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General discussion

Fed up with seagate. Any other good hard drives?

Sep 19, 2010 4:15PM PDT

I got a 1TB Seagate Expansion drive around 3 months ago for my EeePC laptop and it's made soft clicking noises that don't exactly match the ones on datacent.com. The ones on mine are way softer and can't be heard over an electric fan on full blast. (Then again, my hearing's never been the best.) I take generally good care of the hard drive (haven't dropped it, always have handled it with care), though I have tripped over the cord connecting it to the electric socket several times. My room's stuffy, though, just in case that turns out to be important.

As this probably means trouble, I've decided to just buy another hard drive. (I'm a first-time user, so I don't feel like I want to touch another Seagate hard drive with a ten-foot pole now. Am I being too much?) Any good ones out there (preferably 1TB)? What brands would you recommend? I'm a no-frills kind of person, so I'll be happy with simple functional storage space without any fancy features. Also, I'm thinking of switching to Linux (XP user here) maybe in a few months or so, so I'd prefer something that's Linux-compatible too, if that's possible.

Discussion is locked

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I have to write your alarm may be premature.
Sep 19, 2010 11:36PM PDT

One of the new features of hard drives that produce a soft clicking is the drive performing a surface scan on its own. This is proving to upset owners today. And all the makers are implementing it.

I fear that another drive could do the same.

You can research this if you like but I am on travel so have to keep it short.
Bob

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"automatic off-line read scan to monitor additional
Sep 20, 2010 4:28AM PDT

"automatic off-line read scan to monitor additional operations."

This is noted about today's hard drives. This read scan is causing some folk to think the drive has a defect.
Bob

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Not much out there
Sep 20, 2010 1:20AM PDT

You google away and find the results are few for many ext. HDs out there of the actual HD installed. The makers of HDs are Seagate(owns Maxtor), WD, Samsung and Hitachi and that's it. I exclude any laptop installs or such. You can try to search for a different brand but the installed HD will be one of the above.

NOPE! any movement of the HD while on is a negative action, regardless of past use history. Often enough, IMHO heat is the main cuplrit of damaging ext. HDs as they usually don't have active(real good) heat dissipation other than thermo-ally metal(HD case) and whatever ext. case suited for this task. In other words, no fan or huge heat sinks.

Also, USB ext. HDs getting power from USB port can tax that USB current output and can cause damage as it hits the limits but to each PC is different. Next, the AC powered ext. cases are prone to what the outside world has to offer. Any sags or surges of AC current will more directly effect the ext. HD as usually no protection is provided. Last, just because you turn PC-OFF doesn't mean you turn ext. HD off when AC powered. it sits there powered-ON, maybe idle but cooks under its own heat build-up. Psssst, my cat sits on mine, I have to shoo it away.

tada -----Willy Happy