Another HP laptop needs a hard drive

[mechanicx]

Well I posted about replacing the hard drive on my brother's HP laptop that was only about 2 years old. It's been running good with the new hard drive.

Now, the hard drive on my HP which is about the same age is going out. I had recently done a complete operating system reinstall from the back up partition to just get it all cleaned up and renewed. It seemed to work a little better at first but after getting all the Windows updates it started acting up and the hard drive is testing bad.

I already had done a favorites and personal settings back up on a USB flash drive when I did the reload. But I don't have the recovery disks and will need to get some blank DVDs and hope the hard drive will work enough to create a recovery disk for the new hard drive.

It's getting expensive to run HP laptops with the hard drives failing. I'm not too sure about HP durability and the hard drives they used.

 

[getnpsi]

I think HP seems to run hot across the board pun intended. Since HP doesn't have HP disks, wait do they? Maybe shop for ones with better extreme thresholds. they show data on operating temps. I cant imagine they differ all that much but if there is 10-20C id get that one.

 

[SLCraig]

I am here to tell you, it is not just HP. HP does not make their hard drives. Someone else makes them, and HDD's fail in every brand of laptop, or desktop PC.

Although I don't love that brand as a whole for durability, the HDD failure is totally not on them.

 

[KrisZ]

Do yourself a favour and download an iso of the same version of windows 7 you have from Microsoft's website, I think they still have these isos available.
Burn the iso on a DVD and do a clean install on a brand new HD. Use you existing key to activate windows 7.

This way you will have just the operating system with no bloat ware. Also whatever brand hd you have, buy something else.

Edit:
Here is where you can get them. Don't worry the links are official.
http://www.w7forums.com/official-windows-7-sp1-iso-image-downloads-t12325.html

 

[mechanicx]

The laptop has Vista. You're saying I can download an ISO from Microsoft and use my key from my old operating system?

I think the PC is stable enough to create a recovery disk.

I realize that HP doesn't make their hard drives but they choose what supplier to use and maybe they do it on the cheap. The last hard drive I replaced in the other HP was a Toshiba iirc.

I don't think it's just HP that has problems nowadays but these HP have had various problems, battery problems and other issues. My old 8 year old Sony VAIO has never given me any problems and seems built better.

 

[mechanicx]

It has a hard drive that correspond to a Western Digital Scorpio Blue. I thought Western Digital were good drives and that was the drive I was thinking of getting Hmm...

 

[LeakySeals]

Its possible the design of that unit can't keep a hard drive cool. But in my experience...HP laptops have a better record keeping drives cool. And if you changed brands and had the same issue I suspect a dust issue. I've seen laptop vents clog in a few months, overheating the hard drive. Canned air really helps.

Thanks for all your car posts btw, appreciated.

 

[Rand]

How did you end up with a 2 year old hdd with vista on it?

was it already replaced previously?

 

[Bryankkkk]

Originally Posted By: mechanicx
It has a hard drive that correspond to a Western Digital Scorpio Blue. I thought Western Digital were good drives and that was the drive I was thinking of getting Hmm...


WD does have good drives, maybe it was moved alot. At work pretty much every drive failure we have gotten was from a toshiba/hitachi. A few WD and seagates from careless students who dropped their laptops. Only 1 WDwith the click of death right out of the box. I would find a OEM copy of vista and install fresh so you dont have that [censored] hp bloatware.

 

[mechanicx]

Originally Posted By: Rand
How did you end up with a 2 year old hdd with vista on it?

was it already replaced previously?



Actually the HP is probably closer to 4 years old now. But it hasn't been used a lot and sits on a desk most of the time. It's had various issues for a couple years now.

 

[mechanicx]

Originally Posted By: Bryankkkk
Originally Posted By: mechanicx
It has a hard drive that correspond to a Western Digital Scorpio Blue. I thought Western Digital were good drives and that was the drive I was thinking of getting Hmm...


WD does have good drives, maybe it was moved alot. At work pretty much every drive failure we have gotten was from a toshiba/hitachi. A few WD and seagates from careless students who dropped their laptops. Only 1 WDwith the click of death right out of the box. I would find a OEM copy of vista and install fresh so you dont have that [censored] hp bloatware.


This agrees with my limited experience.

I'd like to get a copy of Vista with service pack 2 and all the current updates already. I'm not really a computer guy and messing with zip files and iso files isn't something I do much and has given me problems.

 

[KrisZ]

Originally Posted By: mechanicx
The laptop has Vista. You're saying I can download an ISO from Microsoft and use my key from my old operating system?

I think the PC is stable enough to create a recovery disk.

I realize that HP doesn't make their hard drives but they choose what supplier to use and maybe they do it on the cheap. The last hard drive I replaced in the other HP was a Toshiba iirc.

I don't think it's just HP that has problems nowadays but these HP have had various problems, battery problems and other issues. My old 8 year old Sony VAIO has never given me any problems and seems built better.


Since the laptop is few years old I thought you had Windows 7. If you have Vista, my idea won't work and you will need your recovery disks, unless you can get your hands on a copy of Vista somehow.
This is the reason I don't like laptops. Screens, batteries and other components can go bad much easier usually due to poor cooling, much cheaper components and simple wear and tear due to handling. I'm a desktop kind of guy.

Another option, although a bit more expensive, would be to go with SSD. This should be the last HDD you will need in this machine. Also, you can always take it out once the laptop is unusable and use the SSD in something else.

 

[KrisZ]

Just found this link for Vista ISO's

http://www.askvg.com/direct-download-lin...bit-and-64-bit/

 

[mechanicx]

OK thanks for the suggestions of going with an SSD and an Vista ISO.

 

[BearZDefect]

Not to beat the cooling issue too far, but some laptops do let their hard disks get too hot. And this is not brand-specific: Neither the laptop brand, nor the hard disk brand. It is simply model-specific.

And a hard disk produces more heat when it is busy. Normal use in my six year old HP business laptop (with the original disk) has the disk temperature hover around 33 degrees, but get the disk busy non-stop for a few minutes and it rises to 40 which is still fine. On the other hand, the Thinkpad Edge laptops I've seen idle their disks around 43 degrees, and rise to 50 degrees (which is close to 'hot' for a disk) when busy. Before you think this is a Lenovo problem, their business Thinkpads (the T and X series I've seen) keep the disks cooler, below 40 most of the time. These numbers are observed at climate controlled room temperature.

Ambient air temperature has a direct effect on disk temperature too. So that Thinkpad Edge in the example above, if used in a warm summer environment, with the disk constantly busy, could easily overheat the hard disk. I've seen some Toshiba and Sony laptops used in such environments do just that.

 

[mechanicx]

I managed to get recovery disk made. I had ran chkdisk a couple times and it would freeze before completing as would trying to burn recovery disks. I finally got chkdisk to complete by running it through the bios menu and "unburdening" the hard drive or whatever the term was and that means. Then I was able to make recovery disk after booting into safe mode.

So now if the HD fails I have recovery disks. Downloading and activating an iso copy of Vista seemed too complicated and risky for my PC skills. I'll probably pick up a hard drive later on as the computer is worth the cost of a hard drive. I assume it is the hard drive and it'd be a waste of time reinstalling the operating. Although, the computer is not failing as hard as the other HP did, the hard drive test in the bios is saying the drive is bad.


As for heat, I think it is more than coincidental the hard drive failed after I reloaded the hard drive and had a heck of a time with downloading updates for Vista and the hard drive running constantly lol.

 

[Rand]

making a recovery disc from a failing hdd is problematic.
was there some kind of file verification going on to make sure it does not have errors?

A clean install has additional difficulties such as drivers
but you also win by cutting out all the oem bloatware.

 

[mechanicx]

When creating the recovery disk it does have a step where it validated the files created.

I think Vista without service pack 2 is problematic too. If I did an iso of Vista downloaded I'd be worried about running into all kinds of problems. I figure if my recovery disk work, replace the hard drive and after I go through the mess of updating, it should work good. I hate all the bloat too but it seems the route of lesser of two "evils" for me.