Issues with Toshiba Satellites and Western Digital WDC HDDs

Question

As much as I want to thank Jerry Lippey for helping me several times with issues regarding my boyfriend's A665-S6095 laptop, I am DONE with Toshiba.
For the FOURTH or FIFTH time now (it's so bad I've lost count) this satellite has crashed while using a WDC Scorpio Black HDD. I have gone through FOUR HHDs in the last year and a half. I am not joking. NO ONE has time to diagnose and solve this many computer issues in such a short amount of time unless they are a paid techinician.
The last time the HDD failed I tried to get WDC to send me the non-AFT drive that I had bought, but they told me that the BEKT version of the BPKT I bought was "not in stock". For almost a month. And yet it came back in stock on Amazon and one or two other stores online. So when I called back to say WHAT THE HELL, instead of asking me what I wanted them to do, they just decided to send me a larger drive with AFT, as if that would soothe my aggravation.
But honestly, I don't see how this can all be WDC's fault. I mean, if you compare the number of forum posts referencing satellite versus non-satellite models, there is no way that number is proportionally equal to the number of satellite versus non-satellite models sold. I wish I had known how terrible Toshiba is before he bought the laptop, or my mother bought my brother a different satellite model. I'd have told each to shoot themselves in the foot instead.
My boyfriend was trying to copy pictures from his Galaxy Note II onto his laptop, but when he plugged the phone in by a usb/micro usb cord and opened windows explorer, the computer froze.
I shut it down manually, and since then it has not been able to boot at all. BIOS recognizes the drive make and model, but nothing will load; the screen goes black after the Toshiba welcome screen and nothing happens. I tried booting from both a win7 recovery disc and the 1st Toshiba recovery disc I made with the laptop; the former won't load at all and the latter goes through the "windows is loading files" progress bar, then the "microsoft windows" progress bar, brings up the cursor and stops doing anything. I can move the mouse, but the light on the HDD indicator illuminates for about 5 seconds then shuts off for less than a second, over and over. For a fraction of a second I can see an error code reading something like "No Emulation Type 00" before the recovery cd loads. I don't know what that means exactly.
If I hadn't had previous issues with Toshiba TVAP software having compatibility issues with Windows, or if the laptop would freeze part way through installing windows updates I wouldn't have trouble blaming only WDC. But clearly Toshiba has major issues (at least) with Satellites, and except for the one person on this forum who knows what he is talking about - and let's be serious, we can't blame him for not being able to answer EVERYTHING posted on here - their tech support $^(($ B@!!$. Just like their products.
The fact that the only answer I've found is to only replace Toshiba HDDs with OEM HDDs is complete bull.
Sure, it is possible that the way the laptop is used causes some of the issues I've had, but FOUR HDDs? Really? What else in a laptop can go bad that could possibly help to kill off the drive? What else could possibly contribute to the agony I have to go through to keep this laptop running?
Time to go back to work, now that I've spent over an hour trouble-shooting and writing this rant.

Answer 1

Hi I'm fairly new to the forum. I'm sure Jerry will have a reply for you. 4 failed HD's is unreal. I 'm sure you know why HD's fail. I know you are very aggravated, but I would just like to ask a couple of questions. How are you testing these failed HD's. Seatools has two great free programs seatools for windows and seatools dos. Also I'm very curious about your Anti-Virus program. Viruses are really getting tough, and can wipe out your HD in seconds. If your OS gets corrupted, windows will no longer boot. I'm going to post some things that I'm sure you already know. I also would like to know how your boy friend uses his lap top. I live in a retirement village and I fix computers for free. I have see some really bad stuff. I have had to restore a couple back to factory because they were so badly infected. Power surges can really do a number on a HD. I'm going to post the link to a bootable seatools dos. It will be a ISP file and you will need to burn it to a cd. Test your drive and see what happens. I'm sure Jerry will have a comment for you. He's pretty smart.
http://www.seagate.com/support/internal-hard-drives/consumer-electronics/ld25-series/seatools-dos-ma...
Why do hard disks fail?
Because hard disks are mechanical devices, they are subject to wearing out, even if you treat them better than your own children. Around 60% of hard drive failures occur through predictable mechanical failure, with the remaining 40% of failures occurring through misuse. Hard disk failure might occur if any of the following happens:
Your computer is bumped or jostled while it is running;
The electric motor which allows the platter to spin fails due to bad bearings or other components;
The filter on your air intake gets too clogged or the filter isn't working properly;
Extreme heat while running causes the electronic circuit board to fail;
There is a sudden power failure while the disk is writing.
Types of hard drive failure
There are two main types of hard drive failure - physical and logical.
Physical failures are often due to a failure of the electric motor or the drive itself - the moving parts. They can also happen because of a major head crash (caused by your computer being dropped or jostled while it's running).
Logical failures come from corruption in the file system. If you've accidentally deleted an important registry entry or formatted the drive improperly, or if you have a nasty virus, hard drive problems will occur. The BIOS will recognize the drive, but it won't boot.
I Love my Satellite L775D-S7222 Laptop. Some days you're the windshield, Some days you're the bug. The Computer world is crazy. If you have answers to computer problems, pass them forward.