Having hard drive failure every year

Question

Trying to find out why the hard drives on our computer HP TouchSmart 310-1124F keeps failing.  Purchased this computer new in 2011, in February of 2012 the hard drive failed, message was "Hard desk failure is imminent have it replaced" so I did.  Now in 2013 I'm getting another message " we strongly recommend that you back up your computer to avoid potential data loss ... contact your computer manufacturer to determine if the disk with errors needs to be repaired or replaced."  The computer is attached to a good battery backup, it's not used for extended Internet work, No new programs have been downloaded, it is not used to download or upload information and although it's not our main computer it is used daily.  What is going on, is anyone having same issues.  I feel the computer itself is a lemon.  This will be the 3rd hard drive in 2 years on this machine!  By- the- way I did contact the Tech. department telling them the error message but was only told this computer was "not in warranty now" and that ... "you'll need to purchase a new hard drive"  No offer or indication as to a possible repair could be done. Yeah that dosen't make me feel that great about this product.  I just want to find out why the hard drives installed on this machine only last one (1) year! Any advise would be appreciated, thank you.

Answer 1

WRI-Jupiter,
Your computer may not / most likely doesn't have anything to do with the hard drive failures you have experienced. Drive manufacturers have been reducing the warranty period on drives for years. Also, as drive density has gone up, it appears that quality control has gone down.
Was the first drive replaced under warranty by HP or did you do it yourself??? Have you kept the computer free of "dust bunnies"??? What is the average temperature where you live???
By the way, the "we strongly recommend that you back up your computer to avoid potential data loss ... contact your computer manufacturer to determine if the disk with errors needs to be repaired or replaced" message was primarily just for your information. Because the warranty has expired, HP will no longer repair the machine without you incurring additional costs.
Your best bet is to;
1)  Follow the advice of the message above and back-up any and all data you wish to save before the computer encounters a major hard drive issue.
2)  Run the hard drive diagnostics from the boot menu or DOWNLOAD and run the HP Vision Hardware Diagnostics CD Image.
3)  Also consider downloading and running the hard drive manufacturuer's diagnostics routine and see if it generates an error code. If the drive is still under warranty and you receive an error code, contact the manufacturer for an RMA.
4)  When replacing the drive make sure to blow all the dust out of the computer and continue this practice about every three months.
Please send KUDOs
Frank
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