A method is presented for using a hard disk drive which contains a non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM) and a computer-usable disk medium. A usage value is maintained for the number of accesses to the computer-usable disk medium, and the usage value is stored within the NVRAM. In a system that is connected to multiple hard disk drives, the usage values for the hard disk drives can be compared to determine a youngest disk drive or a lowest amount of usage amongst the multiple hard disk drives. When data needs to be mirrored or backed-up to one of the hard disk drives, it can be copied to the youngest or least-used hard disk drive. If an operating system installation needs to be performed, the operating system files can be stored on the youngest or least-used hard disk drive.