Hard Disc Drive failure...techy advice/recomendation needed..:-)

[nigel]

Hiyah!

I've had a internal hard disc drive fail on me, (it was a 200GB Hitachi one..)

It's no real big disaster...although it could have been!

What I'm hoping is that someone experienced with PC's can recommend a good reliable internal Hard disc drive I should buy...

I'm a bit cnfused by the whole thing because I've read that large memory hard discs (500GB or 1 Terrabyte) have a tendency to fail......do you think this is true?...And is there a certain make or brand of hard disc manufacturer that is thought to be reliable?

What I'm actually needing it for is a Fostex VF16 8 track mixer/recorder...the hard disc it came with has been very reliable but it's only 60GB, which means I can only record about 1 hour and 30 mins of recording...I tend to record bands at weddings and stuff...I'd say I need a hard disc that's reliable and at least 300GB!

Can anyone recomend a real good hard disc? Is it true that larger memory hard discs are more likely to fail?

Every one is buying these external USB connected hard discs now...they are probably keeping their wedding pics/family pics and vids on there...but hard disc failure might be more common than we imagine!

Thanks for any replies!

[MarBell379]

Larger hard drives, when they are first released, do have a tendency to fail more often. Generally because everything has to be closer together. A 300GB hard drive will DEFINITELY be more fragile than a 60GB hard drive as the platters (spinning magnetic bits) are much closer together and much more finely balanced. The pickup heads in hard drives never actually touch the discs (like vinyl turntable heads do), but they 'float' less than a hairs thickness away from the platters. The more platters, the more heads, the closer everything is, the more fragile it is.
If its STILL, all hard drives will have a longer life span than if they're shaken about.
In terms of brands, for teh most paart theres not a major difference. Theres only 4 or 5 different manufacturers. All teh vendors source from the same places and put their own software and builds together.

Buy midrange, the size you want, and always take a backup copy. Buy TWO drives if you need, an internal and an external, and keep the external one static and dont kick it about.
No guarantees, but its less likely to fail that way.

[IainBusby]

The first thing you'll need to know if it's an IDE hard disk or SATA hard disk and also if it's 2.5" (normally for laptops) or 3.5" (normally for PC's), but given that you've already said your failed drive was only 60Gb and that you use it for recording live bands I suspect that it will be IDE and that your using a laptop.

I regularly order hard disks at work and I can tell you that it's getting hard to get IDE disks of any size and the biggest we've been able to get hold of lately is 160Gb.

As far as brands are concerned the only advice I can give you.... and this is based on wide experience of replacing failed hard disks is, don't buy Western Digital. Apart from that I think the rest of them are pretty much all the same but my on preference would be Seagate.

Iain.

[MarBell379]

Ive always had good experiences with Western Dig myself, but I guess its what you get.
(I drive a Skoda and a lot of pple dont like those either)

I completely negelected to answer the part about drive and interface type in my post - sorry.

To rectify that - 'What he said'. (see post above)

Whatever you do with techniology - SOMETHING will alwsays fail eventually

[IainBusby]

Larger hard drives, when they are first released, do have a tendency to fail more often. Generally because everything has to be closer together. A 300GB hard drive will DEFINITELY be more fragile than a 60GB hard drive as the platters (spinning magnetic bits) are much closer together and much more finely balanced. The pickup heads in hard drives never actually touch the discs (like vinyl turntable heads do), but they 'float' less than a hairs thickness away from the platters. The more platters, the more heads, the closer everything is, the more fragile it is.
If its STILL, all hard drives will have a longer life span than if they're shaken about.
In terms of brands, for teh most paart theres not a major difference. Theres only 4 or 5 different manufacturers. All teh vendors source from the same places and put their own software and builds together.

Buy midrange, the size you want, and always take a backup copy. Buy TWO drives if you need, an internal and an external, and keep the external one static and dont kick it about.
No guarantees, but its less likely to fail that way.

Very true. What most people fail to take into account when they entrust their data to a hard drive and don't bother to back it up regularly, is that a hard disk is full of very finely balanced moving parts, just like a little motor car but a hellava lot more delicate and laptop hard disks, because they are moved around a lot, tend to fail a lot more.

[joebloggs]

just like a little motor car

and just like a car engine, most wear is done when you start it up.. my pc has been on 24/7 for the last 18 months ,warms the house to

get a external driver and back it up, or burn your data to dvd, most programs can easily be replaced, your data cannot be thou.

[nigel]

you've already said your failed drive was only 60Gb and that you use it for recording live bands I suspect that it will be IDE and that your using a laptop.

It is an IDE one...and it's 3.5" size...it actually goes internally inside the Fostex VF16 mixer...that might seem a bit strange but it's not a particularly new mixer...it's not got a USB output or anything like that...it has got an output SCSI which techy people call "scuzzy!?" (I read that in a book!) it's also got an optical out and analogue outputs...and midi in/out...

Like I say my mixer is a bit old now really...but it works great...I get good results with it...it can do everything I need it to do...I just need more recording time...without disc failure!

Maybe the SCSI/scuzzy output could be used? I mean, what is scuzzy?

When I record these bands It's usually on a cramped stage...you guys have made me realize how delicate hard discs are...I'd do well to keep my mixer as far away from loud noise/vibration as possible I should think...

[MarBell379]

The SCSI output could be used to plug it into a high spec workstation for editing.
You might also be able to use it to attach an external drive to but I suspect that an external SCSI drive will be much more expensive than a more common USB model. (I have an external IDE drive caddy which connects via USB - dead handy, but not that common anymore)

SCSI - Small Computer Systems Interface

I sell Storage Management software for large corporates now, but started off selling this sort of stuff 15 years ago - LOL

[IainBusby]

Maybe the SCSI/scuzzy output could be used? I mean, what is scuzzy?

Small Computer System Interface, but it's unlikely that your mixer could interface directly to a SCSI hard disk and recognise it as such, besides, SCSI hard disks are very very expensive compared to IDE or SATA.

Iain.

[joebloggs]

you should check on the net or phone the manufacturer, the bios might not take a larger drive or not even recognise a drive from a different manufacturer

[MarBell379]

you should check on the net or phone the manufacturer, the bios might not take a larger drive or not even recognise a drive from a different manufacturer

Very valid point! Older hardware may not have the right firmware to enable large drive sizes. Its beyond me tho, as sound mixing is an area of IT I have never touched.
sorry

[nigel]

you should check on the net or phone the manufacturer, the bios might not take a larger drive or not even recognise a drive from a different manufacturer

Eeeeek! You could be right! I thought a hard drive was just a hard drive though...I have read a little bit on websites...there was one guy who said he had experienced pretty much the same as me...

Does anyone want the band at their wedding recorded by the way? I don't charge it's just a hobby..

[KeithD]

IDE's are getting scarce now, and cost more than the new versions. You would probably need to format it in your PC first, unless you spend more trying to find a pre-formatted one. You are best buying one that matches as closely as possible, maybe a 2nd hand one off Ebay. You might also get Civil Servant bank records with it.

The new Terabyte drives are stable as they use newer technology than those 500GB and below. Whereas the earlier versions stacked the molecules sideways, the new ones stack upright, and so we have a few Terabytes upward to go yet.

[IainBusby]

IDE's are getting scarce now, and cost more than the new versions. You would probably need to format it in your PC first, unless you spend more trying to find a pre-formatted one. You are best buying one that matches as closely as possible, maybe a 2nd hand one off Ebay. You might also get Civil Servant bank records with it.

The new Terabyte drives are stable as they use newer technology than those 500GB and below. Whereas the earlier versions stacked the molecules sideways, the new ones stack upright, and so we have a few Terabytes upward to go yet.

There maybe some sort of an operating system or basic files on the original disk and if there is, depending on the file system they used on it, you might be able to take an image of your old hard disk and put that on your new disk.

Iain.