[magkelly]

At one point I had two laptops, one quite a bit older than the other. I sold one a while back but kept the lower end one for work slideshows and just in case we needed a backup computer. I almost sold this one when I got my new tablet. Didn't think I'd be using it for that anymore. Well, I'm glad I didn't because right now I am using it. My HD on the Dell PC died this evening. I now have to go grab another one, install it, and reload Windows 7 and HOPE that I can get some data at least off the old one if I install it as a storage drive. I'm ticked. This was totally out of the blue and FYI, this is the SECOND Dell HD in this PC that's failed. I haven't backed up in a month either because I was busy taking care of Dad so I may just lose a lot of stuff docs wise if I can't recover the data. I'm ticked. Normally I back up every week or so. It figures the one time I didn't the PC drive decides to go. Anyway, I'll be doing the laptop and tablet probably for a few days.

Fortunately this one doesn't cost me. Dad shares my PC and anything goes wrong I have his full permission to order whatever I need on his credit card from Amazon. He hardly uses it but the PC goes down it's top priority around here. :P I've already ordered another drive, NOT official Dell issue, and while I was at it I picked up an external drive for backups and a USB drive reader for HD's that will hopefully help me get some data off the old one. I can't believe how much the price of HD's has gone down and the size has gone up. I picked up 2 terrabyte drives for what the last 500 GB one cost us plus I got the HD reader thing as well. $50 for a TB hard drive? Incredible! I just quadrupled storage space for just over $100!

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Last edited by magkelly; 08-06-2014 at 11:50 PM.

[TonyTurley]

I'm probably going to run into that before too long. I have a Dell mini Tower that I bought in 2006. For the past couple of years I had it set up as a dual boot between XP and Linux Ubuntu. I recently backed up everything to a secondary drive and wiped the drive completely, installing Ubuntu 14.04. I gained a lot of HD space and a noticeable increase in speed. I'm forced to use Win 7 (which I dislike) at work, but I much prefer Linux.

[thazooo]

Sorry to hear it.
There are programs that will backup for you. Acronis and EaseUs. I've used both, like Acronis more, faster.
You can schedule a Date and Time for backup and choose Full or Incremental. After set up it's all Automatic.
It helps when Life gets Busy

[magkelly]

I don't usually need one. Like I said I'm pretty into backing up every week onto DVD, at least the important stuff, so normally this would be no big deal for me. I'd just reload Windows and my programs and use my latest backup DVD to restore my stuff. It just figures that the ONE time I get caught up in life and get too busy to do it the HD fails. I'm hoping it's just a portion of the drive that's scrambled and that I might be able to use the USB drive reader to get some data back. This time I got smart though and bought the backup external drive too. I'll be putting anything important on BOTH drives and on DVD now, cough.

The only thing that really gets me is that my last backup was like a month ago so there will be some docs, links, books and TV shows now that I've lost because they aren't backed up as yet. I can still redo all my programs and then set up my browser and email from DVD's a month ago but losing all my new video and books rather sucks. I had a lot of that stuff on my tablet too, but not all. I was in the middle of watching a big week long photography related seminar that I ripped to my PC from the DVD's so I could keep the DVD's pristine. I like to do that rip a DVD set to drive to watch instead of watching it directly so I can archive the DVD's and keep it nice. This seminar is so long that it took me a week of nights just ripping it just to get it all on the drive and set up to watch. Now I have to do that all again...

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Last edited by magkelly; 08-07-2014 at 06:48 AM.

[reeftool]

I guess I have to ask. If you're having so many issues with Dell's hard drives, why keep buying them? Does Dell use proprietary drives?

[KevinR]

Sorry to here about that. PCs are often a complete pain for me, but that is because I run too many and for too long, so continually rebuilding, and can sympathize that it is never pleasant when they surprises you and fails.

What type of drive was it? One on my work colleagues recently had to get a high end dell workstation disc replaced after very quick failure, and the specialist who helped him rebuilt the Linux and CFD software configuration pointed out that they (dell) use basic consumer grade HDs even on their high end machines unless you ask for something different. Because the machine ran hard 24/7 the disc reached its mean-time-between-failures (the guy quoted something like 5-10,000hr) in just over a year. We have now specified a Raid 5 config to get around this in future and will keeping using cheap discs. At home I have also had issues with Seagate Barracuda drives starting to die at about 2-3yrs (same as the work model that failed) and I have now started buying WD Black drives which are a bit more expensive but are guaranteed for 5yrs rather than 2yrs for basic models.

You might try looking at slightly higher quality or duty cycle HD models. Good luck.

[boriscleto]

I just had a Toshiba 2.5" drive begin to fail on my Mac mini. I replaced it with a 240 GB SSD, it's for the OS and Applications only. Much faster than the slow laptop drive, and no beach balls except when the external drive is waking from sleep.

[NicoleC]

I guess I have to ask. If you're having so many issues with Dell's hard drives, why keep buying them? Does Dell use proprietary drives?

No, they just use commodity parts for everything possible, like pretty much all brand name computer makers. Unless you specify otherwise and pay more, you're going to get the cheapest thing that meets the advertised specs last time they placed an order.


Hard drive failures are common because they move -- and at high speeds. SSDs are great but not economically feasible for large storage yet. Like KevinR, I also use RAID. I had a drive fail a month ago. I pulled out the bad one, popped in a replacement and was done.


I'll submit another vote for Acronis. Other than the manual backups I do for offsite, I no longer worry about or mess with backing up files. Unlike some other backup software I tried, it has yet to ever fail on me.

[reeftool]

I just brought up my question because I have had very good luck with Western Digital drives without a failure so far. I usually end up replacing drives and adding because I fill them up. The WD Black series is what I buy (usually when Newegg has a sale) although I have 2 WD Blue drives that have lasted 9 years although they are in computers that only get used nowadays when the grandkids are here.

[ChrisPlatt]

I haven't had a mechanical hard drive fail in over a decade on my family's personal computers, desktop or laptop.
Quite a change from the old days! When I was in computer field service (1986-2002) HD failures were quite common.

Ironically the only drive I had trouble with recently was an SSD, which I eventually had to return to the manufacturer.

Chris

[magkelly]

The Dell drive in my computer is actually branded for Dell. I replaced it the first time with a Dell Sata drive because I was advised to use a Dell drive and because this was my first Dell and my first SATA PC drive and I was under the impression it was a strictly proprietary drive and that it was likely to cause problems if I used anything else. I've since learned some SATA drives that are non-Dell can be used but that some work better than others apparently. After doing some research I actually chose a particular WD Sata drive because it's got high marks and is said to work very well with the Dell PC I actually have.

I have had WD drives in other PC's and have never had any major issues. I'm not too impressed with Dell actually.. Other than the audio which is on the main board and the main board I've literally replaced 85% of it at this point and this computer isn't but 5 years old. From the first it's been an issue. First we lost the burner, then the power supply, then a HD, then the networking card, and now a second HD. I'm at the point where I'm really tempted to buy a cool box, a mother board/CPU combo, and an audio card and just transfer over everything else I put into this machine into that. I was under the impression that Dell made good computers. Certainly any Dell computers that I had ever seen before seemed okay. But not this one. This one is the computer equivalent of a money pit!

I'm kind of looking at MB/CPU combos and thinking about it. I haven't gotten there yet, but I'm tempted....

[crewl1]

OK I have been putting off backing up my HD but am starting a backup now as your post just scared me.
First sharks, now hard drives - what's next?!

[OregonJim]

The Dell drive in my computer is actually branded for Dell.

Dell doesn't make hard drives. It's just a Dell sticker. Like Apple, they source drives from Toshiba, Fujitsu, Seagate, and Western Digital - whoever is cheapest at the time.

My modus operandi is to replace magnetic drives every 2 years, even if they're not acting up. The old drive gets put into an external drive case and used as redundant backup storage. This works well and I have never lost any data since I started doing this 20 years ago.

I was under the impression that Dell made good computers

Dell doesn't "make" computers, they assemble them from stock components made by other companies. Apple designs computers. HP designs computers. Dell puts other people's parts together and slaps Dell logos on them. Dell quality has been all over the map since the day the company was founded. The quality is entirely dependant on who their volume purchasers bought from that year. You could get a really nice one or a horrible one. When my employer bought 200 Dell computers, about half of them had problems right out of the box. I will say that Dell was good about replacing things under warranty, but many of those systems had to have the same parts replaced two or three times because even the replacements were DOA.

[TonyTurley]

Here's a question: where could I get the best components for assembling my own PC? I used to buy stuff from TigerDirect, but had an issue with their service last year, and won't be going back to them. I'm thinking a better PS, MB + CPU, graphics card, and a HD of at least 1TB capacity. Or am I better off just shopping around, sourcing each item a la carte from different companies? The technical aspects of assembling a PC are easy; I just don't know who the best suppliers are, and I want to avoid mass market consumer-grade stuff as much as possible. As I said, my current PC is 8 years old, and I'd like to put one together that will last a long time.

[boriscleto]

Here's a question: where could I get the best components for assembling my own PC? I used to buy stuff from TigerDirect, but had an issue with their service last year, and won't be going back to them. I'm thinking a better PS, MB + CPU, graphics card, and a HD of at least 1TB capacity. Or am I better off just shopping around, sourcing each item a la carte from different companies? The technical aspects of assembling a PC are easy; I just don't know who the best suppliers are, and I want to avoid mass market consumer-grade stuff as much as possible. As I said, my current PC is 8 years old, and I'd like to put one together that will last a long time.

It's all commodity parts these days.

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