Hard Drive Replacement

[target2019]

Have you used Windows disk utility to check and repair disk?

 

[easysurfer]

....
Personally, I wouldn't bother with a hybrid hard drive. You can buy a full SSD cheaper and it will be faster and more reliable than a hybrid drive. I switched to SSD's years ago and would never go back to standard drives. ....

I don't want to try a SSD as I've been happy with my hybrid drives. Kinda like happy with a B/W tv so don't want to try color as I won't be happy afterwards .

 

[RetMD21]

my planned next configuration is with hd 1 = ssd 500 GB; HD 2= 2 tb conventional (or 4 if possible) I am a bit old school sticking with a desktop for some things

I am having usability problems intermittently with my nearly 6 year old Asus pro desktop. Having regretted upgrading components in the past I am planning to start fresh

 

[mountainsoft]

my planned next configuration is with hd 1 = ssd 500 GB; HD 2= 2 tb conventional (or 4 if possible) I am a bit old school sticking with a desktop for some things

I have a couple of laptops that are OK for surfing the web or something, but I wouldn't want to do any serious work on them. I really only use them when traveling, or for working on the cars. I much prefer a desktop computer with a real keyboard, mouse, monitor, printers, scanners, TV tuners, etc.

I have a 250GB SSD drive for my "boot" drive. The only thing on that drive is Windows and the applications themselves. It's over five years old now and the wear leveling count is still 95 out of 100. At this rate it should last another 90 years!

All of my personal data is on a second 2TB SSD. It is less than a year old.

I also have a 1TB SSD I only use for video editing. Four years old, and leveling count is still 96 out of 100. Lots of life left on that one too.

I love SSD's. Completely silent, lower power usage, and very little heat output.

The only old-school hard drive I have is my external 3TB hard drive I use for backups. I have two of those, one is always connected to the computer, and I swap that about once a month with the second one I keep in my safe deposit box. Those drives are three years old and no signs of errors yet.

 

[RetMD21]

I have a 250GB SSD drive for my "boot" drive.....

All of my personal data is on a second 2TB SSD. It is less than a year old.

Maybe I should look at SSD for my data drive. I have been thrifty for so long but the SSD premium is not that much

 

[Car-Guy]

After 4 or 5 years I'm starting to think about replacing my PC before I have a catastrophe failure or major problem. I've replaced HD's before but found it a PIA. These days, I just make regular backups of my personal files 3 or 4 times a year "just in case" I need to replace it earlier.

While your PC is still "accessible" just copy your personal files to a USB or external HD and get yourself a new machine. They are cheap enough and it's much less of a PIA.

 

[mountainsoft]

I've replaced HD's before but found it a PIA.

I used to feel that way when I had to format a drive, reinstall Windows, reinstall all my applications, restore my backed up data (assuming I had a backup), and reconfigure all of my personal settings. That process could easily take a week or more, and I NEVER got things back to where I had them.

These days I just "clone" the old drive to the new one. Most cloning software can adapt your data to fit a larger or smaller drive, SSD or magnetic, etc. Plug the drives in, wait 30-90 minutes for the data to transfer, swap drives and you're done. Everything is just like you left it, except it's running on a new drive.

 

[Car-Guy]

I used to feel that way when I had to format a drive, reinstall Windows, reinstall all my applications, restore my backed up data (assuming I had a backup), and reconfigure all of my personal settings. That process could easily take a week or more, and I NEVER got things back to where I had them.

These days I just "clone" the old drive to the new one. Most cloning software can adapt your data to fit a larger or smaller drive, SSD or magnetic, etc. Plug the drives in, wait 30-90 minutes for the data to transfer, swap drives and you're done. Everything is just like you left it, except it's running on a new drive.

I can usually install/load and fully configure a new HD the way I want it in less than a day (5 to 6 hours). I've used cloning/ghosting software and even messed with disk arrays in the past. Pros and cons for each but to much trouble for me once I realized the only thing that is really important to me are my personal files. (That's why I just backup my personal files a few times year)

Another plus for me doing this way, I get a new updated PC every 4 to 5 years (or sooner) and I keep up with the latest OS in the process. Works for me.

 

[jazz4cash]

In case anyone missed it, I contacted an online PC repair shop and they diagnosed a failing hard drive. They could’ve charged me for the diagnosis or a “repair” but they did not. I did get some random mysterious system failure noticed at some point but blew them off. I will try some of the suggestions to diagnose the hard drive since I don’t have a screen shot from the repair session. Thanks again. Other priorities right now. I was able to backup the drive and create a boot disk using the Win10 utility.

 

[easysurfer]

I just finished using Macrium Reflect to clone the data drive (I use for backups). From a 2 partitioned 1TB drive to a 2 partitioned 4TB drive. From about 700GB and 300 GB partitions to about two 1.8 TB partitions. Now my drive space feels like a spacious mansion .

Oh, just in case folks are wondering. Time to perform the clone and verify was about 3 hrs.

 

[OldShooter]

... Now my drive space feels like a spacious mansion ...

I first had that feeling after setting up my IBM XT with its 20 megabyte drive. Prior to that my only experience was with the 1 megabyte cartridges on an IBM 1130. They were 14" in diameter. The Seagate 5 1/4" XT drive was a marvel!

Enjoy the feeling. It is transitory.

 

[easysurfer]

I first had that feeling after setting up my IBM XT with its 20 megabyte drive. Prior to that my only experience was with the 1 megabyte cartridges on an IBM 1130. They were 14" in diameter. The Seagate 5 1/4" XT drive was a marvel!

Enjoy the feeling. It is transitory.

I know. That's why I have to enjoy before it's too late .

 

[Freedom56]

In case anyone missed it, I contacted an online PC repair shop and they diagnosed a failing hard drive. They could’ve charged me for the diagnosis or a “repair” but they did not. I did get some random mysterious system failure noticed at some point but blew them off. I will try some of the suggestions to diagnose the hard drive since I don’t have a screen shot from the repair session. Thanks again. Other priorities right now. I was able to backup the drive and create a boot disk using the Win10 utility.

I put life back into two older Sony Vaio laptops by installing 500 GB SATA SSDs for about $60 each (it may be cheaper now) from Micron (via Amazon). It came with Acronis to clone the drive (using a USB to SATA connector $8 on Ebay). This upgrade significantly improved performance.

If you want a new laptop, look for deals on Slickdeals.net. I picked up a ASUS gamer laptop last week with a 9th generation I7 processor, 16GB, two SSDs (500 GB each), GE Force GTX 1650 graphics, Full HD 15.6" monitor, and I have a spare bay to add a hard drive. It cost me $744 including tax. It sold out pretty fast. This laptop runs Windows 10 and boots up in less than 10 seconds. I removed all the Windows 10 and Microsoft bloatware and this laptop performs really nicely. I bought it for 4K video editing and needed the performance.

 

[FreeBear]

I put life back into two older Sony Vaio laptops by installing 500 GB SATA SSDs for about $60 each (it may be cheaper now) from Micron (via Amazon). It came with Acronis to clone the drive (using a USB to SATA connector $8 on Ebay). This upgrade significantly improved performance.



If you want a new laptop, look for deals on Slickdeals.net. I picked up a ASUS gamer laptop last week with a 9th generation I7 processor, 16GB, two SSDs (500 GB each), GE Force GTX 1650 graphics, Full HD 15.6" monitor, and I have a spare bay to add a hard drive. It cost me $744 including tax. It sold out pretty fast. This laptop runs Windows 10 and boots up in less than 10 seconds. I removed all the Windows 10 and Microsoft bloatware and this laptop performs really nicely. I bought it for 4K video editing and needed the performance.

Very nice spec on the new Asus. Looks like fun!

 

[Freedom56]

Very nice spec on the new Asus. Looks like fun!

It's faster than any laptop I owned before. They took $450 off the price and I jumped on the deal. I just added a 1TB hard drive to it. With 4k editing, I am dealing with large files and several gigabytes of writing every time I edit. I didn't want to perform that on a SSD. Plus Asus makes cool looking laptops with nice backlit keyboards and nice chassis design. They aren't boring like Dell or Levono. Sony also made nice laptops but exited the market several years ago.

My desktop contains an AMD Threadripper 2950X, 64GB DDR, Radeon VII graphics, 500GB SSD, 1 TB Hybrid drive, SoundBlasterX ZxR, and a Samsung 32" 4K monitor. It's incredibly fast and you need the power to edit 4K video and preview in real-time.

 

[jazz4cash]

Update:

The laptop performance continued to degrade and I was sufficiently unsure of my own skills so I resorted to The Geek Squad at Best Buy. They fixed it in about 2 hrs and I have their 1 yr support package for all our devices. It cost about $100 more than I was going to spend to fix it myself so I guess it qualifies for Blow That Dough. I got the SSD too.

 

[Jerry1]

Update:

The laptop performance continued to degrade and I was sufficiently unsure of my own skills so I resorted to The Geek Squad at Best Buy. They fixed it in about 2 hrs and I have their 1 yr support package for all our devices. It cost about $100 more than I was going to spend to fix it myself so I guess it qualifies for Blow That Dough. I got the SSD too.

Great. Yes, sometimes it’s just better to let some who’s done it before and has the tools (software) and knowledge to ensure it goes smoothly.

How do you like the SSD? Pretty slick - right?

 

[meierlde]

Update:

The laptop performance continued to degrade and I was sufficiently unsure of my own skills so I resorted to The Geek Squad at Best Buy. They fixed it in about 2 hrs and I have their 1 yr support package for all our devices. It cost about $100 more than I was going to spend to fix it myself so I guess it qualifies for Blow That Dough. I got the SSD too.

Depending on the Brand of SSD you buy some (samsung) provide software you can download to clone your drive. Of course I worked in It for about 20 years so I understand this. In general youtube is of course a great place to find how to videos to do a lot of it related things. If of course following directions is a problem however....

 

[yakers]

Just replaced the HD in my Mac mini with an SSD, wonderful improvement, not hard to do, got a cheap cable to transfer the data from the old HD.

 

[Sunset]

Just replaced the HD in my Mac mini with an SSD, wonderful improvement, not hard to do, got a cheap cable to transfer the data from the old HD.

+1
Upgrading to SSD a few years ago, means my soon to be 8 yr old computer is still very usable, no annoying delays.

In fact, I can't even justify buying a new computer...

 

[camfused]

If you are even remotely thinking of an SSD, the Samsung 860 500GB is $57.99 at Amazon. Fantastic price for a quality SSD.

 

[jazz4cash]

I paid about $55 for 500 GB Sandisk SSD. I can’t tell any difference from the mechanical drive when it was working properly. The laptop now makes a grinding noise on startup. I’d be horrified if I did the work myself and had this problem. I had asked them to clone me drive before the replacement but I guess that’s not how they do it. They did backup the few bits of data I had on there.

 

[Jerry1]

I paid about $55 for 500 GB Sandisk SSD. I can’t tell any difference from the mechanical drive when it was working properly. The laptop now makes a grinding noise on startup. I’d be horrified if I did the work myself and had this problem. I had asked them to clone me drive before the replacement but I guess that’s not how they do it. They did backup the few bits of data I had on there.

Wow, not what I expected.

The grinding is probably the fan, but no matter what it is, you need to take it back.

Did they give you the old disk? You can still clone it at a later time if needed. I’m not sure why they didn’t do that. Maybe it had deteriorated to the point that they had problems with it.

I can’t imagine that if it was installed properly that you wouldn’t notice a significant difference in the SSD from the original drive. Something doesn’t seem right.

I would take it back to them and talk to a manager, letting them know you’re not happy and that you want it fixed properly. Wow, I thought having them fix it was a good option. I guess not. Shame on them.

 

[jazz4cash]

I was generally impressed with the Geek Squad and Best Buy in general. Their demise at the hands of online sellers has been predicted for a long time. It’s been ages since I’ve been into a Best Buy and I was reluctant to go there for my laptop issue. We were shopping at the wholesale club for a mid size Smart TV for my cable cutting project so I looked around BB while I was in there. Very knowledgeable staff. They are completing a remodel of the local BB. I never expected to feel like I was shopping in the neighborhood at a BB. It seems that they are carving out a niche to stay in business.

 

[easysurfer]

I've heard bad stories of people taking their computers to Geek Squad for repair.

I like to do my own repairs, but if I was bringing in a computer, I'd rather try a local computer repair shop than Geek Squad.