Re: Replace Hard Drive After 3.5 Years?
From: James Sweet (jamessweet_at_hotmail.com)
Date: 03/20/05
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Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 07:01:12 GMT
"Elle" <elle_navorski@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:eM5%d.15965$qf2.14393@newsread2.news.atl.earthlink.net...
> 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
>
>
Hard drives are second only to optical drives in how often they tend to
fail. The disk drives being fragile mechanical components are virtually
always the first thing to go, 3-5 years is typical for one that's been
heavily used.
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