myself facing the same problem also ... not only *ahem* movie la, some of the movie i buy at video shop also can read. it say that format not supported wor~
but not really all the CD i cant read, jus some....
what to do ???

i read thru the whole thread. had forgotten wat i actually want to say. but PC was designed to be operated 24/7. so leave the pc on. unless u don't trust TNB at ur area. off ur crt monitor... err just to save electric.

From my experience, on the side is OK. Some of those branded PCs and some clone PCs have the hard disks mounted on their side. There are other stranger designs that have the hard disk below, beside and above the PSU (I think you can guess which brands)

But running it upside down will cause it to fail very fast.

I definitely don't trust TNB anyway my PC is off most of the time unless I'm using it or waiting for download.

USB to IDE cable only ? or is it those external boxes which have a USB cable ?

This post has been edited by lex: Feb 13 2006, 11:52 AM

i think u shouldnt knock a hdd when it's reading or writing.. pretty obvious stuff coz of it's head is pretty close to disk. that's why current notebook got G-protection or something. but i think in no power condition it can stand up to 250G shock.

so DONT knock it when it's spinning no matter how slow they are

I have experienced one stubborn hard disk that made clack clack sounds. I gave it a few knocks and it restarted. I quickly backed up the data on it

let me guess......it was a Maxtor FIREBALL? i'm using one of them

This post has been edited by lex: Feb 13 2006, 11:54 AM

hmm good tips bro...thanks for the advice... good one.. scary 2..

i see all of u guys using WD HDD.how about Seagate?is it good as WD?

dunno about WD,seagate quite good,been using it for about like.....since the pc fair?

IMHO, both are in the "okay" quality.

i am using seagate barracuda sata 200 & 80 gig... both rosak in less then 5 months use... i sent to RMA... got back.. hope problem don't come back again... wonder what was the problem?

guys i have a question.

i have an 80g wd that i can't access, it's my main hdd for xp and swap files. if i use stand alone, it would crap out at the welcome screen, show BSOD then restart, everytime. if i use another hdd for xp and boot up from that hdd, it would still BSOD and restart.

i got quite a lot of stuff in there especially in my doc folder didn't manage to do backup, only a couple of months ago. any way to recover the data????

thanks for the help

erm, any help guys???

This post has been edited by lex: Feb 13 2006, 11:46 AM

r u sure? i using some upsided-down hdd for quite sometimes and it has nothing happen yet .....

This post has been edited by lex: Feb 13 2006, 11:47 AM

My Seagate 80Gb just died after 8 months, while the 20GB barracuda is behaving funny. Sometimes working and sometimes not.

No more Seagates for me.

Anyone know of any seagate hd recovery service?

Sounds like your partition table, bro. Haven't encountered it before. Maybe you could use linux and try to retrieve your files? Some of them, anyways. Keep ya fingers crossed.

This post has been edited by lex: Feb 13 2006, 11:47 AM

personal experiences.

heat is most common killer. when you leave your hard disk running non stop or lousy cooling. the life span is shorten. i don't trust HDD cooler. reason is they blow air from beneath the hard disk. so in the case where you have another which happens to be under it. the heat dissipate from the hard disk below is blown to the other hard disk. so not efficient. 2nd hard disk coolers are easy to get clogg with dust. this result in reduction of fan efficiency and not to mention cooling as your PCB board in the hard disk is also layered with dust. some HDD cooler fan will generate heat if the fan is clog. yes.. experienced b4. seems that the bearing/ sleeve of the fan got jam and the rotation isn't smooth.

i cool all my hard disk in a perpendicular position. means fill all the hard disk in the rack. then blow it from the side. ofcourse a high pressure fan is required. in my case i choose nidec beta V triblade 120mm. just place it on the side. it'll mount perfectly. air is blown along the board the the heat is extracted out to the other side. this method also reduces dust. compared with a hard disk cooler la. the coolest temp i encounter was 21 degrees stable and 36 degrees max for wd la. cause you all know WD hard disk are hot.

statics also kills faster.. so clean your hard disk out of dust reach.

Full load on hard disk also posses threat to the hard disk. my personal experience and my friends was. we had a large community LAN. some of the ppl who does Fserv suffers HD live span shortage. reason was the Fserv was run at a long period 24/7. our transfer rate average was like 2mb and max 5 mb per client in LAN. the services is non stop. so the hard disk is working all the time.. reading and writing. this result in wear and tear. some suffers data corruption in 6 months. some even worse. cannot even detect boot or format. conclusion is, 24/7 running doesn't prolong the hard disk. its how its been used. all hard disk can be run 24/7. the hard disk inmy pc have been running 24/7 most off the time for the pass few years. just that i don't over load it with too much work.

regarding the rounded cables and old ide cables. i can also confirm its true. it all depends on luck whether you get a fault free cables or not.

dropping a hard disk while its on or write will also cause it to fault easily. don't really know the terms but some called it head crash.

i had a friend who short circuited his hard disk. dunno.. i think he sleeved his psu then sambung the molex back in a incorrect port hole. cause you know la.. got 2 cables in black. confusing.

i just burnt my quantum last week. cabut then pasang on another pc which i bought a new psu. the freaking psu supplies improper power. result in burnt HD. damn.

opening hard disk will also kill
place it in a freezer will also kill ( saw someone post it just now)


i noticed that some of you said that the hard disk is magnetic shielded. so. that means magnets from out side will not intefere with the hard disk? also i saw saome thread stating that positioning the hard disk on an opposite direction will counter some magnetic movement and thus increase life span of hard disk. its like so long ago la. dunno urban legend or not

This post has been edited by lex: Feb 13 2006, 11:51 AM

vervain, interesting post you have there. I have been experiencing a lot of crashes with the large sized Hdds.

Currently using WDD 160Gb and I leave my comp on almost 16 hours a day with no air-con but about 4 fans everywhere. Perhaps my ventilation wasn't done properly.

Anyway, the hard disc failed last nite after my power saver kicked in and I wasn't able to get out of the power saver. I reset the thing and the hard disc started to make ticking noises. I turned it off and only turned it back on after 15 minutes and it started working normally.

Is this a problem or something? My last Maxtor 160Gb (apparently this has a bad rep) crashed spectacularly when it was left on for 72hours straight. Record time crashing.

Why are these large hdd's so sensitive? Is there some sort of special care I should be taking care of?

Can you show a picture of this hdd cooler you have fabricated? I am very worried my WD will fail me soon.

i also have the same problem with maxtor's 160GB HDD...my last unit lasted me only 8 months...that time i dun have internet connection so my com is on for about 8 hours per day only...mainly for LAN gaming and movie...i never plug the HDD out, never strip it naked, had a voltage regulator and a table fan blowing into my com to keep it cool...wonder what went wrong? anyone here know what's the reason for my HDD to break down?

i had 4 partition and the 1st three partition had problems (can't do back-up wat so ever) and that alone made me lose my 2 years worth of work and portfolio...and the last one had problem accessing it...

went and claimed the warranty and still using that model...but this time with a WD 80GB HDD as back up...from now on, i'll avoid maxtor at all cost...

btw, do i have to change a new PSU if i were to put in a few more HDD into my system? i'm currently using a 450watts PSU...with 2 HDD..

izso
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no worries, just let the hard disk cool then on it back. WD will cease function when its hot. just to protect from breaking down. niffty which only WD has it from what i know la.

Large volumes or hard disk are easily spoilt. thats why its recommended to get a small hard disk to work on the main OS. And large drives for storage only.

personally it doesn't matter on how long you run the HD as i've explain. its basically base on luck on care taken on the hard disk. Luck is invitable. i have friends who experience other brand or hard disk failure. WD no doubt ranks the best in least breakdown due to the complexity of the hard disk design. Maxtor? well i saw alot of bad reviews. but personally i think its delicate compared to WD.

your ticking sound is just the hard disk reading and writing. sometimes its a sign that the hard disk is gonna die soon. happened to me once b4 i got my ups and occured a black out. but now.its silent.. thank god. haha.

as i mention, large hard disk requires alot of disk or tiny heads to makeout all the data on the disk. slight disturbance such as shock or dust will easily damage your hard disk. Heat is another major concern which i've detailed it previously.

there is no special fabrication done actually. just house the fan in between the hard disk and the side. basically my casing is open all the time. so cool air is easily circulated through the casing.( air coming from the left of the casing. throught the sandwich of hard disk and out the other side.) of course you have to bear with all the dust la. but frequent cleaning will make your pc in tip top condition. ( i haven clean the dust from the hard disk. cause lazy wanna unscrew everything out. just cleaned the fan)

asura
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you're running it as an OS hard disk. summore with so much load under 1 hard disk no wonder it'll break down. give you one simple example. the head of the hard disk need to handle the OS, load the player, play the movie files.load your games etc. so much work ofcourse it'll pengsan. hehe.

for your case where you cannot do backup, i suggest you run the hard disk under spinrite for a couple of days. see how many datas you can recover. a friend of mine who somehow broke his 320 gig hard disk containing all his valueble anime was recovered. well not entirely la. just i think 5-15 % of it for 1 week nonstop recovering. still the hard disk was in good shape. just broke down once but didn't want to rma. (he doesn't like to wait for RMA unless its his last option).

about the fan blowing into the casing is like a cheap option into cooling your CPU. for hard disk i don't think its significant. you need a direct blow of fan which can generate enuff pressure to push air inbetween those tiny spots. no doubt big fans generate large amount of CFM but their pressure is kinda low.( unless it spins very very fast).

regarding power. its best to opt for true power. but if you're using normal psu you can generate the number of wattage each pc parts consume.( don't have the link, think someone in lyn has the link posted). then you will need to make sure that your total power consume doesn't exceed 69% of 450 w since its not true power but peak power. Sympton of lack power? pc unstable and reboots. worse case. the psu blows and some pc parts might get faulty. if you want to check. there is a quick way. just feel the air coming out of the PSU. if its hot till the extend of hair dryer's air? you'll need to start worry.

For me, i'll stick with 2 psu la. cause not so straining compared to one PSU. summore cheaper.

p.s will take the pic next time la. The digicam is with my sis

This post has been edited by lex: Feb 13 2006, 11:50 AM

yeap...true...i owes use damp cloth 2 clean it n let it dry after a few hours...it works alrite....

Vervain....good job on providing d info....

ehmmm...i hv a problem....my hard disk is always >40 degrees...vr hot ar...how ar? i dun tink i can add anymore fan in2 my pc...overall i tink i got 3 fans(countin d power supply)...im reli noob on pc...hope 2 get sum help....wat shud i do? btw, im using maxtor 160gb....

This post has been edited by lex: Feb 13 2006, 11:49 AM