Toshiba : HDD killer !

Hi everyone, my toshiba laptop is driving me crasy, he is litteraly crushing hard disks ! The toshiba 640GB 5400rpm that came with it died after 9 months of services (at home), then the second one (same type) which was changed by toshiba customer service died after 4 months.. I thought the toshiba's drives are bad so i bought a samsung m8 500Gb 5400rpm : it died after 10 days !!!! It's being replaced right now
Can the Laptop be the problem and not the drives ?

ps : sorry for the english i live in Tunisia
ps 2 : I can't buy any hardware here knowing the exact ref, exemple : you can buy an 500Gigs (max cap. here) drive but the seller wont know the speed or the brand..

 

Are you moving the system while it is on? Even picking it up from one location in the house and putting it down in another?

Are you rough with your equipment (letting it bang around the house or in the back seat of your car)? Or, bringing it in from cold surroundings to warm/hot ones (or, vice-versa) and immediately turning it on and using it?

Is the notebook clogged/full of dust that lets the HDD's overheat? Do you use a good cooling pad if the ambient temperature is always high?

Does your use of the system leave the file system in a mess - making the drive to work harder for simple things like booting up and/or launching programs? (PerfectDisk Professional 12 could make a neglected HDD perform more effortlessly with a minimum of time (once a month) needed to do proper HDD maintenance).

Are you using your system with a UPS that conditions AC power and also prevents 'brown out' conditions for your electronic equipment (if your power source there is particularly bad and/or if you live close to industrial/commercial locations where power dips and surges are a fact of everyday life for the surrounding areas)?

A bad AC adaptor, a bad MB or other circuitry in the system, or even a bad connector and/or cable can give you the symtoms you're seeing - but as you can see - it is hard to pinpoint this problem without more information.

If you can give us more information of how and where the notebook is being used, we may be able to suggest how you can keep your next HDD alive for more than a few months or days.

 

Thanks for the answer,
- as far as i know the only big shocks my system gets are in the train (rush hours) but it happens once every 2 or 3 weeks..
- The notebook is always clean ( I play games with it and the disk's temp never rise up to more than 39°) it is an 17" inch laptop and even it's gpu never exceeds 69 in gaming..
- I think the boot is clean, just the necessary programs are launched in startup..
- All the laptops at home and the desktop rig of my father are working without problems, I don't think it can be caused by a bad AC voltage.
- I'm gonna see if the AC adapter is giving 19V or not, it is an 75W for an i5 430m 4 Gigs of ram 1 HDD and a little bit OC HD5650, i haven't seen so far any sign of throttleling of the CPU or GPU.
- I mainly use the laptop to download games movies, some times it is working all night to download files (200kb per sec) and as a gaming rig..
- I hope those info will be enough to help me know what is the problem..

 

From what you have provided, I think you may have a system that kills HDD's.

Of course, the train jolts and the 75W AC adaptor might be culprits too - maybe OC'ing the HD5650 is making your AC adaptor unstable?

If the adaptor is being pushed too far when you're gaming, it could be giving insufficient amperage to critical parts that affect the HDD.

One thing you didn't offer and you don't mention: what are the symptoms of a 'dead' HDD? Does it spin? Does it make noises? Does the system complain of corrupt files needed for boot?

Either way, I would be inclined to sell this system first, before I spend anymore time/money trying to see why it is, like it is.

 

the 2 first HDD (toshiba) started to reallocate to much sectors and were allways freezing
the samsung is spinning up but unable to do any IO operation.. even linux fail to boot on another system when the disk is plugged in USB..
edit : the adapter does not seems to overheat when i game, plus i m not "really" overclocking the GPU, it is downclocked by toshiba to 450/800 so i m just putting the factory clocks 550/800..
I cant sell it i prefer let it to my sis or s.th like that.. i have to wait 1 year before getting may be a new rig sager or asus or clevo ..

 

Hmmm... still not conclusive; but I'm leaning towards physical damage to the HDD's...

On the bright side: time for a new system?

 

for the new system : we will see,this one is 1.5 years old ! (edit version of the last post)
just before the failiure of the HDD it took a shock but not that strong..it failed 10 min later...

 

Do you think it has something to do with restoring your GPU to factory settings? I mean there might be a reason as to why they down-clocked it. Perhaps it causes voltage inconsistencies throughout your motherboard as a result when your HDD tries to draw power it either gets "bursts" of too much or not enough at all?

Either case I don't think it's your HDD that is troubling you at all, it's your laptop, perhaps if you open it up and take it apart and closely examine the SATA connection, check to make sure it's not damaged or bruised in an manner such as a broken pin or a crack in the motherboard.

If that's the case then you'll most likely need a new motherboard, but in any case, you are probably better off buying a new laptop. Also, even if you cannot get parts you want, you can always scour eBay and people are always selling genuine original (oem) parts regarding laptops.

Perhaps that shock was all that was necessary, because it may not feel like the shock is big or anything but honestly, it's vibrations that are felt throughout the laptop that matter, if it's a bump it's not bad but if it's multiple bumps like it falls and hits about 3 or 4 different times, each vibration is magnified greatly.

 

i live in tunisia : no ebay
Without seeying any signs of throtteling i dont think the gpu clock has anything to do with this ^^

 

They don't allow eBay? Try Amazon or other sellers, you can do most of the research yourself online as to what part you want and you can go through the web trying to find the cheapest prices. The only problem is shipping but you can find trusted vendors to send it to you.

 

Yeah, it has to be the HDD - it is not working on other systems either (was tested).

As for only 1.5 yrs old - that's ancient!

A shock that is not so strong to us can be catastrophic to a spinning HDD.

I'm almost convinced that it is your physical usage style that is killing your HDD's.

Assuming that all other parts of the system are operating to your satisfaction; I would now be looking at an SSD to help in your situation.

(Optimally: I would be getting a new system with a SATA3 SSD like the Intel 510 Series - the 250GB model).

Good luck.

 

i think i m gonna pick an SSD of 128 Gb the next time a relative goes to France ^^
I cant "buy" from any site in my country. The dinar cannot be used for that.. amazon ebay and all that stuff does not work here. We use local distributors only..

 

Okay, that seems like the best solution for your case.

Just remember that when you get the SSD in your system to push it as much as you normally do, in as little time as possible (less than 3 days if you can).

This will hopefully be enough of a test to allow you to return the SSD for a refund if the rest of the system is still the problem.

Also, remember to do a clean install with Windows 7 to the SSD - to give it a fighting chance in the long run and to also ensure that you have used the latest drivers and software on your system.

Good luck.

 

Ouch, that's a set back and half, I'm guessing PayPal doesn't work for you guys either, huh? Otherwise that would be a safe-haven for you. Anyways, good luck with your SSD.

Wow, I can't believe I wrote that I meant to write something else. But an SSD is the way to go.

 

yes paypal does not work too.. Life is really "nice" here..