Bad hard-drive

[Apnoea]

To add to the list, I had a HD which suddenly stopped liking being the boot drive. Windows booted but with an error 50% of the time. Reinstalled many times to same effect. I bought another drive to boot from and the other drive subsequently worked perfectly! Never had a single bad sector!

Both drives of course worked perfectly until my PSU decided to blow out both drives towards the end of a rather nasty 8000 word essay.

In the quest for a new drive (WD60gig ata100 etc) I heard of rumours that the IBM deskstar range had some lifetime issues, and that IBM recomended using the drive for a ridiculously short period of time each day...
IBM on power-on hours
This is the blurb but the long and short of it is that it was an unnamed 'IBM' source (mystery IBM tech) that made claims which IBM denied.
I must say that I've never heard anything before or since which makes me doubt that IBM is nothing but a quality HD manufacturer!
(please send cheques to...)

Apnoea

[Enchanter]

I've only heard about how well the IBM drives perform against the competition. When I was looking for a replacement drive (for my old slow drive, which is not dead yet up to this day), I couldn't locate anyone selling the IBM drive and I settled for my current WD30BB drive. StorageReview gave quite a good review on it and so I was bought.

However, I've never personally had any trouble with Seagate drives either (Having owned 3 of them) and I find them performing very obviously and bloody fast (esp. my 80GB one). The next time I get a HD, it would most probably be a Seagate drive, regardless of what the reviews say.

[kevin abq]

HDs

Enchanter,

Sorry I took so long to reply. Been in a video capture frenzy lately (19 movies moved from VHS to DVD in the last 5 days).

I expected that someone would take offense, and from his quote I guess I insulted "techno":

"WD HDD's RULE! They kick a$$"

But I won't be using my HDD to kick a$$, I want to use it for data storage. And I doubt a HDD rules anything! That would infer sentience, and if you detect sentience, I suggest you either stop taking those drugs, or start taking the ones the doctor recommends!

I was just offering the benefit of my experience. I had hoped it wouldn't end up being an adolescent "my hardware is better than your hardware" thread, but you gotta expect that I guess when the minimum age on a board is usually 13!

To answer your question, the 120 GB "ceiling" you've seen isn't really a hard drive limitation ...it's an addressing limitation. This excerpt explains it:

The latest capacity "barrier" involves a limitation of the common ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment) standard that governs the connection between the motherboard and hard drive. The original ATA design specification provided only 28 bits for addressing data written to the disk. This 28-bit limit on addresses works out to a 137GB capacity limitation for a single ATA drive. The next generation of the ATA specification will increase the address limit to 48 bits, an idea proposed by Maxtor, moving the capacity limitation to 144 petabytes of data (1 petabyte = 1 million GB).


"Rather than waiting for the arrival of updated motherboard designs that support the proposed 48-bit ATA addressing standard, Maxtor's clever engineers decided to leverage a common interface that already exceeds the current 28-bit limitation of the ATA bus: IEEE 1394 (i.LINK/FireWire)."

The whole article is at:

http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/print/0,23102,3371905,00.html

It seems as though Maxtor found a work-around. The ATA specification will probably be revised to add address bits, if they haven't already.

It sometimes seems that they have reached the physical limitation of matter with the huge densities they've achieved, but in reality they are far from it.

The other day I was reading about a new technology called "Millipede" that uses mechanical "dents" in the recording surface instead of magnetic writing. The density of this technology supposedly allows the amount of data equivalent to 25 DVDs to be stored in an area the size of a postage stamp! This is done using a plexiglas-like material and a writing stylus heated to 300 or 400 degrees C, if memory serves.

There's a long way to go in density before the IBM engineers need to worry about how to flip individual electrons in the valence shells.

[hacker_on_fire]

soory i took so long, i must have missed this thread.

anyway, i totally agree with techno, cos i had a maxtor drive (80GB) thinking it was a good brand. then whatt do ya know, within 6 months it fails on me. that was the first time it happend, and i never had my stuff backed up. know i backup every month. s anyway my hdd was replaced with a wd hdd and is yet to fail me.

@Tehno, when did u learn so much bout computers

[Enchanter]

Thanks for all the comprehensive info, kevin. I haven't got the chance to read the link you gave yet. However, I do have one simple question that you might know the answer to.

It seems as though Maxtor found a work-around. The ATA specification will probably be revised to add address bits, if they haven't already.

Will the revision come in the form of a BIOS update, or hardwired only into new hardwares?

[techno]

not at all! I was playin....

I always just use my hdd's for data and programming...nothin much but now for 2 years I have been into DIVX...so capturing...transferring ... encoding etc... WD drives are the way to go.

I currently have a sale on from my PC company.

@Hacker_on_fire:

Self tought for 10 years (when I was 5 I started with the Atari STe 520 with 512k of RAM!!!!)

then for the past 6 years...especially the 4 years...I have been FULLY hardcored self tought on PC's.....my uncles help me and now I do everything on my own. been a member of MS team for 1 and a half years now...and just recieved a Windows XP certificate (not MCSE...somethin very close to it!)

I am opening a second shop...maybe in London or Birmingham...I dunno.

just been out now in Slough...and London....BLIMY! Hot babes!

Techno

[hacker_on_fire]

if i knew u were comin to london i could have hooked u up to some ladies.
i see, computers were in ur blood. hehe

WD HDD's rule