I've spent some years around an odd assortment of mechanisms. But not an expert on the exact "aging points" of quiescent HDs. There aren't many big electrolytic capacitors in there, just a few small - and maybe a few Tantalum teardrops still. The prolly pretty fancy lubricants are within a filtered clean environment.

Given experience with old and new test eq., electronics - my guess is that it would be well to fire up such a HD periodically, annually anyway; more often if EZ and you're paranoid. This would redistribute the motor, bearing lube and reform caps. Against this is: most failures occur on start-up/shutdown. But leaving it years? not good I think.

I always use SpinRite on any new HD before trusting it; it's easy, thorough and - you get a free fresh rewrite of the magnetic domains for every bit = including the lo-level format. I've never investigated the physics of the effects of earth magnetic field (with numbers) vs. the B/H curve of the latest crop of coatings; so it's only hearsay for me that - over time this phenom aids in the 'bleeding' of the local N-S poles, blurring that difference which the read-head must discern. (Worse for certain bit patterns)

Running SR each year or so - would certainly give the heads a flying workout.. Gets it up to equilibrium temp = good. If no SR? Hell just defrag instead, tho it won't need it. I'd keep it in a zip-plastic bag, maybe with a small desiccant pouch, just for the hell of it. Dunno what kinda fungi dwell in the wilds of Oz but - I saw Walkabout! :=\ufffd

Anyway the price is right - we're accustomed to thinking that a random access device is er overkill for such purpose. It seems that Moore's Law has made it so cheap we can forget that one (!) HD certainly appeals to my own keen sense of laziness about massaging such stuff.


HTH,

Ashton