General Computer Chat v2.0 Page 2

Started by twocows March 7th, 2012 9:41 PM
  • 7032 views
  • 103 replies

Tsutarja

Age 28
he / him
Florida
Seen 5 Hours Ago
Posted 14 Hours Ago
27,327 posts
13.2 Years
Apparently the HDD is failing :( Diagnostics returned an BIOHD-8 error.

quilzel

net start w3svc

Age 32
Male
Kansas City, Kansas
Seen September 10th, 2014
Posted September 10th, 2014
223 posts
11.7 Years
Apparently the HDD is failing :( Diagnostics returned an BIOHD-8 error.
Well that sucks. If you are going to get a new one, and don't need a huge amount of storage space, spring for a SSD. I picked a 60GB one up for $99USD, It makes the computer so much faster. Files move off the thing so fast, you'll swear you have a top of the line machine. My budget build boots to desktop in just about 20 seconds.
HTTP:429

Legendary Silke

You like dragons?

Seen December 23rd, 2021
Posted April 22nd, 2020
5,925 posts
12.5 Years
SSD or HDD it depends on whether you have a lot of files to store. Since I have hundreds of GBs of downloads and media, I cannot use a SSD. SSD a are more efficient in everything except size, of course :) Determine your needs and usable models before you buy!

If your computer is a laptop, you'll need to find notebook size drives, though it should be relatively easy to replace it, though you'll be saying goodbye to your warranty if it still exists.

Tsutarja

Age 28
he / him
Florida
Seen 5 Hours Ago
Posted 14 Hours Ago
27,327 posts
13.2 Years
I'm gonna need a hard drive.. I do a lot of video recording (mostly TV shows though), and I am a large packrat when it comes to PC files lol.. but thanks everyone for the help and suggestions! :)

I have been looking around though at some hard drives (Western Digital, Seagate, Hitachi, etc).. any recommendations on which to stay away from or ones to try I didnt list?

Gerri Shin

  

Male
Burbank, CA
Seen February 17th, 2014
Posted April 13th, 2013
3,575 posts
15.9 Years
I use WD drives mostly, I highly recommend them. If storing files is the main purpose of a drive, I'd recommend getting a green series drive; they save energy by spinning down when not in use, so they are great for storage. For a boot or system drive, you would get much better performance from a Black or Blue series drive.
Equipment:
Custom PC, MacBook Pro (MBPr), 3DSxl Blue, 3DS Midnight Purple, iPhone 4S Green

Thomas

HAIL HYDRA!

Age 35
Male
Lafayette, LA
Seen February 11th, 2022
Posted November 22nd, 2018
5,984 posts
19.2 Years
WD is really all I use. I haven't bought too many HDD's, but when I do it is WD brand. I've bought two externals from them and they've both lasted a really long time. The last one I bought was a while ago...not sure when, but to give you reference...120 GB was over $100. Yeah I feel old.

What really makes me feel old though...the first flash drive I bought (in 2002) was 64 MB (yeah MEGA) and it cost me $100. I kept it for a long time too...until it got left outside and got rained on a couple of years ago.

Archer

NSW, Australia
Seen January 26th, 2020
Posted January 5th, 2020
3,956 posts
16.6 Years
I have been looking around though at some hard drives (Western Digital, Seagate, Hitachi, etc).. any recommendations on which to stay away from or ones to try I didnt list?
Not really. The main thing is not to use "Green" or "Low Power" drives in a desktop, where possible. They're slower and tend to be lower binned drives (basically, higher end is the better stock).

These days you're pretty much right with any brand. From what I've seen fail, I'd personally steer clear of WD 3.5" Caviar Greens. Other than that, go for it. My personal preferred brand is Hitachi, but WD/Seagate/Samsung are fine. I wouldn't take people's advice to avoid a particular brand too seriously.

Keep in mind that Seagate has bought Samsung's HDD division and WD just bought Hitachi's. So by this time next year, there will likely be two brands to choose from.

Thomas, my first flash drive was 32MB, lol. Was enough to fit on a GBA emulator and a few compressed games, which at the time was the most important thing to me. :P

Captain Fabio

Age 33
London, UK
Seen November 4th, 2021
Posted November 2nd, 2021
12,193 posts
17.1 Years

I am a user of WD as well. I have never had one let me down at all, so can't go wrong.

I am currently specing up a new computer I am going to be building in the coming weeks. Settled on the i7 2700k processor, most likely 560ti GPU, got other stuff written down somewhere but yeh, should be nice. Yes, I am putting and SSD in it! XD

Legendary Silke

You like dragons?

Seen December 23rd, 2021
Posted April 22nd, 2020
5,925 posts
12.5 Years

I am a user of WD as well. I have never had one let me down at all, so can't go wrong.

I am currently specing up a new computer I am going to be building in the coming weeks. Settled on the i7 2700k processor, most likely 560ti GPU, got other stuff written down somewhere but yeh, should be nice. Yes, I am putting and SSD in it! XD

Someday I want to do a benchmark with you so to see how my aging components hold up. :P

Tsutarja

Age 28
he / him
Florida
Seen 5 Hours Ago
Posted 14 Hours Ago
27,327 posts
13.2 Years
Once again everyone, thanks so much for the feedback! I will likely be going after a Western Digital drive :) although I have had a past experience with WD.. I got a 1TB external HDD from them two years ago that failed after a couple of weeks only because of the factor I deleted the WD Smartware from it without reading on how to do it carefully <.< oh well..

As for portable memory on me, jeez I am late.. I got my first flash drive in 2008 as a 1 GB one and my first SDHC card in 2008 at 8 GB.. my parents were late boomers into technology, so without me, we would still be in the older days of life and computers :P
Age 30
Male
Long Island, New York
Seen May 31st, 2013
Posted February 1st, 2013
289 posts
12.7 Years

I am a user of WD as well. I have never had one let me down at all, so can't go wrong.

I am currently specing up a new computer I am going to be building in the coming weeks. Settled on the i7 2700k processor, most likely 560ti GPU, got other stuff written down somewhere but yeh, should be nice. Yes, I am putting and SSD in it! XD

Awesome. I have that GPU and a 2600K.

quilzel

net start w3svc

Age 32
Male
Kansas City, Kansas
Seen September 10th, 2014
Posted September 10th, 2014
223 posts
11.7 Years
I am not a fan of Western Digital, I've personally had three hard drives go from them before they should have. (less than 2 years old) One of the WD hard drives in a server at school even caught on fire, well melted the board on it. So I am not a fan.

I bought a Seagate Hard drive about 2 years ago, been very happy with it. I use a Corsair SSD for OS, and the formerly mentioned Seagate HDD for media files on my unit.

As for my first flash drive, it was 128 MB. I found it on the city bus when I was 13. XD Used it for quite some time before I eventually lost it. Couldn't tell you what the first one I bought was, I don't remember.
HTTP:429
Age 30
Male
Long Island, New York
Seen May 31st, 2013
Posted February 1st, 2013
289 posts
12.7 Years
I am not a fan of Western Digital, I've personally had three hard drives go from them before they should have. (less than 2 years old) One of the WD hard drives in a server at school even caught on fire, well melted the board on it. So I am not a fan.

I bought a Seagate Hard drive about 2 years ago, been very happy with it. I use a Corsair SSD for OS, and the formerly mentioned Seagate HDD for media files on my unit.

As for my first flash drive, it was 128 MB. I found it on the city bus when I was 13. XD Used it for quite some time before I eventually lost it. Couldn't tell you what the first one I bought was, I don't remember.

pfft... that must have been funny to see in action!
From now on, I will only buy WD.

Meganium

memento mori

she/her
Houston, TX
Seen February 1st, 2023
Posted February 1st, 2023
When I was on my 2-month externship in school, one of my duties was HDD data erasure & checking. The majority of the HDDs that I had to threw away/mark as "void" were mostly from Western Digital. A lot of them failed to pass Phase 1 of disk erasure because the software we used detected so many countless errors. Guess now I know they actually are horrible. xD

Tsutarja

Age 28
he / him
Florida
Seen 5 Hours Ago
Posted 14 Hours Ago
27,327 posts
13.2 Years
After consideration, maybe a Seagate drive will work for me.. Like i said, I have had horrible experience with WD (external) and thought their internal drives were better... guess not.

I have a Seagate 1TB external HDD right now and I LOVE IT! Unlike WD, the software isn't mandatory and its much more compact in size than the WD drive I had.

quilzel

net start w3svc

Age 32
Male
Kansas City, Kansas
Seen September 10th, 2014
Posted September 10th, 2014
223 posts
11.7 Years
pfft... that must have been funny to see in action!
From now on, I will only buy WD.
I didn't actually see the drive go up in smoke, but I did get to witness the horrid odor burning electronics cause. Lucky a professor walked in the room just as it happened, he quickly pulled the plug on the server and got it put out before it could do any damage to the other components.
http://i.imgur.com/kSBJe.jpg


After consideration, maybe a Seagate drive will work for me.. Like i said, I have had horrible experience with WD (external) and thought their internal drives were better... guess not.
I have had far better luck with their external stuff, but now I am paranoid. I think I will be getting a backup drive for my external WD backup drive. (I will back up the backup lol)
HTTP:429

Legendary Silke

You like dragons?

Seen December 23rd, 2021
Posted April 22nd, 2020
5,925 posts
12.5 Years
Right now I'm trying to get myself prepared to try out yet another Linux distribution on my desktop.

I have had bad experiences with Ubuntu and Linux Mint, though, so both of them are now out of question.

Now I'm going to have to make do with openSUSE, Fedora and something else that I probably forgot...

(Right now, I have the ISO files for openSUSE)

Archer

NSW, Australia
Seen January 26th, 2020
Posted January 5th, 2020
3,956 posts
16.6 Years
After consideration, maybe a Seagate drive will work for me.. Like i said, I have had horrible experience with WD (external) and thought their internal drives were better... guess not.

I have a Seagate 1TB external HDD right now and I LOVE IT! Unlike WD, the software isn't mandatory and its much more compact in size than the WD drive I had.
95% of the time, external drives are just internal drives in a specialised enclosure. You can format the drives and lose the software. For instance, my current Hitachi 1TB Drives were ripped from 3.5" enclosures. They perform very well. Actually, I'm at a loss as to why they'd put 140MB/s drives under USB2 controllers that cap out at like 30MB/s.

While I'm not a fan of WD Drives, they're still fine. Failure rates are MASSIVELY overestimated; people with problems are much louder than those with none. If anything, my only recommendation with HDDs is to avoid the WD Passport drives, because a lot of them have custom PCBs (they're not SATA drives), which make recovery impossible/difficult if the enclosure dies. Their Elements drives are fine.

I swear, I have so many flash drives floating around I'm not sure what I have anymore.

Right now I'm trying to get myself prepared to try out yet another Linux distribution on my desktop.

I have had bad experiences with Ubuntu and Linux Mint, though, so both of them are now out of question.

Now I'm going to have to make do with openSUSE, Fedora and something else that I probably forgot...
It all depends on what you're looking to change. SUSE is one of the best for KDE, whereas Fedora is bleeding-edge GNOME.

Once you know enough and know exactly what you want, you could look into one of the "roll-your-own" distros, like Arch or Gentoo.