Dropped laptop ... cracked hdd ... which one should i get now ?

Okay,
Last night i dropped my laptop ( an toshiba sattelite a100 - 036 and seems hard drive messed up after the shock as sometimes loads sometimes doesn't + it's very slow ( downloaded a 2mb file and screen frozed for like 5 mins and was making weird sounds ) .

I had the toshiba MK1032GSX ( http://www3.toshiba.co.jp/storage/english/spec/hdd/mk1032gsx.htm ) , and to be honest i'm not tempted to get a new toshiba hard drive. After reading this forums, seems the best choice would be an hitachi , i was thinking to get the Hitachi Travelstar 7K10 ( 160GB / 7200rpm / 8MB / SATA ), what do you guys think ? would be a good choice ? what do you guys recommend me.

Note : my laptop runs 24/7 so i need something reliable and hopefully something that doesn't generate too much heat.

Thanks

 

If you are running 24/7 then you might want to consider one of the Hitachi E series HDDs. They are specifically intended for round-the-clock operation. Choose from either the E7K200 or the E5K250 families.

John

 

I don't like Hitachi for hdd's I have had alot of them break on me in the past... I really like some of the seagate models, maybe take a look at them?

 

hitachis are known to heat up but they are fast. Im not sure about their latest range of HDD's though, check the reviews

seagate or western digital are also a good brand choice

 

Problem is here in Romania i couldn't find any eshop that has the e series for sale, but i did find all seagate models, is it a big difference in performance between the hitachi and seagate ? Does seagate have an good alternative for the E7K200 ?

Thanks

 

don't want to be a pessimist, but I wouldn't bet the problem is the harddrive....if you drop a HD and damange it to the point where it's physically damaged, it will not work at all, rather than on or off.

You could be lucky and it is something that is just partially dislodged, but the symptoms you describe sound like something worse than a bad drive.

If you have another laptop drive, I would put that in there for a while andsee if the probably recurs just so you don;thave to spend the money

 

check out the seagate momentus 7200rpm range

 

http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/8587/dsc03057bk8.jpg (it's in this stage for like 3 hours) + plus hdd makes sounds like i'm tuning an old radio ... i will try with another hard drive tho just to make sure.

Anyways i had a closer look to the ones i can get and it's between this 3 :
1.Hitachi Travelstar 7K100, 160GB, 7200rpm, 8MB, SATA
2.Seagate Momentus, 100GB, 7200rpm, SATA 150 MB/s
3.Seagate Momentus 80GB, 7200rpm, 8MB cache ( 100gb also available ).

Which one do you guys recommend to match my needs .

Thanks

 

The one that's on sale..

 

Okay eliminated one ... now it's between

Seagate Momentus 80GB, 7200rpm, 8MB cache, ST980825A and Hitachi Travelstar 7K100, 160GB, 7200rpm, 8MB, SATA HTS722016K9SA00 ... both have about the same price (only like $10 difference ) ... i'm thinking of getting the hitachi though because i read it produces less heat than the seagate, but i don't know about the reliability ... will it be able to run 24/7 ?

Thanks

 

I think that Hitachi model number indicates the 7K200 which uses less power, and therefore runs much cooler than the 7K100 (and cooler than the Seagate). See Tom's Hardware 2.5" HDD charts.

John

 

Okay ordered the Travelstar .

Thank you all for the tips !

 

Wow nobody recomended Western Digital? Of all brands I have had the best luck with them by far, not a single one has died on me yet and I always find good prices.

In the case of my laptop drive its totally silent and has 250gb of storage space and is nearly equal to the speed and cost of a 160gb 7200rpm drive. Its a win/win. I see no reason to get a 7200rpm drive these days until they have dirt cheap 250gb+ versions, the 5400rpm drive also would be better for longer duration of use since it runs cooler and is more data dense when you get a large drive like mine, so less actual movement needed to transfer data.

Post back your HDtune results when you get the 160gb 7200rpm, you may be very supprised when I show you the results from my 5400rpm drive and how they will be nearly the same. Infact we have alot of results here on the forums already. Larger 5400 = Smaller 7200 in performance and destroy them in cost/performance/space ratio. 7200rpm drives only have one possible "win" and thats if they are of greater or equal size then they will be slightly faster, but you pay for it greatly with the higher cost and possibly higher heat/and lower LTD

 

I recommended WD, see above ^^ . Ive had a good experience with the Scorpio so far

 

LOL, it wasn't too long ago you could even recommend a 5400 rpm drive, it seems everyone wanted a 7k drive..or faster.

This may be a good thing for magnetic hard drives, if in the future, manufacturers can get the same performance using 4200 rpm drives as the 5400 rpm drives, MTB could go way up with lower heat.

At least until lower cost SSD get here in mass.

 

Well, that's a tad bit more information--you are right, when you dropped your laptop, it looks like a head crash--the read write head bounced off the platter and physically damaged the disc.

Now, I guess, the only question is that all of the damage it sustained?