So I went diving this weekend and after I was done I took my tank in to get it filled and the shop wouldn't do it. I'm frustrated and annoyed by this, but come to find out my hydro was up.
So what's a hydro? There's two ways to test scuba tanks. One is a visual instruction which happens every year. It's no big deal you're quickly in and out. Every five years you have to have a hydro which is the proper way to test a tank to make sure it doesn't blow up on you 70 feet under water.
So although I was annoyed, its out of hydro and I had completely forgotten. This is why they have the rules right?
It's funny, this reminds me of hard drives because I've seen so many people over the years hit that four to five year mark and hard drives start failing. It's frustrating, but there's no laws that say 'hey after 5 years, no more data' that just doesn't exist, so we have to be aware of these things.
There's something about human nature that always makes us feel like those things we should check are more recent than they really are. I would have definitely told you I got my hydro 2-3 years ago.
Check out this article from Backblaze, they've done a really good job over the years of keeping track of hard drive failure rates. So if your drives are hitting that 4 - 5 year mark, start making sure to take care of those and start swapping them out.