Life is a Bitch and then you die

[bootneck02]

Well this morning I woke up as a happy little bunny, took the dogs out for their first constitutional at 10am. Got back at just after 11am had a cup of tea and sat down in front of the PC (first mistake) turned the old girl on. Well the darn thing came on and all of a sudden there was a soft graunching sound came from within its innards and the screen went blank. It was the hard drive the poor old girl had given up the ghost "Dam" or words to that effect. Off to Maidstone to look for another hard drive. Well had a look in Maplins was not impressed with what they had in stock so out to Curries/PC World not impressed with the prices. Well I couldn't go home without a new hard drive but managed to find a local IT shop and they had just what I wanted a Seagate SSHD 2 TB drive that had in stock, the only one, that had been there since 2014 brand new and they gave it to me for the princely price of £50 they wanted it off the shelf. So Back home install the new drive and install Linux Mint 18 64 bit, I cocked up and had to do the install again, so all is well and back on line.

 

[EvanDavis]

How many drives have you been trough now ?

 

[Abarbarian]

Well this morning I woke up as a happy little bunny, took the dogs out for their first constitutional at 10am. Got back at just after 11am had a cup of tea and sat down in front of the PC (first mistake) turned the old girl on. Well the darn thing came on and all of a sudden there was a soft graunching sound came from within its innards and the screen went blank. It was the hard drive the poor old girl had given up the ghost "Dam" or words to that effect. Off to Maidstone to look for another hard drive. Well had a look in Maplins was not impressed with what they had in stock so out to Curries/PC World not impressed with the prices. Well I couldn't go home without a new hard drive but managed to find a local IT shop and they had just what I wanted a Seagate SSHD 2 TB drive that had in stock, the only one, that had been there since 2014 brand new and they gave it to me for the princely price of £50 they wanted it off the shelf. So Back home install the new drive and install Linux Mint 18 64 bit, I cocked up and had to do the install again, so all is well and back on line.

Bad luck happens. Is that a hybrid drive ? The ones where you have a small ssd part married to a larger hdd part. Good price whatever.

 

[Captain Jack Sparrow]

Well the darn thing came on and all of a sudden there was a soft graunching sound came from within its innards and the screen went blank. It was the hard drive the poor old girl had given up the ghost "Dam" or words to that effect.

How old was your drive?

I find it amazing that I still have drives which have been operating since I originally joined PC Review in 2007. They're still in service today, however I should probably consider replacing them, as I expect that they're nearing the end of their life. They have not been operating 24/7 though.

Here's an example, this Maxtor 40GB HDD has nearly 3 years of operation on the clock.



- Capt. Jack Sparrow.

 

[bootneck02]

Bad luck happens. Is that a hybrid drive ? The ones where you have a small ssd part married to a larger hdd part. Good price whatever.

Yes it is a hybrid drive

 

[bootneck02]

How old was your drive?

I find it amazing that I still have drives which have been operating since I originally joined PC Review in 2007. They're still in service today, however I should probably consider replacing them, as I expect that they're nearing the end of their life. They have not been operating 24/7 though.

Here's an example, this Maxtor 40GB HDD has nearly 3 years of operation on the clock.

View attachment 10102

- Capt. Jack Sparrow.

It was 9 years old and for 8 years it was crunching for WCG 24/7 which I now do on the wife's PC so it had a hard life. I wanted a large drive because I keep all my photos and music on it, lucky I have a external drive as backup so haven't lost too much.

 

[bootneck02]

How many drives have you been trough now ?

This is the first one that has crashed on meI had others that were realy old which I would not trust as they go back to 1992, I think they have the wrong connections I really should chuck them out and put a hammer on them.

 

[Becky]

Sorry to hear that your HD failed, but glad to see you managed to bag a bargain. 2TB for £50 is pretty darn good

 

[Abarbarian]

You can do some funky stuff with the magnets in those old drives. That would keep you occupied during the winter.

Hard Drive Cotton Candy Machine
If your hard drive still turns on, you can use a soda can, six bicycle spokes, a plastic bowl, and a flat metal tin to turn it into your very own cotton candy machine. Granted, it's probably not totally sanitary, but it's still pretty awesome.

http://mods-n-hacks.wonderhowto.com...-repurpose-your-old-hard-disk-drives-0142951/

http://www.instructables.com/id/PC-Fan-Generator/

Oh an cos you actually make backups

 

[bootneck02]

You can do some funky stuff with the magnets in those old drives. That would keep you occupied during the winter.



http://mods-n-hacks.wonderhowto.com...-repurpose-your-old-hard-disk-drives-0142951/

http://www.instructables.com/id/PC-Fan-Generator/

Oh an cos you actually make backups

Plenty of great ideas on those sites but just to late I had put a club hammer to it to relieve the stress

 

[bootneck02]

How many drives have you been trough now ?

That is the first one that has given up on me it had been on two self build PC's and at one time run 24/7 crunching for at least 6 years, so it had done well.

 

[Captain Jack Sparrow]

It was 9 years old and for 8 years it was crunching for WCG 24/7 which I now do on the wife's PC so it had a hard life. I wanted a large drive because I keep all my photos and music on it, lucky I have a external drive as backup so haven't lost two much.

Wow, 8 years running 24/7! That's amazing. Would you mind sharing the drive's manufacturer?

I thought most HDDs are only designed to last around five years.

I'm no longer buying "consumer" desktop HDDs, I'm now moving to an SSD for the OS, and enterprise-class HDDs for media and PC games. Does anybody know whether there's actually any real difference between an enterprise-class HDD and a "consumer" desktop HDD? Searching the internet has only yielded very vague results. If you've had any experience with enterprise-class HDDs, please don't hesitate to chime in.

- Capt. Jack Sparrow.

 

[Abarbarian]

Wow, 8 years running 24/7! That's amazing. Would you mind sharing the drive's manufacturer?

I thought most HDDs are only designed to last around five years.

I'm no longer buying "consumer" desktop HDDs, I'm now moving to an SSD for the OS, and enterprise-class HDDs for media and PC games. Does anybody know whether there's actually any real difference between an enterprise-class HDD and a "consumer" desktop HDD? Searching the internet has only yielded very vague results. If you've had any experience with enterprise-class HDDs, please don't hesitate to chime in.

- Capt. Jack Sparrow.

http://download.intel.com/support/m...e_class_versus_desktop_class_hard_drives_.pdf

2nd result from my googly search.

 

[Captain Jack Sparrow]

http://download.intel.com/support/m...e_class_versus_desktop_class_hard_drives_.pdf

2nd result from my googly search.

Ah my Googly only returned forums with no replies, or people who don't seem to have a clue about what they are talking about.

But thanks for that PDF, it really does show how enterprise-class HDD are much better than consumer desktop HDDs. I've just got 4 x 1TB enterprise-class HDDs from a company who recently closed down, but of course, they have been used. They're all Western Digital Enterprise Storage drives, which is good because they're my HDD manufacturer of choice. I've never had a Western Digital drive fail on me, but I have had several Seagate HDDs fail. This will be good to store games and media on, but I will do periodic backups of my media from time to time, just to be on the safe side.

In a few months, I will do a massive overhaul on The Black Pearl, I'll install some of these drives alongside the new SSD, and see how many hours these drives have on the clock.

- Capt. Jack Sparrow.

 

[bootneck02]

Wow, 8 years running 24/7! That's amazing. Would you mind sharing the drive's manufacturer?

I thought most HDDs are only designed to last around five years.

I'm no longer buying "consumer" desktop HDDs, I'm now moving to an SSD for the OS, and enterprise-class HDDs for media and PC games. Does anybody know whether there's actually any real difference between an enterprise-class HDD and a "consumer" desktop HDD? Searching the internet has only yielded very vague results. If you've had any experience with enterprise-class HDDs, please don't hesitate to chime in.

- Capt. Jack Sparrow.

Hi Captain yes it was a 2TB Seagate SSHD poor old girl died this week RIP

 

[Captain Jack Sparrow]

Hi Captain yes it was a 2TB Seagate SSHD poor old girl died this week RIP

It was 9 years old and for 8 years it was crunching for WCG 24/7...

I don't get it though, I'm pretty sure SSHDs were not available 9 years ago. And 2TB HDDs were definitely not available back then! I remain permanently confused.

In the past, I have had two Seagate drives which were dead on arrival, and three that worked for 5 months - 1 year before failing. Needless to say, I won't be buying any more Seagate drives, as I personally can't trust them anymore.
But hey, I'm not brand-bashing, this is just the experience that I've had with Seagate drives.

- Capt. Jack Sparrow.

 

[bootneck02]

I have now installed a Toshiba SSHD 2TB drive

 

[bootneck02]

I don't get it though, I'm pretty sure SSHDs were not available 9 years ago. And 2TB HDDs were definitely not available back then! I remain permanently confused.

In the past, I have had two Seagate drives which were dead on arrival, and three that worked for 5 months - 1 year before failing. Needless to say, I won't be buying any more Seagate drives, as I personally can't trust them anymore.
But hey, I'm not brand-bashing, this is just the experience that I've had with Seagate drives.

- Capt. Jack Sparrow.

I got the drive after I retired and you are right so must be 7 years but I have not had a Seagate die on me before.

 

[Captain Jack Sparrow]

I have now installed a Toshiba SSHD 2TB drive

Good to hear you've got going again quickly.

I got the drive after I retired and you are right so must be 7 years but I have not had a Seagate die on me before.

Forgive me, but I'm still not quite sure that I fully understand, you've installed a Toshiba SSHD as a replacement drive, but which drive failed after 9 years? It couldn't have been a SSHD.

- Capt. Jack Sparrow.

 

[bootneck02]

The original drive was a Seagate SSHD 2000GB Desktop hard drive and it failed after 7 years as described in my last post.