I think my hard drive is on its last days. What kind do y'all recommend?

[Catshrink]

Maxtor? WD? Store brand?

I run WinXP and when I boot it up, I get a blue "gotta check your disk" screen.

Wednesday it couldn't load my profile because it is "corrupted." I figured out how to make a new one and transfer the files last night. But this has me worried. I'd rather replace the sucker than have it crash.

Fry's Electronics has a 60GB Maxtor for $50. Sounds like a good deal.

[GOPisEvil]

1. I've had good luck with Maxtor in the past.

That's a good price.

[Tempest]

18. Maxtor is by far the best drive out there

I only buy Maxtor for my own computers, and computers I build for others.

[Deja Q]

2. Western Digital's been good to me.

Maxtor is crud. Seagate is good...

Sams Club has a 160GB Western Digital NEW hard drive (7200RPM, 8MB cache ATA100 interface) for $79. The 2560GB model is $129, however after formatting and all, the net per-GB cost is cheaper for the 160GB model.

Yeah, I know the name I said. But as Boca brand soy products and most computer brands rip off customers blind everywhere else...

[trotsky]

3. I will concur with your Maxtor verdict.

The only drives I've had fail in a home system have been Maxtors. I avoid them like the plague.

[Deja Q]

8. They will all eventually fail. However, Maxtors tend to be worse...

And while some Linux unthusiasts avoid Western Digital like the plague, I've hadn't had any unusual problems with them.

[Catshrink]

12. Not IF, but WHEN, eh?

I had another Maxtor fail a couple years ago. Guess I should be leary of them.

[ET Awful]

21. I have 2 Maxtor 60 GB drives that have been running in a PC that

is on 24/7 for about 4 years. Never had a Maxtor die.

The only drives I've ever had die were IBM (Deskstar drives, and very widely known in the enthusiast communinty as "Deathstar" drives for their notorious failure rate), and Western Digitals (which shipped in many Dell machines I have at work and 5 out of 25 or so machines have had to have the drives replaced).

[Tempest]

22. Maxtor drives are the most reliable, by far

Every single PC related publication consistently rates Maxtor drives #1.

I've installed thousands of Maxtor drives and have not had ONE SINGLE failure.


I can't say that about Western Digital drives. My failure rate with them is around 25%.

[ET Awful]

23. Agreed, see my post above :) n/t

[Tempest]

26. I agree with you on the IBM "Deathstars"

They were great drives at first, but the failure rate started piling up.

It's a shame too because Deathstars were the only reasonably priced 10,000 RPM drives available.

[Tempest]

20. W.D. drives SUCK!

I've returned more bad W.D. drives than I've installed successfully.

At one point, W.D. recalled millions of drives because of quality control problems.


Maxtor is by far the best drives out there.

[Pale_Rider]

4. Seagate ...

... since it has a 5 year warranty. What do you have in there now?

[Catshrink]

7. I've got a 2 1/2 year old Maxtor

which makes me think twice about another one. I also think I'll stay away from the CompUSA brand.

[guitar man]

5. Seagate

7200 rpm if you are planning on doing any A/V stuff. Western Digital is good too. Maxtor sux.

[Deja Q]

10. 7200RPM for anything A/V related, I second that!

(I do it all the time.)

[guitar man]

16. the next machine I build

I'm going Serial ATA.

[Tempest]

27. Many new motherboards come with SCSI raid buses

SCSI drives are still the best (although more expensive) way to go.

Especially for creating redundant or stripping platforms.

[meegbear]

6. SWITCH TO A MAC!

Sorry, it's not a real computer conversation unless somebody posts that.

Maxtor and WD are both good and since drives usually cost a buck a Gig, that is a good price.

[Deja Q]

9. $80 H.D. vs $900 computer that's probably slower than his current one?!

:eyes:

Not to forget the cost of all new application$, as Apple or nobody else will offer an incentive to switch.

Sigh. It's a funny ol' world.

Oh, wait, you were kidding. Sorry about that! I tend to get involved...

[meegbear]

11. No problemo big guy

[Brundle_Fly]

13. yeah I concur with the

7200 prm evaluation.

playing mp3's on a 5400 can lead to skipping and stuttering if you are doing even simple tasks as well as playing music.

I like Seagate, we had 2 of 5 maxtor drives go bad in the last year. that is too high a percentage for me to go for them again.

[pscot]

14. Taking this a step further

Is there a simple and direct way to transfer the entire content of ones old hard drive to the new one? Enquiring minds, etc.

[tomreedtoon]

15. Most drives come with transfer program...plus a tip.

Maxtor and WD have a setup disk that allows you to transfer stuff from an old drive to a new one - assuming the files are still intact on the old drive. It's on the little floppy that comes with the drive. You basically hook a second drive cable up to your computer (or disconnect your CD or DVD drive and hook a drive in its place temporarily) and transfer that way.

Now, the tip. Most drives fail because they get TOO HOT. Besides cooling the CPU with the heat sink, put a fan on top of the drive (they have slim fans that go on top of drives) AND put fans in the cases.

If you don't mind the noise, you can even get a 110-volt "muffin fan" from an electronic store, cut a big hole in the side of the computer case and blow a LOT of air into the case. (Add a screen or filter to keep dust out.) Keep it COOL.

[Tempest]

28. If all data, xcopy32. If operating system, Symantic Ghost

You can hook up both drives and either copy the data, or in the case of copying the operating system, use a product like Ghost.

Ghost is the best investment you can make if you play around with software and settings. If something goes wrong, you just restore your OS to the original.

[Catshrink]

17. Now what kind?

I looked on CompUSA's website to get an idea. What the heck difference does ATA, SATA, EIDE make? I understand the 7200 business, even though I don't do much with graphics.

[Rosco T.]

19. Western Digital or Hitachi - avoid Maxtor like the plague..

in the past 5 years, I've had 4 Maxtors go belly up. I've got some WD's in the systems that have been runn 7/24 for over 3 years...

[Tempest]

24. Maxtor drives are the most reliable

And out of the thousands I've installed, I have yet to have one fail.

I have an old pentium system with an three 8 year old Maxtor drives which runs 24/7 and not one single problem.


W.D., on the other hand, has had at least two recalls for quality control problems. And my failure rate with them is around 25%.

[Sgent]

25. All...

All drives are EIDE or SCSI. You don't want SCSI (a server/workstation technology).

For your purposes, any ATA drive is fine. SATA is a technology to use multiple drives simultaneously, and has some nice aspects for servers, but unless your going to run a RAID 1 array with your home computer (not a bad idea btw), then it has no real benefit.

[Bozita]

29. keep your eye on Dealmac to catch the best prices

www.dealmac.com

They have readers who scour the ads. Take a look.

I've been using Dealmac for 5-6 years now. The best buyer site going.

[TXlib]

30. Get a RAID controller

I got the Adaptec RAID controller, and a spare HD. It's configured in RAID 1 (Redundant drive).

Do it soon, and mirror the failing drive.

Then, when that drive fails, just swap it out for a new drive, and the backup is mirrored onto it!