Things that go "clunk" in the night...

[Simon]

.... and the day... anytime in fact.

My PC is now 18months old and I have two Hitachi 250GB 7200RPM SATA (configured in a RAID 0 install) of which one (or possibly both) are making those nasty clunking sounds during seeking.

Now I know all to well that "clunk" = "bad things about to happen" and to have just one of my HD's fail in a RAID0 system means I will lose everything.

Does anyone else have any experience of these HD's and failure rates? I've emailed tech support of my hardware manufacture as to possible help but I do know I'm out of warranty.

Que the frantic backup of everything on my HD..... :panic:

[Tatts]

Not personally, but my mates mate used to have a PC business, and he stopped stocking Hitachi because of certain reliability issues.

Personally I go with Maxtor, Western Digital or Samsung.

[JohnDotCom]

Hitachi have had some severe problems with some of their drives since they took over the IBM drives with reference to reliability.
This was why their 3 Year Warranty was dropped.
The laptop drives are far better.
Even when under warranty its a pain because you have to rescue everything and reload.
I thought this had now been solved.
Check the Manufacturer date and if recent still seem to have problems.
Switch to a alternative make is only advice after the problems you have had.

[BMC123]

Not personally, but my mates mate used to have a PC business, and he stopped stocking Hitachi because of certain reliability issues.

Personally I go with Maxtor, Western Digital or Samsung.

funny enough, Maxtor had an appalling failure rate on their "slimline" 20 and 40 GB drives a few years ago (I have 3 or 4 dead ones in my workshop) and yet my 160GB drive on this PC is a Maxtor, and its 3 years old and working fine :shrug: (despite getting hammered 14-15 hours a day 7 days a week) I also have a 2 year old 250Gb Hitachi SATA on another PC and its also fine.

I have seen many failed drives in all brand names over the years, but i suppose its like anything else, be alert to the possibility of failures and keep your data backed up at all times.

but how many people do that?

[JohnDotCom]

All the time, every day auto backup and manual to DVD Ram Discs and online.
Depends how important your info etc is, but as you say always back up because it will always fail when you have them photos you can never take again not backed up!

[BMC123]

I suppose I should have said how many ordinary people do that :D Coz one thing I know, us tech people are not ordinary. (at least that's what my mates think anyway) :) I am always preaching to them to back up stuff, and when they see me with my pictures backed up on DVD, my websites data and backups also on DVD and in 2 photobucket accounts, they think I am mad.

Except of course last week when one of them discovered his brand new 3 week old laptop threw a hissy fit and he lost everything on it. (according to the "tech guys" at PC World anyway :rolleyes: )

And its not just hard drives that can cause problems, I had a Dell in here last week when its power supply went, and it sent 240 volts straight onto the board, so i advised the chap to send it back as it was still under warranty, and Dell simply sent him out a new base unit with his data transfered onto new hard drives, something PC world and the other "big names" should be doing as well. (instead of thier seemingly standard "wipe everything" attitude.) :shrug:

[Simon]

I've been having a nose around new HD's and currently Hitatchi along with Western Digital seem to be amoung the best. I think I may stick with Hitatchi especially considering their new 7k1000 range (this is one here (http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4JMK&CategorySelectedId=11154&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11154,42240000)). What do you guys in the IT business think? Possible run two as RAID, maybe a striped array (combined 1.5Tb) or in light of said events a mirrored array of 750Tb... :shrug:

Although reviewed by many as good, heating issues are mentioned and most recommend it being cooled by it's own fan or at lest have a heatsink on it. Trouble is, I don't have a lot of room in my case (being a small form factor type case). Is heat disipation an issue for this drive? My case itself is well vented with two intake and two exhaust fans (one of which primarilly serves the PSU) plus the usual fans/heatsinks on CPU and Northbridge and graphics card on-board fan.

I would love the 1TB version of the above drive but I don't think I could stretch to that..... :( :unlucky:

[JohnDotCom]

I personally if you do not have a regular backup regime or if you keep personal History on Hard Drives use a Mirrored array.
With the 2 hard drives try to have a Fan or ducting running to them to assist in keeping them cooler.

[Simon]

I think I may go for a pair of the 7K1000 750Gig HD's from Hitatchi. As you suggest, I will get some ducting to them - maybe even heatsink them if space allows.

I'm hoping only one of my current HD's is a bit iffy. Therefore I can keep one as a backup and use the two new 750Gig's as a striped array with an auto-back up running every few days to the other (older) 250Gig until such time I can upgrade to another bigger third drive.

Or course, if space-constraints mean I can only squeeze in two HD's then I may just use the two 750Gig's and mirror them.... Or I could mirror two 1Tb HD's....

... damnit. Me and my ideas!!! :nastypc:

[Simon]

What about hard drive cooling.

I've found something of reasonable price http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=403G&CategorySelectedId=11258&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11258,4294954837 which I know you can get cheaper from other places but the point is it's in that silly beigy-white colour. I need black. I actually need matt-black finished brushed anodised aluminium. Any one seen one?