when it show the smart error message to you,
you still use for 1 or 3 day...
after that it will totaly unable to use/detect!!!

if i using the mobile rack ler?

That's one of the reasons I have (lots of) external USB drives ready. To BACKUP QUICKLY whenever one of the HDDs having SMART failure, showing weird symptoms or having problems. I can always burn the data to DVDRs and/or CDRs later (for permanent backup).

Reason? Burning hundred GBs of data to DVDRs and/or CDRs takes lots of time. Always have a good backup plan handy.

Regards.

still backup to media is better.

Backup to media like CDR and/or DVDR takes long time, in particular if having hundreds of GBs would take from hours to days. When the drive is starting to exhibit problems, recommended to copy the data off that drive quickly because it may fail anytime soon. In this case, redundancy is essential to avoid sudden data loss. Once there is redundancy, you can take your own sweet time to completely backup and/or burn to CDR and/or DVDR.

This post has been edited by lex: Jan 20 2006, 05:49 PM

hehe,just bought pata 160gb seagate 7200.9...the old 40gb become backup hdd n storing mp3s...

this hdd is single platter rite?

my Q is,should i enable smart in bios for this new hdd coz my old hdd i disable the option...and,whats the pros enabling it??

This post has been edited by mfa333: Jan 21 2006, 12:36 AM

yo guys, just wanted to ask how can we check the specification of a harddisk?
say i would like to know the rpm, cache size without opening the hdd?
is there a software htat can handle this?

i think on top of ur hdd (the sticker) got the spec on it!

Just my 2cents ...

My first hard disk is a Seagate Medallist 500mb IDE HDD which was made in Singapore ...... it was used in my 80386 pc. However the amazing thing is that the hard disk still works after all these years ..... i still use it for transporting my documents and small files... and as you can see i do not treat it with any special care.... that says a lot about Seagate quality. (i know its size is smaller than a CD but somehow i'm in love with the sound it makes when data is being written on it .... the same sound all old hard disks make. lol.)

Currently i have two rigs ..... the main one in my campus PC1 (the one in my sig) and a backup pc at home PC2.

In PC1 as you can see i use 2 WD SATA HDD. The 120 GB is older and it has served me for 4 years with no problems whatsoever. I am pleased with its durability and that influenced me to get a WD 160 GB SATA HDD, 1 year later. My WD 160 has 4 partitions of that one is for my OS. The other three partitions are for other programs and data. I use the WD 120 for songs and data backup. My computer is on for about 12 hours per day ... and as of yet i have not detected any problems nor have i experienced any data loss. I also format my disks regularly about once in 2 months ... and defrag once in 2 weeks (this is because i have a lot of data traffic. Although i use a virus scanner.... i dont want to take any chances.) If it means anything, I use a ThermalTake 410watts PSU for this rig.

For PC2, i have two IDE Maxtor Fireballs a 40GB and a 20GB ........ basically i've had problems with the Maxtor 40GB whereby it had a faulty firmware and had to send it back for warranty .... it took me about 3-4 months to get it back from the shop. The 20GB so far has no problems but it is extremely noisy .... the motor i guess (i'm crossing my fingers as to when it will crash). The 20GB is about 5 years old and the 40GB is about 3++ years (due to warranty claims.) I'm using an ICute PSU for this rig.

I also have a Bigfoot Series 4GB Quantum HDD which is also old (i took it from my AMD K6-2 based rig) ........ in working condition but with some bad sectors. I dont use it but keep it for old time sake.

In conclusion i have no qualms using WD HDD as i have no probems with them. Maxtor HDD is a big no no. (hopefully Seagate will inject some sense into Maxtor). Seagate is good but i may be wrong cause i have not used their HDD in a long time.

Regarding Hitachi, Fujitsu and Samsung i really can't say as i have no experience using them.

i have a friend who previously worked in western d told me that seagate and western d is actually from hitachi.... i dunno what parts are from hitachi but hitachi produces the "core" or base(watever) b4 they supply them to their respective factories....anyone can clarify that?

Interesting if its true ..... cause i have heard a lot of good things about hitachi ......

i think you should enable your SMART, many people recommend to enable it. anythings happen with the hdd ie. hdd failure, it will show you a warning b4 the hdd fail....

This post has been edited by victorboy: Jan 26 2006, 12:23 PM

i mean doing daily backup ler, wat hapen if u think ur backup data is safe on the backup hdd while actually it already got bad sector on it? u wont know until u want to retrieve back after the source hdd is spoilt first.

tis the first time i heard tis.

The worst hard disk in the world is Maxtor. I'll vote for Western Digital..

wah,really???every mobo support it??i'm using msi k7n2(nf2) mobo anyway...

This post has been edited by mfa333: Jan 27 2006, 01:19 AM

im using maxtor at the moment.So far i have no prob with it.What probs have ppl encountered??

i buy is IBM 20GB got problem clicking sound after 1 1/2 year send for RMA cost me RM30 wait 2 months ++ come back with Hitachi 40GB until now ok soo far soo good after RMA already aby 1/2 year ...

Maxtor always cant detect like my old Maxtor 15GB intermittent cant detect restart woking fine than dunno when sure come back but the data all is save !!!!!!!

This post has been edited by cuoreboy: Jan 27 2006, 09:31 AM

it alwiz come out wiht bad sector, u must alwiz scan punya each week ler.

Quantum is one of the best hdd manufacturers ever, I still have with me a quantum bigfoot and is still working perfectly with no bad sectors or any problems at all. I can't even recall its age already.

when is the smart error will appear when our hdd gonna down soon?in bios before booting windows?