Two years ago I bought a new computer. One year later, the hard drive failed. So I bought a new hard drive, and here I am a year later with another failed hard drive. It worked fine until recently when it began to restart at random times for what seemed like no reason. Whenever I started my computer, the first screen to appear said "There is a problem with your hard drive, please consult your troubleshooting manual. Press enter to continue." Then the computer would start up normally and work as if there was nothing wrong. After one of the random crashes I checked the system event log, which said it was caused by a bad sector on the hard drive. I didn't look into exactly what that meant, I just thought reformatting would fix it, but it didn't. After the format, I could not get windows to install. Then I found a program that was supposed to fix bad sectors. I ran the program and it concluded that the drive was error free and had been restored to it's factory condition. However, when I restarted the computer I still had the same problem. So here's my question: does anyone have any advice on how to fix this problem, and if not which brand would you suggest for my next hard drive (preferrably one that won't become a piece of shit less than a month after the warranty ends)?
If you are gonna go with a new hard drive, these are the only 3 hard drives I would buy: 1. Seagate Barracuda 2. Maxtor Diamondmax 3. Western Digital Caviar I also hear the new Samsung drives are good.
I'm rockin' a Seagata Barracuda SATA drive and a Western Digital Caviar drive with no problems with either of them.
Both of my failed drives were Maxtor Diamondmax, so I'm done with those. I'll look into Seagate and Western Digital though. Thanks for the suggestions.
Maxtor should be no where in that list.They are known for failures. Teh Diamondmax 9 drives were the worst.. I ran a Samsung spinpoint for about 2 years and it was one of the best drives I have ever owned,quiet and error free for two years straight. I also ran a fujitsu 6 gig for about 5-6 years now in a second PC and it just started having problems.
Diamondmax 80 has been fine for the last year and the new WD Caviar I have as a slave works like a charm.
It might just be bad luck but to have 2 drives go in 2 years is unusual. You might want to start lookin for other causes. I would lay money that you have a cheap ass power supply in there that came with the case. A lack of power could definitly kill a harddrive slowly over time. Also you may want to check that yur ide cables are in good shape. Not over 18 inches long (especially if rounded) and have no visible nicks or cuts in them. Just a couple of ideas to keep in mind. Also most drives have a 1 to 3 yr warranty on them so you might want to contact the store you bought it from. They may refer you to the manufacturer but hey even if it takes a few weeks you'll have and extra drive in yuor hand when doen G.i.P
You're probably right about the power supply, it's just whatever came with the computer. I checked the ide cables and those seem to be fine. Also I checked the warranty info, it's just 1 year. I missed it by 6 weeks.
DO NOT buy MAxtor, u don't have idea of how many maxtor drives fail within the first year of use, I have to run the warranty of the computers I sell n the one's with HD problems r maxtor, so I don't sell maxtor anymore, Im telling u, buy a seagate or samsung, they're the best, I have a vast experience with hardware and if u buy a maxtor HD u go to hell
WD over here, had my 20 gig for 4 years now, and my 80 gig for 2 ... no problems what so ever!! Im purchasing another one in a few months
