Forums | MacLife

Jasoco · 2009-06-26 3:41 pm

Well, it looks like my 500GB internal HD in my MacBook has finally died.

About an hour ago I was browsing Firefox and it froze on my. I thought "Oh, it's because it's unreleased and just a candidate" thinking it was just a bug. But the freeze took the whole system with it. I ended up having to force shutdown and reboot. That's when the problems started. The desktop took way too long to load up. Something I had seen once before. The last time a HD died on me that I was booted from.

Fortunately, I'm no fool. No siree. I have automated backups every day. My computer starts itself up at 11:55 every morning to prepare for its daily clone. And thankfully that happened today at noon.

So here I am booted from my second of two clones. (I have one connected to a server. And one I can carry around.) When I booted in, OS X said "Could not repair the disk". So I opened Disk Utility, ran a scan, sure enough, "Could not be repaired, backup whatever you can and reformat. Then recopy files over." As if to say it's not dead, it just wants to be refreshed. So I reformatted with no problem and tried to Clone back over but for some reason CCC is not cloning to it. I am hoping this just means it is dead. Kaput. Gone, daddy, gone.

TL;DR

Long story short, I now need a new HD for my laptop. Sorry to bore you with the details. Any recommendations?

I had been looking at laptop HD's recently and noticed they are so goddamned cheap these days. The 500GB's I mean! It NEEDS to be 500GB.

I usually buy from NewEgg.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi … name=500GB

All the 5400RPM drives are $90. But there's also a 7200RPM drive for $130. Right now I have a 5400. Should I get a 7200 this time? Or are there drawbacks? I'm not against just getting another 5400 at that price. But would spend the extra dough if the 7200 is really worth it. The 7200 is a Seagate. And the 5400's are various other brands.

I just don't know which brand to go with. The one I have now is a Seagate. I've had a Western Digital 250 before and it started with the same problems after less than a year. But I also have two MyBooks that give me no problems. And the original drive from my MacBook is a Hitachi which currently holds extra files in an external case.

Which one is recommended?

Also, last time I bought a HD from Newegg it arrived in 1.5 days even with the free shipping because it was shipped from Edison, NJ. (Faster than it would have if I had even picked 2 or 3 day shipping and paid more.)

gd · 2009-06-26 3:49 pm

Well I have always been addicted to speed which means my Air won't cut it for me and I would definitely take the 7200.
What has been your experience with seagate. Are they good or bad. How long did yours last. What do you think of the other brands. If I were buying those would be the things I would take in consideration. I would also check any reviews about the drives, etc.

Don't worry a story always keeps me interested.

Last edited by gd (2009-06-26 3:50 pm)

Jasoco · 2009-06-26 4:04 pm

Let's see. The 250GB WD Scorpio I got lasted less than a year before it did the same thing and I replaced it with this one. Which lasted a little over a year and a half. Of course when I bought it, it cost like $150 or so for the 5400 500GB.

I am looking at the reviews of the 7200 and some of them are scaring me though. People with clicking and dying drives three days later. While others are having no problems. That's the only thing keeping me from buying it right now. Not that it would matter since it's the weekend and it wouldn't even ship until Monday anyway so I have time to decide on a replacement. (Guess I just won't use my laptop as a laptop for a few days.)

I mean I'd LOVE to have a 7200. But those reviews scare me. 30% of the reviews are less than 5 stars. And 24% are less than 4.

Jasoco · 2009-06-27 1:34 pm

So, anyone think I should take the 70% chance of getting a good one and get the more expensive 7200? Or stick with the tried and true 5400 models? And if so, which one?

Toshiba ($5 cheaper)
Seagate (The brand and model I have now)
Hitachi
Samsung
Fujitsu
Western Digital ($5 more) (I had a 250 by them that died within a year)

I'm looking at maybe trying the Toshiba, it's $5 cheaper, and it's retail instead of OEM like some of them. But it has one rating. Whereas the WD has the most ratings and the Hitachi has second most. So it would come down to one of those three. Which one should I take a chance on? If not the 7200?

I will make my final decision and purchase by tomorrow afternoon.

Last edited by Jasoco (2009-06-27 1:37 pm)

sturner · 2009-06-27 2:05 pm

Don't forget to look at the warranty. If it does dies within the warranty period, contact the manufacturer, get an RMD number and get a new one free.

Jasoco · 2009-06-27 2:35 pm

The warranty for this one is gone. Now I need to decide what one to get next. Any suggestions?

Jasoco · 2009-06-30 2:28 pm

I decided to go with the Hitachi. Try a different brand. It's the brand Apple used in the MacBook that I replaced. I'll wait for the 7200 drives to be perfected before I get one.

It should arrive tomorrow. I hope soon because I'm running on a LaCie Porsche right now and it's stormy outside. If the power goes out, I can't keep using my computer.

gd · 2009-06-30 11:47 pm

Which Porsche ehh? 911?

Jasoco · 2009-07-01 3:16 pm

A silver rectangular one with an orange LED on it. The last of the three I've owned that is still alive. (I have more dead HD's floating around here than ones that still work. And more empty cases than I know what to do with.)

Currently cloning my clone onto my new HD. It is doing this in the background so I can keep working. It's done 36GB so far in 47 minutes. Out of about 415GB. So it's gonna be about 13 hours or so. God, scientists have to create a more instant form of file copying. Hard disks are just so slow.

Jasoco · 2009-07-01 4:14 pm

Oh boy. Sounds like another Porsche is on its way out. On a couple files it has gotten stuck and made a clicking sound. I hate that sound. In January I heard it coming out of my last Porsche.

Thankfully I have a second clone, just in case the one I'm using dies while copying the 415GB of files. (It's only 98GB done in 1 hour 46 minutes.)

wellfleation · 2009-07-01 6:54 pm

Jasoco wrote:
Oh boy. Sounds like another Porsche is on its way out. On a couple files it has gotten stuck and made a clicking sound. I hate that sound. In January I heard it coming out of my last Porsche.

Thankfully I have a second clone, just in case the one I'm using dies while copying the 415GB of files. (It's only 98GB done in 1 hour 46 minutes.)

Those suck for sure.

Jasoco · 2009-07-01 9:18 pm

Yeah, tell me that before I buy three of them.

The clone is finished. It only took 7 hours. And I lost one file apparently. Nothing important, and I was able to replace it with a copy from my other clone. (Keep two. You never know when you will need it.)

The problem is Disk Utility doesn't report any problems. It says the drive is fine. Though CCC complained about a file, which indeed did not get copied when I checked later, the file did not copy when I tried to manually copy it and even DiskWarrior is complaining about the drive. Really wish OS X had better built-in drive checking.

Forums | MacLife

#1 2009-06-26 3:41 pm

Looks like it's Laptop Hard Drive recommendation time!

#2 2009-06-26 3:49 pm

Re: Looks like it's Laptop Hard Drive recommendation time!

#3 2009-06-26 4:04 pm

Re: Looks like it's Laptop Hard Drive recommendation time!

#4 2009-06-27 1:34 pm

Re: Looks like it's Laptop Hard Drive recommendation time!

#5 2009-06-27 2:05 pm

Re: Looks like it's Laptop Hard Drive recommendation time!

#6 2009-06-27 2:35 pm

Re: Looks like it's Laptop Hard Drive recommendation time!

#7 2009-06-30 2:28 pm

Re: Looks like it's Laptop Hard Drive recommendation time!

#8 2009-06-30 11:47 pm

Re: Looks like it's Laptop Hard Drive recommendation time!

#9 2009-07-01 3:16 pm

Re: Looks like it's Laptop Hard Drive recommendation time!

#10 2009-07-01 4:14 pm

Re: Looks like it's Laptop Hard Drive recommendation time!

#11 2009-07-01 6:54 pm

Re: Looks like it's Laptop Hard Drive recommendation time!

Jasoco wrote:

#12 2009-07-01 9:18 pm

Re: Looks like it's Laptop Hard Drive recommendation time!

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