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Name: the RAM
Hey, one thing that I have noticed, is that the health of one of my 100GB EIDE disks is better than that of one of my 320GB SATA HDDs. Does this have to do with the data not being to crowded in on the disk? It sure seems to be in a lot better shape (according to SMART) than my other, larger HDD.
If you are just looking at the raw numbers then it may appear to be in worse shape. You need to look at where the numbers are in relation to where they should be. Is that what you are comparing?
I wouldn't worry about it as long as the numbers are within the acceptable range. Run a benchmark tool to determine performance. Of course you should analyze the disk to see if it needs to be defragged.
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I am using a program or two that tells me the performance, and both say that the smaller drive is in great condition. (Maybe it is just because I just wiped it).
I was just noticing this because it has now been almost 2 months after I have built my new rig, and I just thought yesterday to check the performance and health of the HDDs in the computer. That was when I noticed that my main HDD, a 500GB, was rapidly decreasing in health, heck, that two month old 500GB drive was in worse shape than the 320GB HDD, which is in good condition according to the diagnostics I am using.
So right now, I am waiting for Seagate to send me a new drive so that I can clone the old one to the new one, and wipe to old one to send it back.
Do you have any suggestions as to a really good high speed, excellent performing HDD?
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"I am using a program or two that tells me the performance"
And what program(s) might that be? Did you check it with the Seagate software? If so, did it indicate that it's failing?
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"(Maybe it is just because I just wiped it)."
Yup. If you wiped the drive, then you wiped out the SMART info and it looks to the program like it's never been used.
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I am using Active SMART and HDD Life pro, in addition to the Seagate software. All three programs told me that the drive was performing poorly. The Seagate software only told me that the drive returned a SMART error. HDD Life Pro told me that the reason was the Seek Error Rate.
Is there a preferred brand of hard drive? Or do you just have to take your chances?
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Early failure is not uncommon for any Mfg, IMHO you are using the Best HDD made, although you may be using it in a way that casuses it to work harder than it needs to.
You stated that the 500GB is your "MAIN" HDD, indicating that your Operating System is Installed on this drive. If so, the link below should help you understand why this could be a problem for this HDD
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Minimi...
This is pretty much a thorough explanation of S.M.A.R.T, with troubleshooting and reccommendations for maximizing HDD life. Worth the time to read it all.
Do a google search for how HDD's store Data and you may begin to realize what you are asking of such a large capacity HDD.
I, personally, would recommend that you install your OS on a smaller HDD and use the 500GB for storage and backup.
FYI, Smart info is not stored in the Useable Portion of the HDD, may not even be on the Platters. so Wiping or Formatting the HDD should have no effect on the "SMART" data.
"SMART" is installed by the Manufacturer and is used to Check the HDD when an RMA is received. Also critical for Quality Control and evaluation of New and in-use HDD's.
The Data would be useless if it could be modified by the user. Kinda like setting your Car's Odometer back to 0's.
There is nothing to learn from someone who already agrees with you.
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Thanks for the info. You know, I never thought of having the OS on a different/smaller drive, which might as well be the 320GB HDD, I would not trust the old 100GB IDE HDD, which I sometimes use for day-to-day temporary storage, never long term storage.
That is a very good idea, I am starting to wonder if I am overdoing this little thing, doing almost 8 hours of intense computer work a day might make a single HDD a little tired after awhile.
I wonder if it would be worthwhile to get another hdd, thus having 3 good drives. Maybe one for files, on for the OS (I actually have 2 OSs, XP Pro and Vista Ultimate, I never use that dumb Vista) and one for my programs, I have some Adobe Suites that take up over 30GB of installation space. That way, no drive is being used for everything, thus reducing work load.
I did not think that the SMART info was stored on the platter itself, but I did not want to argue because I was the OP asking the question.
I wonder if that means that the 100GB hdd is an okay drive to have important data on? Maybe I should not trust my data to such an old drive. I can't honestly remember how old the drive is, I got that one second hand, but I do know that it was used very little.
So do you guys think that my hdd configuration of 3 drives sounds good? Thanks for your help
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Oh yes, I have very sensitive data. I have a service trough Idrive, but I never put plain data up there. I first use Truecrypt and tipple encrypt the data, and then put a hefty 64 character password on it, then I password protect a .rar file and upload it to the server, where it is encrypted again.
Unfortunately, there are some things that I cannot backup. Those are things such as my RAW video files, which come in around 15GB per mini-dv tape.
I also try to backup to DVDs and put them in a fireproof safe.
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Sarcastic? Sorry, it may seem like that. No, I actually do all of that, (and possibly more).
Sorry if it seemed like that, everybody says that I am weird that way. But I absolutely cannot loose any of the data
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With all you seem to have invested, a new HDD seems like a small investment to me.
Of course there is no guarantee on the Data on a new HDD, only the Device.In your situation, I would be inclined to move any HDD showing SMART problems to a non critical function, ie Repository for Vista.
There is nothing to learn from someone who already agrees with you.
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