If you guys don't see me for a while...

[Bill]

This is why,

I have been getting this sometimes when I try to boot my laptop up, it comes up after a BSOD (Blue Screen of Death)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v232/Bil...ng/HDerror1.jpg

and this in the BIOS setup menu

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v232/Bil...ng/HDerror2.jpg

I just emailed Dell tech support, I might have to send this laptop in or something.

It is currently working, but it could crash and not boot up any second now, I have already backed up most of my stuff on my external drive.

[Teraphy]

Same picture linked.

That's not good :) Did you run the diagnostics?

[Almighty1]

Your HD is pretty much dead whenever that error shows up. I used to get that with every Inspiron I get as I always get the newest and largest IBM HDD with the model and the drive always fails within a year.

[LSudlow]

That wouldn't explain his system's inability to find his CD-ROM/DVD drive. I suspect it's a BIOS failure or a motherboard failure, which is a big coincidence since Dell is also sending someone out today or tomorrow to replace the motherboard on my Inspiron 5150.

Remember the random lockups and reboots that I though were due to bad drivers? They got worse, even after I switched back to known good drivers. Now, any time I touch the left side of the case, my machine locks up. I spend a couple of hours with the Dell people on Friday and ruled out everything except the motherboard, which they're going to replace.

My sympathies, Bill, and best of luck to you!

:)

[Bill]

I fixed the picture links, and when I ran the HD drive diagnostics (the 90-90 test they [Dell] recommended to be exact) it said there was no error.

My laptop is running fine right now, I have been able to back up pretty much everything worth backing up, although I'm starting to think this is not a HD problem but rather a BIOS or mobo problem, which is what I thought it was, if I have it again I will try to reseat the HD then if that doesn't fix it I will call them to come replace the faulty mobo or whatever.

Bill

[Almighty1]

That wouldn't explain his system's inability to find his CD-ROM/DVD drive. I suspect it's a BIOS failure or a motherboard failure, which is a big coincidence since Dell is also sending someone out today or tomorrow to replace the motherboard on my Inspiron 5150.

Remember the random lockups and reboots that I though were due to bad drivers? They got worse, even after I switched back to known good drivers. Now, any time I touch the left side of the case, my machine locks up. I spend a couple of hours with the Dell people on Friday and ruled out everything except the motherboard, which they're going to replace.

My sympathies, Bill, and best of luck to you!

:)

Actually, it does since the CD-ROM/DVD drive requires the HDD to be detected first. Whenever the HDD fails, the CD-ROM/DVD will not be detected either. I guess you guys got lucky or something because everytime my system fails to boot, it's always the hard drive. This is even posted by others on the Dell Support Forums. The Dell CD/DVD ROM runs on the secondary IDE controller and not the primary so the HDD has to be detected in order for the CD/DVD ROM to work at all.

Back in May 1999, I bought the IBM ThinkPad 770Z which was the top of the line with the IBM 14.1GB 4900rpm HDD which was the largest and fastest at the time. In April 2000, after I shutdown... the HDD would fail and I tried connecting it to a desktop and sending it to over 20 data recovery companies and not even 1% could be recovered.

In April 2001, I bought the Dell Inspiron 8000 with the latest 48GB 5400RPM HDD. So in May March 2002 - I had the same message that Bill got except what I had to do was wait until the HDD stop making noises and then hit ctrl-alt-del and it would boot. Then I called Dell and had them send out a advanced replacement of the same HDD and then clone the drive except the old one had bad sectors but I knew which files they were so it was easy to fix.

In April 2002, I bought two Dell Inspiron 8200's with the latest 60GB 5400ROM HDD. The Windows XP machine didn't fail at all. But the machine running FreeBSD, the HDD had a problem after 6 months where I lost the entire /usr partition but only managed to salvaged the main /root partition.

All of these were IBM Made in Thailand drives... There is a reason that IBM sold their Storage business to Hitachi since even the desktop drives were known as the DeathStar. So now, all 3 Inspiron 8200's are running Dual Hitachi 60GB 7200RPM drives which are clone once a night for the past year.

[®®®]

The IBM desktop HD was the LC35 series with firmware AVER07. I remember that pretty well , because I had to replace a couple of them at some customers of me. They just failed from one day to the other :) . I don't remember if they where produced in Thailand or Singapure.

sending it to over 20 data recovery companies

That must have been cost 10.000s of $ ?? What i know of is that the Data Recovery market is a hard fighted market and a well paid too.

If you are interested then have a look over at the MHDD Forum. It's just an idea, but you can run the Test of MHDD3.0 once a week. Dmitry over there once said (on running the MHDD test) "If you see something like "green/brown/red boxes" and it looks like a pattern, you have one (HD) head dying".

[Bill]

These past 3 days I have been gone because I had too much homework, but now I was just using my PC when I heard this strange clicking noise, :) (the same one I heard when my secondary 40 GB HD in my modular bay failed) and then my laptop locked up, it booted up fine, strangely. It might be time to get a new HD, any sugestiongs for a HD that is the same size and speed or bigger or faster that is not too expensive? Would Dell replace it for me?

And if so what is the easiest way to copy all data from the old HD to the new one?

[LSudlow]

The Hitachi 7K60 is a great 7200 RPM drive. You can find them on some of the discount web sites for very reasonable prices and the speed is excellent. The only drawback would be if you need more than 60MB, though I hear Hitachi will have 80MB and 100MB versions soon.

I'm a big fan of Norton Ghost for cloning hard drives. Just Clone and swap and you're done. For laptops, you'll need some way to copy to the new drive. I bought a cheap USB 2.0 external hard drive case. (I now have my old hard drive in the external case and use it as an external hard drive far making backups.)

I understand there is a shareware product that does the same kind of cloning, but can't remember the name. Maybe someone else can jump in here with more info.

Good luck!

:)

[Bill]

I have this 40 GB hard drive that went in my modular bay, it failed and I think I can take the HD out, put the new one in, clone it, then swap the drives out.

Now I just need to convince my dad to buy a $150+ 60 GB laptop HD right after I convinced him to get me a $110 160 GB desktop HD.

Does anyone know a really good place to get that HD for cheaper than $150?

My HD is starting to make clicking noises more often, I think it is about to go.

[Bill]

Alright guys, I think the HD is pretty much dead now, I will be buying that 60 GB 7,200 RPM Hitachi drive soon, I saw a site where I could get it for $152.

I am on our older Dell Desktop PC right now.

I just read some stuff about that HD, it sounds amazing, all the features and stuff it has. This link should have some info, if you scroll down there is more info about it that is interesting.

http://www.hitachigst.com/portal/site/hgst...fa0466460e4f0a0

And Almighty1, is this HD louder or does it generate more heat than the IBM 60 5,400 RPM one that comes with the I8200? Just curious.

I saw that the Hitachi 7,200 comes with high end Alienwares and stuff.

Bill

[®®®]

some info for 7K60: http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/index.php?showtopic=677

i should have post that earlier...

[Bill]

I was wondering, Is this a good place to buy the drive from?

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetai...ductCode=100519

Even though I can use my modular bay to plug both up at the same time, (if the old one will still work) I will do a fresh install.

I have had it for over 2 years so I guess it is about time to do one, would atleast free up HD space, once I get all the files and all 3 HDs sorted out.

Also, even though it is too late for this, I now have over 300 posts. :)

Bill

[mobilenvidia]

Congrats 300+ man, you are now eligiable for one free post of your choice.

How about $139 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...6713821484&rd=1

$145 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...6715221497&rd=1

$149 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...6714039480&rd=1

$150 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...6715317512&rd=1

Or for a complete list http://search-desc.ebay.com/7200rpm_Hard-D...rchedZ2QQsotrZ2

Enjoy.

[Bill]

I'm not too keen on buying stuff of ebay (yet), that site I picked out seems better.

Anyway I need to run some more tests and stuff and then contact Dell support again before my dad will let me buy a new HD.

[mobilenvidia]

The laptop that runs the website came from Ebay, I buy nearly everything computer related on auction sites, so much money to be saved.

I havn't been stung yet.

Just keep an eye on their feedback, you can generally trust someone with 1000+ positive feedbacks.

[Bill]

The thing is, I have never used ebay before, the next time I buy a computer related part or something I will probably buy from there.

I have the ordered the drive from that site I posted, it was $152 with free 2-day shipping, if it doesn't work I can return it withen 15 days and there is a 3 year warrenty.

I will report back here sometime this weekend or whatever if I get it installed and up and running.

I now need to figure out what kind of partitioning I will do.

Dell shipped the HD with a small hidden one and Windows on the other.

I might make a 30 GB and maybe a 25 one? (I will probably have about 55 GB free space, like my old drive)

Anyway, does anyone know what Dell might have put on the hidden one?

Because I guess I won't have that.

Bill

[LSudlow]

Dell just puts a diagnostic program on that extra partition. Nothing crucial.

[mobilenvidia]

Once you remove that partition your drive will fail and break down.

It's Dell's spare parts way of increasing business.

All the best with your new drive, I expect to see some benchies posted.

There is HDTach in the utilities HD section that is the best for this kind of stuff.

Enjoy, I'll just play with my 4200RPM 30GB snail.

[Bill]

I already have HDtach, and I have a bench for it on my old drive, I will post a compare pic or something.

[Bill]

Bump, I have the New HD formated and installed and have this to say.

HOLY @$%& I have never seen a laptop boot up this fast!

[®®®]

:) The 7K60 is still (for a year now!!) the non-plus-ultra HD for notebooks. There is no other HD who can even reach this performance. One year (!) without competetor in todays techology age is just unbeliebavle blind from the the other manufacturers. I wonder why no other jumped on the train of developing 2,5" 7200 rpm drives?

Bootup time of under 20 seconds became reality. Though Hibernation will give you a much faster "startup".

[Bill]

I will try that hibernation thing (hehe), I need to get some real graphics drivers on this thing soon. (from here of course)

I will probably be testing a lot of drivers again

need to decide between the 66.81 and 66.51 (havent tested it yet, was going to but that was right before I started having problems).

I also have noticed that I get some graphics bugs with the 66s that I dont have with the older drivers, so I might try some of the newer 40s and 61s maybe.

I will have benchmarks of the HD very soon, I can't post the pic yet. (need to install Paint Shop Pro 7 first and edit it and change to compression ratio first)

Also the bench of the old HD is on my external HD.

[Bill]

Alright guys, this is what you have been waiting for, I have 3 benchmarks with HDTach for my Hitachi 7K60.

Some were long tests, some were short, I decided to post all 3 of these ones.

Now my old drive, I have benchmark pics for it, but they are on the old drive :) , you guys will just have to trust me that it had a Burst Speed of 90 something MB/s and the Sequential Read Speed started at 26 MB/s and went down from there, If I can get the benchmark pic I will post it.

Discussion/comments on the benchmarks would be appreciated.

I will do some video capturing later this week if I have time, and will post about how much better I can capture high resolution video.

Bill

P.S. Just so you guys know, this new HD is smaller, faster, quieter, and generates less heat than my old hard drive.

Edit: The attached pic is my Seagate Barracuda 160 GB 7,200 RPM drive in my USB 2/firewire enclosure. It was using the firewire bus when I took this benchmark.

[Almighty1]

The IBM desktop HD was the LC35 series with firmware AVER07. I remember that pretty well , because I had to replace a couple of them at some customers of me. They just failed from one day to the other :) . I don't remember if they where produced in Thailand or Singapure.

sending it to over 20 data recovery companies

That must have been cost 10.000s of $ ?? What i know of is that the Data Recovery market is a hard fighted market and a well paid too.

If you are interested then have a look over at the MHDD Forum. It's just an idea, but you can run the Test of MHDD3.0 once a week. Dmitry over there once said (on running the MHDD test) "If you see something like "green/brown/red boxes" and it looks like a pattern, you have one (HD) head dying".

I don't think IBM DeskStar had a LC35 series... IBM hard drives can be made in Ireland, Japan, Thailand and Hungary. The last two obviously is where the problems are. I actually spent like $300 because most of the places don't charge you unless they can recover data. Only two places charged like $200 and $60 up front regardless if they can get anything back.