My HTPC Build

[_dangtx_]

before you do rma's, get a screenie of hdtune pro latest(make the window bigger so everything is shown), the free version is good for 30 days or something...compare them.

i have a few green drives that have monstruous parking tickets, but still go strong, while others have failed drives with much lesser numbers.

[Supergrover]

Originally Posted by _dangtx_

cool. everything can and will fail. at least with wd,usually, i know long before. you know, you get the hdtune warning, then the yellow becomes red, and thats where you save data,wipe and rma it. or before that.

I find that seagates have had a higher failure rate that WD at least for me I RMAed 4 seagates in the last 18 months compaired to 1 WD 1.5 tb green.
I now run a p64ssd and 4x 5000 wd blues with 2x 1.5 wd greens in a usb encloser. The RMAed seagate 500's are now storage drives on other rigs, Downstairs HTPC, upstairs htpc, server and Family ( open rig).

[_dangtx_]

i should've switched lines there so not to make a confusion.

what i meant is that yes everything fails

but

with wd drives,

at least in my opinion.

they dont fail on the spot like seagates with no warning and leave you wandering about town :)

[Blu]

Originally Posted by _dangtx_

i should've switched lines there so not to make a confusion.

what i meant is that yes everything fails

but

with wd drives,

at least in my opinion.

they dont fail on the spot like seagates with no warning and leave you wandering about town :)

I just got HD tune normal and am doing a scan and have 1 damaged block so far only, I can't pass this drive on chk disc either though and also fails on the WD hard drive tool extended tests. But I'll see if I can get a retail copy of HD tune cause yea I got ALOT of external drives and being able to monitor there health would be great.

[_dangtx_]

look in the health tab. make the window bigger so it shows the whole thing there. take a screenie. save it. then compare it with another screenie down the road. something bumped up considerably, like load cycle count or u dma crc error thingie? watch out. thats how i do.

[Blu]

^


Here's the image of the health screen, I couldn't make it any larger then this though...

Edit: Damn during this scan my HD is just screaming with grinding noises when ever I open a program or a folder...

[_dangtx_]

yeah it says there current pending sector : 1 . :)

if i were you id back up asap and wipe it first, then check health if its still going after. why? because if it goes in a couple hours and you cant wipe it? then youll have to look for some magnets, or a smolther.

[Blu]

Originally Posted by _dangtx_

yeah it says there current pending sector : 1 . :)

if i were you id back up asap and wipe it first, then check health if its still going after. why? because if it goes in a couple hours and you cant wipe it? then youll have to look for some magnets, or a smolther.

What does the current pending sectors mean exactly? I've never really done hard drive diagnosing myself except running chk disc every once and awhile on them and making sure they've passed.

[_dangtx_]

i think itll try to recover? now, like i said, you can have a few, or more, and drive be ok for a while longer, or not. i usually play it safe. wipe the heck out of it, gutman,dod, give or take a few days worth or wiping. then rma or discard.

[Blu]

I think for the moment till I get a replacement (hoping the 2TB blacks go on sale at ncix for boxing day) I'll just keep backing this drive up when ever I save information that I want backed up. I honestly don't know how much longer this drive will last me but I hope it doesn't die just out of the blue, will WD be good at RMA'ing this drive? I've never really RMA'd a drive before I got one on the coffee table I need to RMA and a external I need to RMA (the transfer speeds via eSata and usb 2.0 were terrible, I mean a 1GB file took hours to transfer sometimes) or think they'll just say oh the drive works for loading a OS onto it, so it must be ok!. Sucks I loose out on the 5 year warranty as well and will get stuck with a 3 month (correct me if I'm wrong please) warranty on a replacement :(