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On Thu, Sep 24, 2009 at 7:59 PM, Dale <rdalek1967@×××××.com> wrote: |
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> walt wrote: |
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>> On 09/24/2009 12:29 PM, Dale wrote: |
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>> |
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>>> USB. There is another idea. Ooops, out of USB plugs too. Crap, I |
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>>> can't put in a drive without buying something to plug it into. LOL I |
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>>> do have USB 2.0 on here. I have to have 2.0 for the printer but my |
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>>> camera has to have 1.0. Weird I know. |
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>> |
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>> There are so many interesting posts in this thread I don't know which |
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>> one to reply to :o) Just FYI, USB 3 has just been ratified, so we can |
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>> expect ultra-fast USB-3 drives in the (near?) future, which should be as |
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>> fast or faster than SATA-II. |
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>> |
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>> The point I really want to make is regarding your question about which |
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>> disk drive to buy. I have drives from three different manufacturers at |
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>> the moment, and they are all superb and incredibly cheap -- but that low |
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>> cost comes at a price (does that make any sense?). |
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>> |
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>> I've had to return two drives in the last three years or so because of |
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>> catastrophic failure while still under warranty (amazing!). In both |
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>> cases the replacement drives have been absolutely perfect for years now. |
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>> |
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>> In other words, disk manufacturers have apparently decided to abandon |
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>> strict quality control in favor of low price, and seem happy to replace |
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>> failed drives as a substitute for quality control. It must be a |
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>> profitable |
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>> strategy because they all seem to be doing it. But be prepared for drive |
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>> failures from *every* manufacturer -- and then buy whatever is on sale |
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>> for |
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>> the lowest price. |
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>> |
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>> |
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>> |
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> |
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> One thing I have noticed about hard drives in my experience. When you |
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> plug that puppy in and power it up, let it run for a good long while. |
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> Overnight is good, a few days is even better, a week or more is even |
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> better still from the mechanical point of view. I remember this from |
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> when I rebuilt my Moms old motor in her car years ago. It said in the |
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> book and from several mechanics, once you crank it, run it for at least |
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> 30 minutes and at different rpms. The longer the better. It should get |
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> to its normal temperature before even thinking about cutting it off. Do |
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> NOT cut the engine off unless it is really serious. The first few |
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> minutes that a motor runs is crucial. If you start it and just run it a |
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> couple minutes, it won't ever be the same. I was also told that driving |
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> it is really good. |
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> |
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> I also remember this from way back when I was working on puters. I got |
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> a new job when winder 3.1 came out. Anyway. If a electronic device can |
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> survive the first couple to six months of usage, they usually last a |
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> while from the electronic point of view. That is short of spilling your |
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> beer in it or it getting hit by lightening or something like that. I |
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> have two 80Gb drives right now. One is a Maxtor and the other is a |
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> Western Digital. I bet there is a few people on this list that hate |
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> each one because they had one that failed. I haven't had any trouble |
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> with mine at all. They all fail eventually tho. I just hope one of |
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> mine fails when there is nothing important on it is all. ;-) |
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> |
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> Still comparing all the options. I got to start looking for a good SATA |
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> drive now. Just when I had a decent IDE drive all picked out too. LOL |
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|
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When you look at hard drive reviews, they tend to be either 5 stars |
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("Perfect! Never a problem after 10 years!") or 0 stars ("Horrible, |
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died after 2 minutes! I got 2 more and they did the same thing!" etc). |
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I don't think there are a lot of ways for a hard drive to go bad |
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without it being catastrophic. Maybe bad sectors... but I consider |
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that catastrophic because they always seem to spread like cancer. If |
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there is one bad sector on a drive, I simply can't trust it. |
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|
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That being said, I've had lots of hard drives from many brands and the |
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best combinations of price/speed/reliability I've had is Samsung. I'm |
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using 6 of them right now and after 2+ years of 24/7 usage none has |
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died yet. I'm sure someone here will have a horror story about a |
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Samsung drive to add to this thread. :) |