrote

I had stored some drives from old PCs, removed about 1999-2000.
They were wrapped in anti-static bags, put in a
metal box, which was placed in a cool dry place.

My ex-wife wanted some data off one of those drives, but
when I plugged it in, it just went clunk, and I couldn't read it.

Did it actually spin up ?

Disk diagnostic program gave up quickly on it.
So after 15 years, would one expect a hard drive to function?

Depends on the drive. Many will be fine after that time.

Apart from the circuit board going south, I have also seen claims that
the bearing on the spindle or actuator arm may seize from inactivity.

Its more likely that the heads stick to the platter and that
stops the drive from spinning up with drives of that age.

Its very rare indeed for the head actuator arm to seize from inactivity.

These were 40 GB IDE drives.

Many of those were notorious for stiction which is the
name for the head sticking to the platter and stopping
the drive from spinning up. What are the brands and
model numbers ?

I estimate they would have clocked up only
a few thousand hours before retirement.

That makes no difference to that sort of failure probability.

Rod Speed wrote:
wrote

Apart from the circuit board going south, I have also seen claims that
the bearing on the spindle or actuator arm may seize from inactivity.

Its more likely that the heads stick to the platter and that
stops the drive from spinning up with drives of that age.

Its very rare indeed for the head actuator arm to seize from inactivity.

These were 40 GB IDE drives.

Many of those were notorious for stiction which is the
name for the head sticking to the platter and stopping
the drive from spinning up. What are the brands and
model numbers ?

Sometimes, though most notably with drives older than this, shaking
the drive side to side violently would unstick it and allow it to
spin up when reconnected. If it's not spinning up, then there's
nothing to loose in trying (unless you plan to get a data recovery
specialist to disassemble it in a clean room).

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Yes, they certainly do lock up. It's good to run them now and then.

I had a person never use an external backup drive, and it locked up.

I think I read that the lubricant congeals.

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