G73JH-A1 Hard Drive Failures Help

Recently the main drive for the G73JH-A1 died on me, and so far I've tried 3 different hard drive replacements and all of them has failed. I'm trying to figure out if there is something else wrong with the laptop, or if somehow I'm having really bad luck with the replacement drives.

The original Seagate 500GB main drive failed after over 3 years of use three weeks ago. (The second 500gb drive has no issues as far as I can tell. It's really only used as a backup drive.) Initially I purchased a 1TB HGST drive to replace it. After about 2 weeks of use and hearing intermittent loud clicking noises, I ran into BSOD issues and decided to wipe and exchange the drive. The replacement drive lasted a day and had clicking noises and beeping sounds right off the bat while trying to reimage the drive. HGST support warned not to reimage and do a fresh install instead, but a Windows 7 install didn't work and this drive was also returned.

I had went ahead and got the 750GB version of the HGST drive last Friday. Also, I swapped ports with the existing Seagate 500GB drive and did a fresh install of Windows 7. Everything worked out fine at first. But today, while booting up the laptop the HGST drive made loud clicking noises again and screeching sounds while spinning. The laptop locked up and it wouldn't boot up again. It seems this drive now has died.

That's 3 HGST drives dead in my G73JH. Could there be something else wrong in my laptop that caused the drives to fail? Or are HGST drives somehow incompatible with the G73? Or am I just running into a bad streak of luck and somehow got 3 bad drives in a row? At this point I have no choice but to go with a different manufacturer altogether and avoid HGST drives. But if another hard drive fails, I may have to get a new laptop altogether, but I'm not ready yet to replace my G73 as I think it still has some years left.

Any insights or advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Could be bad luck, could be the drives are not properly secured, it could be a faulty connector/motherboard or it could be that the way you're handling your laptop is rough on the drives. Have you tested the drives hooked to another computer?

You could also test a drive from another manufacturer just in case, but first, I'd run diagnostics on those drives in another computer.

On the rare chance that it's a software issue, you could try a clean install of Windows without any of your usual programs installed. Also, are your BIOS and vBIOS up to date.

 

I guess that you are having the same problem as I have (and some others in this forum). Take a look at this and this topic. Seems like a wrongly placed SATA ribbon to me.

 

So yeah, it does seem like it's a problem with the G73 after all. The drive had no issues when I put it into an enclosure and running diagnostics. (I'm afraid the clicking may have shortened the drive's lifespan though.)

Whatever the issue, be it the SATA ribbon or what not, it was causing the drive to make some distressing noises that I haven't really seen discussed anywhere else.

 

Just curious do you run any software to montor temps such as Hwinfo32 or 64? My original Seagate HDD (which is storage and swap file only) varies from 25 (sleep)- 45 degrees Celcius. Hard Drive Clicking | Hard Drive Clicks | Hard Drive Noise
Yes, I will ask the obvious question has the laptop ever been disassembled?

 

I used to run temperature monitor software in the earlier days, but never really paid attention to the hard drive temps. The laptop itself has updated to the latest BIOS and vBIOS, and was brought into RMA once way back in 2010. I'm not sure whether the Asus techs actually opened the laptop up or not as the issue was the power adapter. Other than that, aside from the keyboard being replaced, it hasn't been disassembled.

I think it may just be the case of the G73 nearing it's retirement. I've had to replace various parts such as the keyboard and power adapter and I had a feeling it was a matter of time before something inside starts to fail.

 

I think it is the cable... mine did it on the secondary drive. It would happen only occasionally at first and slowly got worse. It would make a loud crack noise when it happened. Like you, I thought is was a failing hard drive, I purchased a new one, wasted my money. I finally took the machine apart, I followed the video and used my whole kitchen table with a white tablecloth on it. I also did it in the morning when I was well rested... It was good to see when I got down to where I could inspect the drive connection cable and it was indeed in crooked. I unclamped it, pushed it in so it was straight, reassembled and the drive has been fine ever since. Cheers and good luck!