Hard Drive Error/Replacement

Hi everyone,

I just recently joined the forum and I'm looking for some insight and advice. I own a Vaio SZ-240 and I've been pretty happy with it until 2 days ago when I started getting a SMART hard drive error telling me my hard drive is about to fail on me. I'm not the savviest person when it comes to computers, but after spending some time researching the error message I know that it means my hard drive is about to die. So I went ahead and backed up all the files.

Could this message be an error? Is there somewhere I can go to see if this is legit (some sort of system test I can run?) My computer was running fine until I defraged a couple days ago. Then only did I start getting this SMART message.

If my hard drive is indeed about to fail, do you have any recommendations for a replacement? Is it pretty easy for someone with no experience to install a hard drive on the sz, given a tutorial?

I appreciate any help you can give me. Thanks!

 

Sometimes the SMART errors can be false alarms although the system is intended to monitor and record problems as they arise.

Go to the HDD manufacturer's website and download their diagnostic software. Then run the full diagnostics. If the manufacturer's software reports problems then you have a clear case for requesting replacement of the HDD. You can find out the make of the HDD by looking at the model number in Device Manager and then using Google.

John

 

Apparently Toshiba doesn't provide diagnostic software for my model (6034GSX diagnostic)? Is there any other way to see if the SMART message is an error? Or is it time to just forget about it and get a new hard drive?

 

I have just purchased a 250gb hard disk - and it is a breeze to fit it into the sony SZ chassis, simply follow the instructions you can find on this site to install and then reinstall the operating system.

 

Is your 250 gb 7200 or 5400? If its 7200 do you notice a difference in speed, sound and heat?

 

Best way would be to compare two drive series, 5400 vs 7200 rpm. At Hitachi's website, the latest 5400 drive is the 5K250, and a recent 7200 drive is the 7K200.

http://www.hitachigst.com/portal/site/en/menuitem.edf693c2139b099056fb11f0aac4f0a0/

Looking at the datasheet shows the 7200 having a significant performance edge, but also a corresponding increase in power consumption. It's up to you to decide whether the tradeoff is worth it.

 

this is the drive i got

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/131277

it is 'slightly' more noisy than the previous 100gb, havnt really checked out battery life with it yet - but it feels faster than the stock drive. The restore disks will only create a 125gb partition, so i had to partition it into 2 drives - still not an issue for me.