[DanBC]

Disc drives are consumable items. They only last 5 years. They're so fragile we treat them as if they're going to fail at any time - we have multiple backups in many places.

We shouldn't be encouraging people to use them for as long as possible, we should be encouraging better recycling.

I agree about other electronics though - the constant upgrade cycle is very damaging to the environment.

[Gracana]

If your uptime doesn't matter and you keep good backups, I don't see why you shouldn't run it 'til it won't, and then recycle it. All my shit's more than 5 years old. Some of it is nearing 20. I guess there's an argument to me made about saving power with newer technology, but I don't want to spend the money to upgrade and I'm not sure which recycling companies recycle properly vs shipping everything out to be stripped down by children with hammers and coal fires.