"Powell" said:

Certainly empirical experiences have more weight than
applied modeling. Do you have evidence that HDs, in
general, don’t last five years. My experience is that most
of the computers headed for the recycle still have fully
operating HDs and users who a glad to see them go
away.

I still have an old 486/100 from 1994 or so with 800 MB HD, in
perfect working order.
It's in my workshop where I use it for measuring and plotting
frequency and distortion curves etc.
Gets used a few hours per week, no problem at all.

--
Sander deWaal
"SOA of a KT88? Sufficient."