I've got a 250 GB HDD which is pretty old (2007). It now serves my DAW (Sonar X2) as the Audio and Sample drive.
 
Despite the fact that in the past it was my only drive (OS, Sonar, Audio, Samples, storage, etc everything on it) it was never filled more than 60 GB. So I guess it still has a physical area that is pretty "virgin".
 
I'm about to engage in a new recording project and (without having to buy a new HDD) I wanted to know if I can assure that the HDD will not fail or destroy data during the project.
 
Is this possible by getting the newly recorded wave files to be written on the less (or not at all) used area of the hard disk? What do I have to do to accomplish this? Partition? Let it fill with data past 60 GB?
 
I don't understand exactly how Hard Disks work so any info would be appreciated.

I don't think that using "virgin" areas is relevant to data loss due to HD failure.  I've had a mechanical failure on a HD that was relatively unused.  I noticed a strange sound and did some Google searches concerning odd sounds from hard drives.  Unfortunately, it was pretty much too late.  The HD failed the next time I booted up.  Luckily it was just a back up drive for odds and ends files that I used in a drive bay.
 
The good news is that months later, I accidentally loaded that drive in the bay and it came back to life.  I quickly copied and saved the contents that I needed before it stopped working again.

Well, you can right mouse click on "Computer" and pick menu item "Manage". There when the window comes up you can go to Disk Management. There you see all the Drives on your computer, and if you want to make another partition on a drive you can - Shrink Volume (of the logical drive) make a new Partition (which needs another Drive Letter then or the next one that can be used from A-Z) and then use that Logical Partition to use by putting that in Sonar whatever version in one of the menu items where you put in where to store the projects and such on your computer.
 
If you do not understand how this is done, Windows Help may offer a bit more to help you out, or a Search on the Internet about Shrinking Volumes on Hard Disk Drives.
??
I have done this, and it depends also on how big the Hard Drive is on the computer and if it can be Shrunk (Skrinked) or not according to Windows 7 and also probably other OS's if not using that one.
 
I guess that means that if 60gB is used and you shrink the entire drive to only that 60gB plus the area that has to be used for records (folders and such done by the OS) then the rest is free area once again and another drive letter can be used to access that rest of the area on a different logical drive letter in the future after all done.
 
As to a hard drive failing, they can maybe fail at any time, but the only drive I have had fail is the C:\ drive which contains the OS, because it is used more often. If the harddrive has not been used, and you test it by getting up the harddrive letter and testing it by Windows programs on the computer then I suppose it will not store data if something is bad with some sectors on the harddrive as long as you test it first after formatting the new logical drive partition.
That is still get up, right click on Computer and select Open which shows all your drives and selecting Properties by the right click menu item after highlighting one of the drives and looking for - Tools Tab option and then Check the Hard Disk (or logical drive letter partition).
 
And my C:\ drive with the OS only failed on one hard disk and the rest of the partitions (I use several) the data is still good, but the drive would not boot the computer to start because only the C:\ drive was bad. The rest I could copy over to a new harddrive when put in and the old one put back in as the slave or second hardrive, so the data could be copied to the new harddrive and even still used being that only one partition was bad in it after the Hard Disk failed. If the total hard disk fails, then having a second hard drive and storing a backup copy of the data on another partition or Disk is usually what is done to ensure that data is not lost.
Windows has a back-up program also, or you can buy one or get one free with a new harddrive (Seagate probably) so a backup can be made and all that jazz.
 
 
 
 
 

There really is no "virgin" area of a drive.  Windows tends to scatter
everything all over the place.  If you drive has S.M.A.R.T. information,
there are several utilities that can access what S.M.A.R.T. thinks of the
drives' condition.  But I would take that with a grain of salt.  According
to SMART by Compaq's laptop drive should have died about 6 years ago.  It
is still running fine.  I also have a 500G Seagate that has also lived
several years past it's SMART expiration date.  For the record, neither
drive holds critical data.  I may be arrogant, but not foolish.  I've got
a couple of drives that are over ten years old that still run fine and
have no errors.  I bought 4 Western Digital drives where three failed
within 3 years and I just threw the last one away.   So much for brand
loyalty.

If your data is critical you need two things.  RAID and a good backup
plan.  RAID has saved me more than once.  As has a good back up plan.  You
will need to store your critical data on tape, disk, or USB disk or even
better, a CD or DVD ROM.  I store my critical data on a DVD and put the DVD
in my safe deposit box.    What ever you store your data on, it needs to
away from your working computer.  That way if something happens to your
computer, you have your backup at a different location it is not damaged, as well.  Also
look at encrypting your data on the storage media.  I prefer TrueCrypt.

Most drive failures are catastrophic.  One minute the drive is running,
makes a funny nose and is dead.  I've had several die with no warning. S.M.A.R.T. on warned me on one of the 4 WD drives that failed, after it died.

-JJ

I think windows automatically uses unused drive space first unless you defrag. That's why the cops can go in and find all your "erased" naughty stuff even after months of use on a large drive. That info is still there. 
 
John

Correct.  In the old days I would fill the disk with copies of copies of copied autoexec.bat.  I think I just dated myself....
 
-JJ

First you can check the physical hard disk as described on another solution but I cant give you a link yet.
Then if you decide to go ahead with your recording project, you can backup the data so that in case you loose it you can recover it from the backup. If you do not have a place to store the backup you can try online backup services. With regard to partitioning you can easily search for a program online to help you partition your hard disk.

Hard drives are relatively inexpensive. A drive from 2007 should be pulled and used as a backup.
I have a shelf with a dozen of my old drives in static bags. 

Thank you all for your solutions!
 
I decided to go on with the old drive but regularly save my projects as bundle files an upload these to online storage.
 
I the meantime, I am very enthusiastic about finding out how you can have Firefox load all the cache directly into RAM, and NOT on the HDD. That reduces the usage a lot, since this drive is now the D drive without OS!! Had I only known this years ago...!

I have 12 g ram. I shut down the paging file just to see what happened and nothing has happened for a month. I forgot I did it. One thing happened... running some excel macro I wrote incorrectly ate all the memory and excel crashed... just disappeared.  But I started excel again and it asked if I wanted to re-open at the point I was when it crashed so even then nothing was lost. 
 
John