Solved First time replacing hard drive, suggestions?

[SubbinBlazer]

Please move if I posted in wrong section....

The emachines et1331g-03w desktop (Windows 7 home premium 64bit)would freeze up so I did a system restore in the past. Thread can be found here:
http://www.sevenforums.com/general-...eezing-after-system-recovery.html#post2303416

Well, it was working fine until yesterday. I inserted the Windows 64bit disc to attempt to repair and the PC freezes before I get to the "upgrade" or advanced options to be able to delete partitions etc (restore.) While turning on the PC normally, the PC freezes before the "starting windows" screen loads up.

I'm assuming my hard drive is shot. The PC is only for general use, what hard drive should I be looking at? Have no idea where to start. I've seen that some say X,XXX RPM's, but have no idea which one I need for my PC. Can someone enlighten me and help me choose the correct hard drive? I believe the factory hard drive is 500GB, so if I can get that amount or more that'd be great, thanks in advance.

 

[bobkn]

A little quick Web search suggests that it came with a 750GB 3Gb (SATA 2) drive.

I'd suggest anything from this list:

Newegg.com - Computer Hardware, Hard Drives, Internal Hard Drives, 1TB, 64MB, SATA 3.0Gb/s, SATA 6.0Gb/s

(500GB isn't much cheaper than 1TB. 750GB isn't a common size at the moment.)

The 6Gb (SATA 3) drives should be backwards compatible with your SATA 2 motherboard. They're mostly 7200 RPM drives, except for the "green" drives, which have a variable spin rate. (The 10000 RPM Velociraptor is rather more expensive, but it's in a class by itself.)

I filtered using 64 MB caches, which I think adds little to the price.

 

[SubbinBlazer]

I have no idea what the differences mean, but this one from the list:
Western Digital WD Blue WD10EZEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive - Newegg.com
is on my budget... Thanks

 

[bobkn]

I have no idea what the differences mean, but this one from the list:
Western Digital WD Blue WD10EZEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive - Newegg.com
is on my budget... Thanks

From the Newegg reviews, looks like the mortality rate is about the same for all of the desktop drives. I doubt that the price premium for "enterprise" drives would be worth it. Perhaps I've just been lucky, but I haven't had an HD die a natural death in years.

(I killed a 750GB drive in an external enclosure by dropping it approx. 0.6 m, or 2 feet, while it was spinning. Never worked again.)

 

[brianzion]

hi

here is a very good comprehensive guide Internal Hard Drive Buying Guide

Cache

The cache refers to high-speed RAM (random access memory) integrated on the PCB of a hard drive. Cache is used as buffer among the CPU, memory and hard drive. Drives with more cache generally perform at a higher level than drives with less. Cache sizes of 2MB, 8MB and 16MB are currently standard options for 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch internal hard drives, while 1.0-inch products may only be equipped with 128KB.

 

[SubbinBlazer]

I have no idea what the differences mean, but this one from the list:
Western Digital WD Blue WD10EZEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive - Newegg.com
is on my budget... Thanks

From the Newegg reviews, looks like the mortality rate is about the same for all of the desktop drives. I doubt that the price premium for "enterprise" drives would be worth it. Perhaps I've just been lucky, but I haven't had an HD die a natural death in years.

(I killed a 750GB drive in an external enclosure by dropping it approx. 0.6 m, or 2 feet, while it was spinning. Never worked again.)

What do you recommend, link?

 

[brianzion]

my recommendation hast o be the 1 TB WD Green WD GREEN WD link

 

[King Arthur]

From the Newegg reviews, looks like the mortality rate is about the same for all of the desktop drives. I doubt that the price premium for "enterprise" drives would be worth it. Perhaps I've just been lucky, but I haven't had an HD die a natural death in years.

The only guarantee from enterprise-class drives is that they were manufactured according to much stricter quality control compared to normal consumer-class drives. Whether a drive will live or die (and it will eventually die!) is ultimately up to your luck. I've had HDDs of varying quality that ranged in lifespan from just under 1 month to drives that are pushing almost 10+ years and still going strong.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
Only ONE sensible choice here -- get an SSD and move your OS to it. A 250 GB SSD costs only around 170 USD and a 120GB one for possibly as little as 90 USD and the performance of the computer in every way is so much better you'll wonder why you never made the switch before. Spinners are a dying breed these days.

When your budget allows you can then get perhaps a spinner for user data but for the moment why not use one of those incredibly cheap passport external USB drives (1 or 2 TB) for your data - these can - at least the 1 TB ones- be had for around 50 USD.

Having swapped spinners for SSD's on two laptops and a desktop I couldn't even THINK of facing a computer again that didn't have its OS on an SSD.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[SubbinBlazer]

I was told to remove the ram sticks and hard drive and install them back on, so I did that. The PC then loaded fine. I did get prompted if I wanted to repair windows as soon as the E machines logo screen was done when I had started it up, so I inserted the win 7 disc and booted from it and then did a memory diagnostic. That finished with no issues found and the PC started... I then restarted the PC multiple times to see if that repair prompt came up again while the PC turned on and nothing. Seems like removing the sticks and hard drive fixed the issue. I had relocated the PC from the living room to my room, but never dropped the tower. Just thought I'd update this in cse someone has a siilar issue. We'll see if it runs smoothly... Thanks