Re: Replace Hard Drive After 3.5 Years?

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Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2005 23:27:43 -0500

On Sun, 20 Mar 2005 03:05:46 GMT, "Elle" <elle_navorski@earthlink.net>
wrote:

>I walked away from my computer for a couple of hours, tops, yesterday. I
>came back to it and the display and mouse were frozen.
>
>It's a 3.5 year old personal computer (Gateway, with a 20 Gigabyte, 5M Ultra
>ATA hard drive). I ended up powering down, when starting up received error
>messages and then a failure to reach the Windows display. I ultimately
>struggled through a Scanddisk from a Dos prompt and was able to recover
>most, but not all, my personal files, copying them to floppy diskettes (3.5
>inch type). I shoulda been backing up at least once a month, but wasn't.
>Anyone else procrastinating: Man, don't do it. Stop now. Back up your files.
>
>A tech support person at Gateway said hard drives don't usually last beyond
>five years. Some die at three years. I've found support on Usenet for this.
>
>My computer's running again, but to thwart another massive crash, is it
>worth putting in a new hard drive? I've got $80 to spend, and I figure a
>nice one will run about that.
>
>I installed a new power supply (that is, transformer) last summer. It's
>power and so heat output aren't that different from the old one. It seems to
>be working out fine. Otherwise, all else is original equipment.
>
>My last computer was a Hewlett Packard. It "died" irrecoverably after only
>thee years. The shop couldn't fix it, though maybe I took it to a lousy
>shop. So this is very discouraging. Throwing away $800 every three years
>ain't gonna cut it anymore. So I've had it with these big brand names. I'm
>ready to build my own, and think at this point I have enough expertise to do
>so. I'm certainly not going to throw money away on a shop trying to fix my
>computer again. It seems to me much of the expertise involved in a
>successful computer repair involves simply patience and persistence.
>
>How about the CPU? Should I investigate replacing it, too?
>
>All suggestions about whether a new hard drive is worth the investment and
>the CPU are welcome.
>
>TIA
>

If that computer suits your needs, by all means replace the HDD.
My current computer is a year newer (new HDD last year though,
previously running on my then 1998 bought drive, which is working fine
in my other older computer)

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