Opinions on Hard Drives?

I'm looking to upgrade my 640gb WD harddrive to something bigger, Can you guys tell me what drives your using? Any good deals out there? I tried a WD 2TB Green Enterprise Drive and it was defective ot would write sometimes or just freeze and shut everything down..really weird! My first negative WD experience ever!

I think your 640GB is probably fine as boot drive unless you are overloading it, to keep as the system drive (OS/Apps); and looking to expand your internal storage to add media drive; backup (TimeMachine and SuperDuper); perhaps add a drive or part of a drive for scratch; or even combine 2-3 drives into a stripe array.
My preference: 10K VelociRaptor(s) for system (can also use RAID0)
WD Black 1TB or probably now the Samsung F3 1TB (1-3) for media, use part for scratch etc.
2TB Green drives probably for backup and archive.
If you want 1.5TB, the choices are fewer.
If you must go 2TB, one choice would be WD only the RE4 model; or Hitachi.
As for your experience, I strongly recommend installing Windows and running WD's own Diagnostic program - thoroughly - Extended Test, plus full drive zero, and of course those probably need to be done overnight. Map out and insure every sector is working properly, it will prompt you to map out any that it finds trouble with. I've seen significant improvement just from such break-in testing.
And before you are done testing, benchmark and see what kind of I/O graph you get from the drive, especially the minimum and whether you get a nice smooth decending curve.

Similar Messages

Opinions on Hard Drive Testing Software

This will be a 2 part question, since I'm new to this forum.
First, I own both a MBP and an iMac. The question I posted in the MBP section was this:
--------START OF POST-------
Hello friends!
I came across the following link on hard drive test tools and was curious about the opinions people have for them, against them, or no opinion. Here's the link:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1544280
I would caution to read really only the first post because it contains the information I'm interested in, and later on the discussion quickly turns into complaint session about "Mac Keeper" which I have absolutely no interest in replicating.
In advance, I thank you for your input!
---------END OF POST---------
The other question has to do with this forum. The question above isn't system specific since all Apple computers have a hard drive or SSD of some sort. Is there a way to post a question into all hardware related forums instead of doing what I've done above, which is copy and paste from a previous thread to the other?
As before, in advance, I thank you for your input!

He wants to test his hard drives because it's fun and entertaining!!!
I've seen that list before. I think it's become somewhat of the DeFacto list of those types of tools on the web.
I use Scannerz myself because I didn't see any point in paying $100 for some of the other tools when a new drive costs anywhere from $40-$70 (US) for a "normal" sized drive. If you use its cursory mode it can scan SSDs and to the best of my knowledge it's the only tool that's capable of presenting Fusion Drive's to the end user on both a component basis (ie the SSD and the hard drive individually) or as a single entity (ie the entire Fusion Drive as a single unit). At present I don't have an SSD because I've been reading too many stories about third party units being problematic, but I'm assuming (is that safe??) that this will change in the next year or two.
Considering how differently SSDs handle data vs. a hard drive, I have to wonder how good some of the features of the more expensive tools will be in the long run. For example, right now if a file is erased on a traditional hard drive, the data isn't really gone until it's overwritten, it's just marked as free space. This allows "recovery tools" to recover data. On an SSD with garbage collection enabled, I would think this would more or less kill that option. And of course, with an SSD, defragmentation isn't needed at all.
It's sort of interesting how somehow or other, Mac Keeper managed to make it's way into that thread. If I open up a weather web site, there's an ad for Mac Keeper telling me I need to clean my Mac. If I log into a newspaper, once again, there's Mac Keeper telling me to clean my Mac. Some guy does a post on a web about drive testing tools, and in one way or another Mac Keeper STILL manages to end up dominating it...although in this case not so favorably!

I think my hard drive is failing but would appreciate other's opinions

I had a problem where my system was more frequently getting beach balls of death, freezing, etc. after an upgrade to Snow Leopard. It finally got to the point that it would no longer boot up.
I tried everything I could think of from disk utility to running single user and manually running fsck. Finally, I broke down and got a copy of Diskwarrior. DW was able to rebuilt the directory and I was able to get my data onto my external HD. By the way, DW was not able to replace the damaged directory with the rebuilt one because it indicated there was a disk malfunction (hardware problem not software).
After I took off my data, I used my Leopard install disk to erase the hard drive and then install. However, I did not use the zero out data function, just simple erase. I then reinstalled Leopard.
After the install was complete, it said it would restart, which it did. Unfortunately, once it restarted and went through the welcome screen, it asked to set up. At the point I was setting up my account picture, it just froze again with the beachball of death. I couldn't get it to unlock to did a reset/restart.
Once it came back, after a very long boot time, I ran disk utility and asked it to verify the disk. It then gave an error of invalid index key along with the volume macintosh hd needs to be repaired and Error:Filesystem verify or repair failed.
Oh one last thing, I did let the installation dvd does through its own verification before installation and it reported no problems.
So, my feeling is that it's not a good sign when a fresh clean installation has problems from the start. As a result, I think that my HD is starting to bite the dust and needs to be replaced.
Any other opinions out there? Has anyone had really bad problems with their system where an initial fresh install didn't solve things but it turns out HD was fine?
Don't really want to buy a new HD, but on the other hand don't want to install to a damaged HD and have to go through all this again in a few weeks.
Opinions??
Thanks in advance,
Dan

Checking the RAM is a great idea. I'll give that a try and see what happens.
I've downloaded a SMART utility but the problem with SMART is that most of the time is doesn't detect an actual pending drive failure until the drive is completely dead. Right now, SMART says all is well, but clearly something is wrong.
Update: I completely scrubbed the HD last night, installed Leopard, and installed updates. After the updates were installed, I went to close the finder window that automatically appears on the desktop after installation. Well, as you might guess, instead of closing the window, beachball of death! Only thing I could do was shutdown via power switch.
I'll test the RAM and see what that says. If RAM checks out, it's time to get a new HD. Really miss Newegg over here in these parts!

I just purchased a macbook air, and because of the limited memory (256 gb) and my HUGE music library, I need aomne form of external storage. i am considering either using iCloud for iTunes, or purchasing an external hard drive. suggestions or opinions?

hi! just purchased a macbook air, and because of the limited storage (256 gb) and my massive music library, I am going to find an alternative storage method. I am debating between an external hard drive and utilizing iCloud. icloud makes me a little nervous....having my entire library in "the cloud" and deleted off of my desktop - do most of you who use icloud for music and photos have a backup on external hard drive anyway? So....iCloud vs. external hard drive for storage. Thoughts? opinions? thanks!

iTunes Match allows you to put 25,000 songs in the Cloud. At present it isn't possible to add more storage but I wouldn be surprised if that isn't an option offered in the future. With iTunes Match you allow Apple to match your songs (purchased from Apple, ripped from your own CDs are purchased elsewhere). When Apple cannot match a song a copy of yours is uploaded.
Once the match process is complete (for my 24,000+ collection it took a couple days) the fun begins. Since my MBA can't hanle all my music, I use iTunes Match to download a small selection of my music every couple of weeks. My music remains in the cloud even when I delete them from my computer and if I have WiFi accesss I can get new songs. It is a great service and much more convenient than keeping your MBA's music on an external drive.

Hard Drive Disaster - Need opinions on how to get up ASAP

Hi,
I have a crisis on my hands. I brought a Virtual machine up about a month ago with Windows Server 2012 R2 and then proceeded to install Exchange 2013 on it. Approximately a week ago I migrated all the mailboxes from Exchange 2007
to the new machine. After the migration I set Exchange 2013 up with Exchange Online Protection and Azure Rights management and started syncing our Active Directory.
Now for the bad part: the raid 1 configuration on the server was not syncing the drives and I hadn’t started making backups of the server. The hard drive containing the virtual machine configuration and the virtual hard drive crashed
without warning 2 days ago. Please don’t beat me up about the backups, I already know how stupid it was to not backup a business critical machine. The hard drive is currently with a data recovery company and they estimate there is a 90% chance of 100% recovery
of the data. However, I want to be prepare for the worst and would like opinions on what my options are.
Possible outcomes:
Everything is recovered and the Virtual Machine fires right up. (I am not very optimistic about this)
I am able to recover the exchange databases from the failed hard drive.
Nothing is recovered.
Preferably option one is what occurs. However, please give me your thoughts on what the best way to get up and running ASAP if I can’t start the machine. I am not an expert but I had the following ideas:
If I am able to recover the database can I bring a new server up and move the database to it?
Bring a new server up, create a new database and import the user’s .PST files.
Since active directory was synced with Microsoft, maybe I can purchase Exchange Hosted and then import the user’s .pst files?
Any guidance on the above thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
There a multiple domain controllers in the environment and the old Exchange 2007 server is still up. I believe I still have backups of the Exchange 2007 server with all the mailboxes on it.

Alright, I am going to post a walk through in case it can help someone else in the future.
I brought a new Windows 2012 R2 server up and then proceeded to install Exchange 2013 with the recovery switch as BoS pointed out in his posted.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd876880(v=exchg.150).aspx
The installation failed with:
Disaster recovery setup needs access to the log drive C:\Program files\Microsoft Exchange\v15\mailbox\mailbox database
xxxxxxxx to continue."
and
"Disaster recovery setup needs access to the mailbox database drive C:\Program files\Microsoft Exchange\v15\mailbox\mailbox
database xxxxxxxx\mailbox database xxxxxxxx.edb to continue."
To get around the errors, I created the path on the hard drive C:\Program files\Microsoft Exchange\v15\mailbox\mailbox
database xxxxxxxx and then created a text file with an .edb extension and put it in the folder. On the second attempt to the install it failed with:
Configuring Microsoft Exchange Server
Preparing Setup
COMPLETED
Stopping Services                                        COMPLETED
Copying Exchange Files                              COMPLETED
Language Files                                            COMPLETED
Restoring Services                                      COMPLETED
Languages
COMPLETED
Hub Transport Server Role
FAILED
The following error was generated when "$error.Clear();
Install-ExchangeCertificate -DomainController $RoleDomainController -Services SMTP " was run: "The internal
transport certificate for the local server was damaged or missing in Active Directory. The problem has been fixed. However, if you have existing Edge Subscriptions, you must subscribe all Edge Transport servers again by using the New-EdgeSubscription cmdlet
in the Shell.".
The solution in this post pointed me in the right direction:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/exchange/en-US/d3c443da-6977-43ac-9d20-dc2b0a619e89/exchange-2010-failed-recovery-help?forum=exchangesvravailabilityandisasterrecoverylegacy
However, instead of
"MsExchSyncCredential"
it is “MsExchEdgeSyncCredential”.
On the third attempt to install the installation failed with:
A Setup failure previously occurred while installing the HubTransport role.
Either run Setup again for just this role, or remove the role using Control Panel.
By following the steps to delete the water mark as shown in example 5 on
This site I was able to complete the installation of Exchange.
After Exchange was installed I created a new mailbox database and mounted it. Even though I did not have the old database
I was able to associate all the email address from it with the new database by running the following in powershell:
Get-Mailbox –Database “OldDatabaseName” | Set-Mailbox –Database “NewDatabaseName”
At this point users were able to start logging into the new Exchange server.
Using the pst files I made from Outlook I was able to import the data back into the new server by following the steps shown
here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee332351(v=exchg.150).aspx
As Troy pointed out, the Outlook cache needs to be exported to .pst files before Outlook connects to the new server.
On a side note, previous to bringing the new server up, I made .pst files from the user’s offline folders in case everything was deleted when the user connected Outlook to the new server; it was not necessary. When
Outlook (2010 and 2013) connected to the new server a warning window popped up informing the user that their mailbox had been temporarily moved to a new server and gave them the option to use the temporary mailbox or their old data. At any time you should
be able to select the old data option and then export it to pst.
I am currently waiting to receive the logs and the Mailbox database back from the data retrieval company.
As soon as I have copies I am going to import any data that might be missing into the new database.

Would like some opinions re: best backup software/external hard drives for windows xp and windows 7

Recently tried to restore a corrupted hard drive with a Toshiba canvio hard drive with NTI Backup Now EZ I purchased in 2010. Was only able to restore a few files, had a very hard time working with the software, even contacted NTI, still not much luck. Am unhappy with the NTI software, and want to know what external hard drives and what software the community has used and would recommend for Windows XP and Windows 7? Thank you so much in advance for your time and opinions.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

It doesn't matter which external drive you use.
Let's talk about backing up the entire drive. Be sure to burn the disc that enables you to restore.
Windows XP does not have a decent image backup built-in. I understand this free one works well.
EaseUS Todo Backup Free
Windows 7 has a decent one.
Learn more about system image backup
Windows 8 contains the same backup. Open "Windows 7 File Recovery" (sdclt.exe).
-Jerry

I am a novice - I need a simple, plug & go, external hard drive ... Have read various reports about Time Capsule ... Any opinions or alternatives? I am old, & need simple answers please - nothing complicated ... Thanks ...

I am a novice - I need a simple, reliable, plug & go (U.K.) external hard drive (1-3 TB) Have read various reports (good & bad) about Time Capsules - opinions & alternatives please .. I am old, so please keep answers simple - anything containing 'stuff' I won't understand & I'll ignore it .... Thanks in anticipation ...

I consider Time Capsule slow, mainly because it depends upon a wireless network for backing up. I tried it, but went back to the plug and play FW800 wired backup. Since this particular forum is for the MacBook Pro hardware, I'd suggest the following two forums to search for your answer (or ask questions):
Time Machine
Time Capsule
Since you want easy, the external hard drive is about as easy as it gets. Buy. Unpack. Plug into your Mac. Format (if you don't buy a Mac formatted one, which is unnecessary). Go to System Preferences>Time Machine. Choose the disk as the time machine. Turn on.

A135-S2326 replacing hard drive (bad sectors) Need advice and opinions Please

Hi, (note pic below of my computers actual specs from this morning)
I have a Satellite A135-S2326. It has the max memory at 2GB, it came with 512 and I upgraded to 2GB. It runs Windows Vista Home Edition...
Anyhow, it accidentally fell off my bed a few days ago (darn dogs) and damaged my hard drive. Boot problems, errors, bad sectors, etc. I have tried everything to fix and to no avail. While I am currently using it I know I need to replace the hard drive ASAP before I can't turn it on at all one day... I am now saving all my files and stuff I need off of it to an external drive. The laptop did not come with a windows Vista restore CD so I am using Acronis software to make an image of the hard disc, hopefully it will work and I won't have to purchase my own copy of windows Vista.
Some questions I have are:
1.) Is it possible to upgrade the hard drive to a faster one / better one when I replace?
     The hard drive that came preinstalled is a Hitachi HTS541680J9SA00 80GB, which I believe from spec's documentation is a 5400RPM Serial- ATA ???
     What is the max size I can get for replacement and what is the max RPM, or do I HAVE to use a 5400RPM???
     What do you suggest?
2.) I have a copy of windows XP Professional w/SP2. Is it possible to put this windows XP Pro.w/SP2 on a fresh hard drive in the Satellite A135-S2326? If so, is there a different hard drive that I must have to do that? Also if an XP install is possible on a new hard drive, which drivers must I have for this laptop when I do it??
3.) And finally, could this laptop handle windows 7 business? Only asking because I can get a VERY cheap copy of windows 7 business from my school...I'm in college at DeVry and can get a copy of Windows 7 delivered to my door in 2 weeks for less then $30.00. So thought that MAY be an option....??? Not sure if my other spec's can handle it though???
4.) What would you suggest I do with the options I have, what is best thing to do in your opinion??
      Please see pic below of my actual computers specs from this morning, using Belarc Advisor...
Thank you in advance
Any help is GREATLY appreciated
Urgently waiting replies,
Tina from Florida
(tinafromflorida)
Computer Profile Summary
Computer Name:
Beanersputer (in MSHOME)
Profile Date:
Monday, September 21, 2009 9:29:54 AM
Advisor Version:
7.2x
Windows Logon:
nello
Operating System
System Model
Windows Vista Home Basic Service Pack 2 (build 6002)
TOSHIBA Satellite A135 PSAD6U-01800D
System Serial Number: 37334232K
Enclosure Type: Notebook
Processor a
Main Circuit Board b
1.60 gigahertz Intel Celeron M 520
64 kilobyte primary memory cache
1024 kilobyte secondary memory cache
Board: TOSHIBA IAYAA 1.00
BIOS: TOSHIBA V1.20 03/06/2007
Drives
Memory Modules c,d
78.45 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
13.51 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space
MAT**bleep**A DVD-RAM UJ-850S ATA Device [CD-ROM drive]
Hitachi HTS541680J9SA00 [Hard drive] (80.03 GB) -- drive 0, s/n SB2204SGCULZ6E, rev SB2OC7DP, SMART Status: Healthy
1918 Megabytes Installed Memory
Slot 'J401' is Empty
Slot 'J400' has 2048 MB
Local Drive Volumes
c: (NTFS on drive 0)
78.45 GB
13.51 GB free
Network Drives
None detected
Users (mouse over user name for details)
Printers
local user accounts
last logon
nello
9/21/2009 9:17:22 AM
(admin)
local system accounts
    Administrator
9/1/2007 9:32:47 PM
(admin)
Guest
9/12/2009 1:14:34 AM
Marks a disabled account;   Marks a locked account
Adobe PDF Converter
on Documents\*.pdf
Microsoft XPS Document Writer
on XPSPort:
Send To Microsoft OneNote Driver
on Send To Microsoft OneNote Port:
Controllers
Display
IDE Channel [Controller] (4x)
Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller (2x)
ATI RADEON XPRESS 200M Series [Display adapter]
Generic PnP Monitor (19.7"vis)
Bus Adapters
Multimedia
ENE CB1410 Cardbus Controller
Microsoft iSCSI Initiator
ATI I/O Communications Processor USB 1.1 OHCI controller (2x)
ATI I/O Communications Processor USB 2.0 EHCI controller
Realtek High Definition Audio
Communications
Other Devices
TOSHIBA Software Modem
6TO4 Adapter
6TO4 Adapter
6TO4 Adapter
6TO4 Adapter
6TO4 Adapter
Atheros AR5006EG Wireless Network Adapter
isatap.domain_not_set.invalid
isatap.gateway.2wire.net
isatap.launchmodem.com
isatap.
Microsoft 6to4 Adapter #2
Microsoft 6to4 Adapter #3
Microsoft 6to4 Adapter #4
Microsoft 6to4 Adapter #5
Microsoft 6to4 Adapter #6
Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #2
Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #3
Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #4
Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #5
Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #6
Microsoft ISATAP Adapter #7
Realtek RTL8139/810x Family Fast Ethernet NIC
Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface
Networking Dns Server:
Acronis Backup Archive Explorer
Microsoft AC Adapter
Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery
Logitech Driver Interface (2x)
HID-compliant consumer control device
HID-compliant device (2x)
USB Human Interface Device (2x)
Standard PS/2 Keyboard
Logitech HID-compliant Cordless Mouse
Synaptics PS/2 Port TouchPad [Mouse]
USB Composite Device
USB Root Hub (3x)
Generic volume shadow copy

You can use ANY 2.5" SATA hard drive of any size in that system. I would recommend one of the Western Digital Scorpio BLue's as they are reliable and offer good performance.
If it runs Vista it will run Windows 7. I would wait a bit before trying Win7 though as Toshiba hasn't released all of the Windows 7 drivers yet.
As for Windows XP, while it is possible to install XP on that system (and quite easily for that matter) Toshiba doesn't provide any of the XP drivers needed to get it to run properly. You could determine all of the various chipsets the system uses and go to each chipsat manufacturer's support site to see if they provide an XP driver to get it working, but I don't guarantee that they have all of the needed drivers. If you do decide to go ahead with this let me know and I'll post the directions for installing XP onto a SATA hard drive that doesn't ahve a floppy drive.
Right now your best choice is to replace the old hard drive and restore the system from your Acronis image. When ALL of the Windows 7 drivers become available you could install it in a dual boot configuration to determine if you prefer it or not. It is both a step up and a step back from Windows Vista. Some people will like it while others won't. Only you will be able to determine which you prefer.
If you don't post your COMPLETE model number it's very difficult to assist you. Please try to post in complete sentences with punctuation, capitals, and correct spelling. Toshiba does NOT provide any direct support in these forums. All support is User to User in their spare time.

External Hard Drives and Time Capsule Backup Setup Opinions

Bottom line up front:
If you had two 1.5 Terrabyte Western Digital MyBook drives and an AirPort 1.5 TB Time Capsule, and you wanted duplicate backups of time machine (automated) as well as additional storage space for Movies and Photo's...
How would you use these three devices to accomplish this?
Also, these two drives are eSata, FireWire (400?) and USB 2.0 cabable.
Any input or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks in advance for your replies!
Commentary below:
After having lost 14,000 pictures from a Terrabyte drive from iOmega crashing, it's time to get serious about my data backup.
I currently have the 1.5 TerraByte Time Capsule on my network humming along nicely. (or so it appears)
I'm nearing the usable space of my iMac's hard drive.
Also, I'd like to have an 'additional' backup of my Time Machine. Is this possible? i.e. two backups at two different times on two different disks?
What would this group recommend as a way to set them up?
i.e. formating? Journaling? No Journaling? Partitions for the iMovie and iPhoto libraries?

hwilke01 wrote:
Hi there- thanks for taking the time to read an respond. I have 320 Gigs of data on my iMac hard drive that I want to backup.
then you have plenty of space to do backups and then some. back up via TM to the Time capsule. make a separate clone backup to one of the externals. you can partition it if you like. don't back up just imovie and iphoto to that drive. back up everything. this way you'll have double backups of everything. i suggest you use superduper or CCCloner for the secondary backups. that will give you a bootable clone as your second backup. make sure that the external drive is formatted properly. the partition scheme should be GUID and the format mac os extended journaled. to format a drive you open disk utility. select the whole external drive (model, not name) and click on the partition tab. set the number of partitions to 1 (or whatever), click on options and set the partition scheme to GUID. set the format to mac os extended journaled (that's the default) and click "apply".
I'd also like to have a separate partioned backup of my iPhoto and iMovie databases. Is there a preferred way of doing this?
Thanks again

Hard drive issues...running out of ideas...opinions?

Hello everyone!
Let me start by saying that I love all of my Apple products. I've been able to use an iPod mini, another iPod, an iPhone, a Powerbook G4 and a MacBook with no daily or otherwise recurring issue; however, the reason I now have a MacBook is because the Powerbook G4's hard drive died. Sad, but after 3 1/2 years of problem-free use in college...I could justify the upgrade.
I purchased the MacBook from my university at a nice discount back in March of this year (this was right after the newest batch was released). I was comforted by the fact that I'd more than likely have another 3-4 years before a replacement would be needed. Now, I'm not so sure...
One day last week, a tab that was opened in Safari froze up, and a song playing in iTunes began to hang. I attempted a force quit of both, but with no luck. Eventually I had no other option but to shut the computer down. Afterwards, I began getting the infamous flashing question mark upon booting back up. I realized that I'd probably had some damaged files as a result of the forced shut down, so I began working with Disk Utility/First Aid to correct the problem. Luckily, I had no important files or programs to worry about, so I went for the Erase option and hoped I could just re-install the OS.
Unfortunately it was not that easy. Now my hard drive is not showing up as Verified under the S.M.A.R.T. status, and the volume "disk1s2" will not mount. I tried everything I could find on these boards, still with no luck. So, I went for Disk Warrior today and crossed my fingers. When the menu finally loaded, there were 2 options in the drop down menu: the disk warrior cd, and an Unknown Drive. When I chose the latter, this is what I was met with:
Directory cannot be rebuilt due to disk hardware failure (-36,2268).
I'm almost convinced that I need a new hard drive. However, when I run the Apple Hardware Test, everything checks out fine. I ran it twice. Also, when I run a test on the hardware in Disk Warrior, I get this message:
This hard drive's built-in SMART diagnostics indicate the drive is functioning normally.
Now, with my old Powerbook G4, the hard drive doesn't even show up in Disk Utility. That I can understand. It needs to be replaced. But with this MacBook, all the tests indicate the hard drive is fine. The only blatent message about hardware failure I get is when I try rebuilding the directory with Disk Warrior. I know I'm probably just in denial, but when my computer is only 5 months old...I think I have the right.
So, what is your opinion? New hard drive for the 5 month old MacBook (grrr)? Or is there still hope left?

SMART diagnostics are by no means all-encompassing, so it's quite possible for a drive to pass SMART diagnostics but still be defective. My advice at this point would be to boot from the Installer, go to Disk Utility, and see if you can erase, or if that doesn't work re-partition (normally you'll choose to create a single partition) the drive. A badly corrupted disk catalog might not be reparable, but reformatting may work.
If that also fails, then the probability of the drive being defective is quite high and replacing it will probably be necessary. The tiny drives used in laptops are by nature of their very small components more prone to failure than are other drives, though as capacity and performance rise, even desktop drives are becoming more prone to breaking.
Hope this helps.

What are the best External Hard Drives In your opinions?

Hi, I have quite a few Mac's G5 Quad, Power Book, down to I-macs. I would like to ask all you apples users what you think are the best External Hard Drives? I have quite a few Lacie's but am dissapointed at their reliability. have had to send at least 3 back and lost all date! (had a back-up of the back-up) ..... I have thousands of high res pictures that I would like to back-up and my entire music library of 2000 CD's. Could you please tell me what the most reliable and compatible Hard Drives are? I was thinking of getting G Drive Q's. As I saw them in the apple store. What do you guys think? Thanks.....

I assume you are thinking in terms of FireWire still? In which case I'll 2nd the OWC Oxford cases. Though I buy FW800. I have not bought any which are 'built in RAID enabled' or dual. I do have one $68 dual bay SATA drive case though connected to Sonnet Tempo SATA controller ($79). Not bootable but great.
Best: SATA
2nd: FW800/400 - and you might want to put a FW800 PCIe controller if you use them heavily or a lot.
You want to isolate consumer firewire electronics and hard drives as far away from each other - and not share or daisy chain - too much noise on the cable interferes with drives.

Looking to Buy a Hard Drive Enclosure - Opinions?

I'm looking to buy a hard drive enclosure to attach to my linux box, and I'm wondering if anyone has had any experience with the AEN-U35SE from Airlink (see http://www.airlink101.com/products/aenu35se.php ). It's fairly cheap at my local Fry's, but I'm wondering if anyone has had any issues with it, both with linux compatibility and cooling (they say it's fanless, and I'm not sure if that's good or bad). This would be attached to a server as bulk storage and wouldn't be under high usage, but I'm not wanting to doom my hard drive to certain death.
I can't find any reviews of it at all online, so I guess it must be at least fairly new. It's not carried by Tigerdirect or NewEgg, so I can't find anything there.
EDIT:
Gah, this product is apparantly discontinued, which is probably why NewEgg and TigerDirect didn't have it. Anything anyone can recommend? I only need one drive, and fanless is good as long as the drive doesn't overheat.
Last edited by arew264 (2009-06-12 22:46:07)

combuster wrote:Just avoid coolermaster enclosures, they don't work on linux, got a x-craft lite 250 on some laptop review competition and it doesn't get recognized...
Shame on them, that or just plain cheap crappy chips they used to make it
On the issue of enclosures .... nothing I can recommend because so far I'm not happy with any I bought. On the compatibility side they are all ok but after a good period of time (1year or 1.5years) the the hd sometimes starts acting strange. It stops and restarts almost immediately, a problem that doesn't happen when I plug it inside my desktop pc. In one of the external enclosures I have narrowed the problem to the power supply.
I could plug a Y power cable and monitor the voltages with a multimeter, the 5V rail would be 4.5V when the disk acted strange but for some reason sometimes the rail was close to the nominal 5V (4.9V~5.1V) and everything would work well.
Because of this I have started to believe that the power supplies that have the 12V and 5V output are a big no no, there are several reasons for me not to like it specially because all of the 2 I have behave the same way >_<.
If possible I would get an enclosure that receives only 12V from the outside and then generates the 5V internally but I believe that is hard to find.
The two enclosures I have have are:
http://en.vipower.com/products01_01.php?ID=154 (this one as a bit expensive usb2 to ide)
http://www.tecforsis.pt/produto.asp?idproduto=16907 (cheap box usb2 to sata/ide)

Any opinions on Oyen external hard drive for Macbook Pro 13 inch 10.5.8

I have a new 13 inch macbook pro 10.5.8....
I need an external hard drive and was thinking of getting
Oyen 3.5-inch FireWire 800/400, eSATA, USB External Hard Drive......Anyone have experience with this
company or proucts?
Any recommendations for a a different company? Any external hard drive that should be avoided?
Thanks

eww wrote:
Any external hard drive that should be avoided?
Yes: I would avoid Western Digital external drives — all of them. The hard drives themselves are fine, but the hardware in WD's enclosures produces no end of problems.
Thanks for the quick response......One of the detals given on the Oyen website regading the external hard dive is *Internal Drive: Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS*
I am not very computer literate.....Does this mean this is basically a Western Digital Product that should be avoided? Or is there a distinction between the "+company name"+ of the external hard drive and the producer of the internal drive? i.e. Is Western Digital producing products under a different name?
Thanks
Thanks

Probably a toasted hard drive, but seeking 2nd (3rd, 4th) opinions

I just acquired a 1.42 G4 Mac Mini off CL. The seller said the hard drive was kaput, so I got it cheap. I've tried installing an OS with the original install disc and the 10.4 CPU drop-in upgrade DVD. When I run Disk Utility, it says everything is fine. Apple Hardware Test says everything is good too. I was able to install 10.3 from the original discs once, but the 10.4 upgrade couldn't find the 10.3 install and wouldn't run the upgrade. I reformatted and zeroed out all the data, and still no errors found. I got to about 1 tick away from completing a 10.3 install and it hung. It starts up and everything works fine from the boot CDs, so it seems the unit as a whole is functioning normally, just having issues with the hard drive. Maybe it's time to get out the putty knives...

I never had time to set the clock or anything that the PRAM keeps track of. When I got home, I opened the case and there was a LOT of dust and crap built up in it. I cleaned it all out, thinking maybe it was overheating. That didn't help. I put in a different hard drive (that was a project), and everything is working well. Not a bad little machine. Nice and quiet.

Opinions on the Turbo Memory hard drive cache

What advantage does this give? Is this just fluff?
Is the onboard hard drive cache not enough? If not, if this really did something, why wouldn't it be larger than 8mb?
I see no other companies offering this option and can't find much information on it.
Does anyone have it? Does anyone take it seriously?
Thank you
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Click Here.....it gives some good reading on Turbo Memory [courtesy of AnandTech]
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Opinions on Hard Drives?

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