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Author Topic: Hard drive selection  (Read 4645 times)

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zinger

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    Hard drive selection
    « on: May 01, 2018, 05:46:10 PM »
    I finally pulled the hard drive out after it had failed and found mixed reviews on it. I wasn't wanting to spend very much money but wanted to get as much bang for the buck, The one I took out was a ST1500DM003 Seagate Barracuda Green Hard Drive ST1500DM003 which costs $165. It failed after 6 years. I think that's too much to spend on a computer that has 6 years wear on the other parts and was thinking about going to a $44 WD Blue 1TB SATA 6 Gb/s 7200 RPM 64MB Cache 3.5 Inch Desktop Hard Drive (WD10EZEX). What are your thoughts on this, any other suggestions? The Sad part is, I bought another HP computer that probably has a Seagate in it. I still haven't opened it yet BTW.

    patio

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    Re: Hard drive selection
    « Reply #1 on: May 01, 2018, 06:37:56 PM »
    Why not just wipe the Seagate and use it ? ?...or are you using the other PC.
    That being stated the WD Blue line is pretty solid...

    Long as it's not used.
    " Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist should have his head examined. "

    zinger

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      Re: Hard drive selection
      « Reply #2 on: May 01, 2018, 07:54:58 PM »
      I can't access it to wipe it, besides that it failed or to be more precise, it was in imminent danger of failing. I tried going into safe mode to gather some files but had no success. I have 3 computers right now, one in the box, one with the hard drive removed and the one I'm posting with. The one with the hard drive removed is to be used again by my wife ... if possible. It was a much faster computer than this one. Thanks for the approval of the WD drive, it makes more sense to get it over the other and it's not a used one either.

      patio

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      Re: Hard drive selection
      « Reply #3 on: May 01, 2018, 08:07:30 PM »
      I think you misunderstood...i meant the 2nd Seagate...it sounded like that PC was not in use.

      BTW the Black edition WD's are the better ones if it's in your budget...but i've never had issues with the Blue's.
      " Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist should have his head examined. "

      BC_Programmer


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      Re: Hard drive selection
      « Reply #4 on: May 01, 2018, 08:08:50 PM »
      With Hard Drives it seems like people either have luck with one brand or another. Some people have sworn off WD drives for constant failures, others Seagate. I've been leaning towards the latter, personally- Seagate has had some issues with their drives over the last decade or so. A few models really skew their failure rates, including the one you mentioned. Just speaking for myself, I had a 1.5TB which failed after about a year; I replaced that with a WD Red which has worked for over 4 years, and later got a 3TB Seagate ST3000DM001 for more storage- which started to show signs of failure after 6 months (disappearing from Windows, very poor performance, etc. I moved it to another infrequently used computer and it pretty much failed last weekend. In the meantime, none of the WD Drives I've bought have failed, which includes two WD Blues, a WD Black, and a WD Red.

      If you are concerned about the other system with the Seagate drive, you can determine the model number and see if it is one of the models with a relatively high failure rate. I w ouldn't expect laptops or premanufactured systems to still be using the problematic models, but you can never be too sure I suppose.

      I was trying to dereference Null Pointers before it was cool.

      DaveLembke



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      Re: Hard drive selection
      « Reply #5 on: May 01, 2018, 08:35:17 PM »
      I have had many systems with many brand drives. Only brand that I ever had a high failure rate with was Maxtor which is no longer around. Seagate bought them out as well as for a short while placed a 5 year warranty on Maxtor drives that originally only had a 2 or 3 year warranty, so I was able to send a 500GB failed Maxtor drive to Seagate after Seagate bout out Maxtor and they shipped me a new 500GB Seagate drive. I had a 120GB Hard Drive fail 10 years ago and Seagate sent me back a 160GB drive replacement because they didnt have another 120GB to ship to me, which was a sweet 40GB upgrade for free.

      For western digital, only issues I had with their product was an external hard drive that had a LCD display that displayed how much free space was left on it. I paid an extra $20 to buy this model that had that feature and well that feature died on the external. Western Digital was willing to give me a warranty replacement BUT I didnt have a drive big enough to move my data over to ship this drive back, so I decided to take the loss in no longer having the LCD display feature. Later the external drive no longer worked and it was the PCB USB to SATA controller that died. Opened the external and installed that drive as an internal drive and that drive still works. Whoever made their external enclosure electronics made a bad one, but their drive had no problems.

      Seagate and Western Digital make good drives and have good warranties. They occasionally have one model better or worse than others but just look at reviews first before buying into specific model drives and you should be able to avoid buying a troublesome drive.


      zinger

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        Re: Hard drive selection
        « Reply #6 on: May 01, 2018, 09:55:51 PM »
        Thanks to all for the good info. I had typed out a heck of a response to all three of you but by the time I got around to posting it, I had timed out (bummer). Anyway, I always check reviews, will check the computer in the box for the reliability of its drive and will more than likely order a WD drive for the one that failed.

        Geek-9pm


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        Re: Hard drive selection
        « Reply #7 on: May 01, 2018, 11:03:50 PM »
        It is not clear why the OP can not just install the OS over again.
        When Windows installs on a Hard Drive, it gives you the option to format all or part of the drive. One 'trick' you o may try with an old PC and an old HDD is to just use part of the drive for the system. With 'lick' you might avoid parts of the disc that have errors. This may extend the useful live of a failing old  drive by two years or more.Of course, you would not do this with  anything that is doing very important work. It only costs you your time.
        With the old drive technology you  can have up to four primary partitions, each can have an operating system. Do you  can have 'spare' installations.
        My point is that you can still have fun with an old PC and a old hard drive.  ;D

        zinger

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          Re: Hard drive selection
          « Reply #8 on: May 01, 2018, 11:37:24 PM »
          Well Geek-9pm, you may have something there. I have a recovery disc but don't know if that would work. I was told something similar before by a person I met that runs a business out of their home but to me, the hard drive is trying to or will fail mechanically. The reason I say that is I've started the computer before (several times to be exact) and while it's booting up go get a cup of coffee. Upon returning, the computer is still off which puzzled me because I knew I had heard the hard drive start up and saw the power light come on. I know partitioning a computer is best but never have dabbled in that area.

          BC_Programmer


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          Re: Hard drive selection
          « Reply #9 on: May 02, 2018, 12:32:10 AM »
          Unfortunately while it can work in some situations- I did so successfully with a Laptop hard drive before, allowing me to continue to use the drive- it only works when the failure is related to physical damage or mechanical problems involving certain areas of the disk.

          However, as I understand them, the issues with the ST1500DM003 are related to a firmware issue whereby a bug results in the drive getting stuck in a "BUSY" state which persists between boots, so I'm doubtful that partitioning the drive will matter.

          Besides- Often with those sorts of failures- and at least with all my failed Seagate drives- they refuse to properly identify in the BIOS to begin with anyway.
          I was trying to dereference Null Pointers before it was cool.

          Geek-9pm


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          Re: Hard drive selection
          « Reply #10 on: May 02, 2018, 12:34:33 AM »
          zinger,
          Was I correct  when I assumed that the computer does not have valuable data?
          If that is the case, you might find a person among you family or friends who likes to tinker with old computers.
          The install CD for Windows 2000 and Windows XP let you alter the number ans size of partitions.  This can help sidestep some problems with hard drives. I presume you want to use an older operating system. Does this old system have a sticker on it that identifies the operating system?

          zinger

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            Re: Hard drive selection
            « Reply #11 on: May 02, 2018, 08:01:51 AM »
            Wow, you guys have thrown me some curves. Obviously, you guys know quite a bit more about computers than me but list yourselves as beginners (except for Mastermind). When I first got into computers I tried to learn as much as I could but only up to a point. I can't tear apart a carburetor and put it back together unless it's a vintage Holley but know how they work (used to). I hope that statement wasn't too vague. Obviously, things have changed in computers and carburetors over the years and some have kept up and some like me have lost what little knowledge they've had.

            OK, back on topic. I came on here because I was getting this imminent hard drive failure alarm as was wondering if I could get past the alarm/error page to gather some files that I'd rather not lose but not something that would shatter my world if I couldn't. I used to back up everything to flash drives but kind of got out of the habit and am now paying for it (never again). I now depend on folks like you guys to get advice from but don't ask me to rebuild the computer, I had to watch a video twice in order to get that hard drive out I've been talking about. The advice I've been getting has been very good but some a bit past my skill level. I've been through XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 and am dreading having to use 10. I'm not for sure if I can even find the information on this new computer's hard drive to check it's success/failure history.


            zinger

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              Re: Hard drive selection
              « Reply #12 on: May 02, 2018, 08:09:25 AM »
              BTW, this is what I bought.

              HP Pavilion 570-p026 Desktop (Intel Core i5, 1TB HDD, 12GB RAM, Windows 10, Intel HD 630 Graphics)

              patio

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              Re: Hard drive selection
              « Reply #13 on: May 02, 2018, 08:15:55 AM »
              One other fun thing to do with dead HDD's is searching out and replacing the controller...my success rate is 3 out of 20 i think... 8)
              " Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist should have his head examined. "

              zinger

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                Re: Hard drive selection
                « Reply #14 on: May 04, 2018, 12:56:07 PM »
                One other fun thing to do with dead HDD's is searching out and replacing the controller...my success rate is 3 out of 20 i think... 8)
                I'm sure there are videos on that but I think I would just as soon get another HD. I do BTW have an old XP CD from my first computer and could use it but I don't think it would be as much fun on this computer as the other one and with no support or updates either. I think it's been abandoned hasn't it? My wife wants me to not refurbish this one so to speak and just keep on using her doggy ex-business computer. I've tried to clean it up without buying one of those "James Dandy" speed up softwares but am not having much luck. I found out though that if you start it up and leave it for 5 minutes it does fairly well. I'm planning on posting another topic on it because I want to add some more ram to it. BTW, I'm on the new computer today and have several questions to ask everyone. My brain has gone foggy on me recently and am sure that some of my questions will come off seeming pretty dumb. What the hey, I've got thick skin.

                patio

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                Re: Hard drive selection
                « Reply #15 on: May 04, 2018, 01:00:58 PM »
                If the XP CD is a Windows CD you can certainly use it...if it's branded such as HP/Dell etc you cannot...
                " Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist should have his head examined. "

                zinger

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                  Re: Hard drive selection
                  « Reply #16 on: May 04, 2018, 02:04:35 PM »
                  If the XP CD is a Windows CD you can certainly use it...if it's branded such as HP/Dell etc you cannot...
                  It is a Windows CD, just looked at it.

                  patio

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                  Re: Hard drive selection
                  « Reply #17 on: May 04, 2018, 02:10:45 PM »
                  Then you can do a wipe and clean install...

                  But i wouldn't waste my time on the current HDD...
                  " Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist should have his head examined. "

                  zinger

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                    Re: Hard drive selection
                    « Reply #18 on: May 04, 2018, 03:51:25 PM »
                    Then you can do a wipe and clean install...

                    But i wouldn't waste my time on the current HDD...
                    OK, why would I want to do a clean install with XP when I have a recovery disk with Windows 8 that I can put on a new HDD? Won't a recovery disk place the basics on a new HDD?

                    patio

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                    Re: Hard drive selection
                    « Reply #19 on: May 04, 2018, 06:31:47 PM »
                    Yes...you asked about XP...i answered.
                    " Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist should have his head examined. "

                    zinger

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                      Re: Hard drive selection
                      « Reply #20 on: May 04, 2018, 08:56:15 PM »
                      Yes...you asked about XP...i answered.
                      Oh, OK. I hadn't realized that with all of the responses, sorry.

                      BC_Programmer


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                      Re: Hard drive selection
                      « Reply #21 on: May 04, 2018, 09:22:53 PM »
                      OK, why would I want to do a clean install with XP when I have a recovery disk with Windows 8 that I can put on a new HDD? Won't a recovery disk place the basics on a new HDD?

                      Recovery discs are manufacturer and model specific; You would need a recovery disc for that specific model.

                      Furthermore, at least in my own experience, the preinstalled environment that manufacturers provide is atrocious. They typically bundle a bunch of crapware and trial software that nobody needs. In cases where I've dealt with such a colnfigured system I've always opted to just clean install Windows, even if it was the same version, and I got a much smoother experience.
                      I was trying to dereference Null Pointers before it was cool.

                      zinger

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                        Re: Hard drive selection
                        « Reply #22 on: May 04, 2018, 10:04:53 PM »
                        I think I know what you mean but that's about my only option besides placing XP on a new HDD. As far as a model goes, what difference would it make using a clean HDD that matches the specs of the one that came out of it vs the one that was in it. Mind you now, I made the recovery disk myself. If it doesn't work right for some reason then I would try and get one from the manufacturer or install XP. Maybe I'm nor using the right wording. This disk I made that has a certain procedure to use backs up the basic essentials. I'm not saying it doesn't put some crap on there you don't need but that can be uninstalled and things that a person does need can be placed on it, Office for example.