Need advice on new HD

timdmgd · 01-28-2003, 04:03 PM

Hi, sorry this isn't really an OS X question, just Mac general I guess. A couple of months back, I noticed that straight after powering up my Mac (also after waking it after it had been sleeping a long time) the drive would make an awfull noise which would go as soon as it had heated up (sometimes 5 mins later, sometimes less). I didn't take much notice as it wasn't causing me any problems. Anyway, now it's making nhw same humming noise constantly and I want to replace it before it completely goes belly-up. What I'm needing is a drive that spins at least 7200 RPM, is also at least 40GB and most importantly of all, can be left powered up 24/7. It's to go inside my G4 dual 500Mhz, to replace the one that was factory fitted. Perhaps I may as well get one that is a few more gigs. I've just managed to convince my mum that it needs to be done as soon as possible so she's lent me her credit card and I'm hoping to buy one online in the next few hours. I appreciate that this isn't a chat forum and know I can't expect an instant answer but a.s.a.p. please

. Does anybody have any suggestions?

Jacques · 01-28-2003, 04:25 PM

For externals, nothing less than the new Lacie drives (firewire) - they are VERY quiet as well, which is a important for me.

timdmgd · 01-28-2003, 04:33 PM

Thanks Jacques but I'm only interested in internal, I want to replace the factory fitted drive.

mervTormel · 01-28-2003, 04:53 PM

here's where to start shopping...

http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_a...a4544716db2374

seagate is the most reliable, IMHO. start there, and then pan left and zoom out. get the largest capacity you can afford.

mclbruce · 01-28-2003, 10:02 PM

I've heard Seagate drives are highly regarded. Since it's your mom's card i'd go to OWC to buy the hard drive:

http://eshop.macsales.com/

Actually I like the prices and return policy at OWC, I recommend them to most people. 80 Gig drives are priced well these days.

tsugaru · 01-28-2003, 10:58 PM

I would recommend the IBM Deskstar series. I have a 60GB Deskstar 120GXP. Get one of the 120GXP or 180GXP models. They are extremely quiet, and have extremely high performance. And also come with a 3 year warranty.

tamenti · 01-29-2003, 03:58 AM

I have two Seagate Barracuda 80gigs. One in my iMac and one in an external case. They are both "always-on" as the iMac is doing all my server needs, web/mail/file.
The HD's are extremely quiet, I can only just hear them if I put my ear to the iMac when its writing. I sleep in the same room as my computers, and my iBook is way more noisy than my iMac with the two 80gig drives.
And I havent had a single problem with either of the drives.

petey · 01-29-2003, 09:33 AM

mervtormel,

that pricegrabbers link didn't work too well for me. (no 2.5" 60GB HD's in existance, for example).

too bad, as i've been looking for a comprehensive HD price/search engine for a long time.

anyone have any other such sources?

timdmgd · 01-29-2003, 12:32 PM

Thanks for the replies OS X people,

mervTormel & mclbruce, the links were no good for me unfortunately (for purchasing, anyway), as I'm in England.

tsugaru, I'm dubious about buying another IBM drive. Last year, I bought an IBM 120gb 120GXP as a slave to my (almost dead) 40gb Maxtor and started regretting it straight away after learning that IBM only recomend it be powered up for 333 hours per month. That's why I have 'Put the hard disk to sleep when possible' selected in the Energy Saver control panel. It gets on my nerves seeing the beachball waiting for it to spin up. But for the time being.......

mervTormel, I was tempted to go for the Seagate Barracuda ATA V 120GB UDMA100 but was a bit concerned that the site I bought from listed it as PC only compatible, whereas the one I've gone for, they specifically list as Mac/PC. I think it probably would have been ok though. Also, I read about it on the storage review site and think I saw it has a different power connection. Kind of put me off a bit.

I've ended up going for a WD1200JB. After looking at the storage review site and seeing all of the praise it gets here.

It's very unusual for me to do anything about a problem before it happens. In the past I'd have waited for the drive to die before doing anything about it. I just hope my Maxtor holds out until the new one arrives. RIP Maxtor 40gb

.

timdmgd · 02-01-2003, 09:36 PM

I just wanted to let you know (those that could give a toss) that I got my new Western Digital 120GB drive today. I made a copy of my boot drive onto it (using CCC) and fitted it easily. Quite an achievement for me.

Bossa Nova · 02-01-2003, 11:09 PM

Tim,

I got the western dig with the 8mb buffer and it's been a great drive. I have been a fan of the Seagates and the ibm travelstars prior and those are good to. But now that Hitachi has taken over the ibm stuff I wonder what will happen.

tsugaru · 02-01-2003, 11:53 PM

Hmmm.. interesting. I use my IBM drive way more than 333hours per month and it is still going strong. Also, I turn my computer off when I am done with it, so that saves some wear and tear.

redcap3000 · 02-02-2003, 12:19 AM

As long as a drive is ATA/IDE, it'll work with your mac after you format it.

So far, I've bought 3 drives from maxtor.. one of them was an extremely expensive (300 bucks at the time) and it stopped working, after a few months of some heavy DV editing. I erased it, still didn't work, AND I lost 30 gigs of DV. Yippie. Turns out nothing was wrong with the drive, but with the Firewire bridge inside. Anyway, my other two maxtor drives "sort of" work right now. I have another 20 gig, and my first a 12.7 7200 rpm, that I sold, and a 40 gig that was once inside a firewire case.

A couple weeks ago the 40 gig (Dimond max) was giving me troubles: not spinning up, making horrific ratching noises over and over and over, so I put it to rest. But now it works.. for now.. before then it wasn't working at all and I thought all the data was forever lost! My point is: you can't depend on maxtor drives to reliably hold data.

All modern IDE drives are extremely quiet (usually ata/66 or higher.) I have two WD, which are EXCELLENT drives, for internals, a 7200 RPM 40 gig, and a 120 gig 5400 RPM. They're cheap, fast, and so far I haven't had any problems with them, and I usually never spin them down. I'm really eyeballing a 120 WD 7200 rpm, at this point.

The best advice I can give you with your new drive is: Make at least 2 partitions! 120 gigs is a lotta data, and once you start filling up, will get very fragmented and take hours upon hours to defrag. I'd recommend one drive for swap space (if you use it) at the top, one drive for your system, one drive for your downloads/non executables, and one drive for games. (This is if this is your only drive.)

timdmgd · 02-03-2003, 08:54 AM

Really happy with it so far. I've made it into 4 partitions, one (40gb) for OS X, one (5gb) for OS 9 (still use it very occasionaly), one (43gb) for DV & one (23) for games.

vincentm · 02-03-2003, 04:26 PM

I have a 80 Gigs HD from Western Digital w/ 8 Megs of buffer and it works great. It's not making noise and is very fast.

jeffo · 02-07-2003, 10:12 AM

I personally dont care for Seagate drives, I have had bad luck with them. I know that alot of people do like them and they are very common in the industry so that has to say something. I happen to like Western Digital quite a bit. I have a external AcomData drive. NEVER BUY ONE!!! at least if you do buy one pray to everything that is holy that you never have to call tech support.

01-28-2003, 04:03 PM	#1
timdmgd Triple-A Player Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Redhill, Surrey, UK. Posts: 244	Need advice on new HD Hi, sorry this isn't really an OS X question, just Mac general I guess. A couple of months back, I noticed that straight after powering up my Mac (also after waking it after it had been sleeping a long time) the drive would make an awfull noise which would go as soon as it had heated up (sometimes 5 mins later, sometimes less). I didn't take much notice as it wasn't causing me any problems. Anyway, now it's making nhw same humming noise constantly and I want to replace it before it completely goes belly-up. What I'm needing is a drive that spins at least 7200 RPM, is also at least 40GB and most importantly of all, can be left powered up 24/7. It's to go inside my G4 dual 500Mhz, to replace the one that was factory fitted. Perhaps I may as well get one that is a few more gigs. I've just managed to convince my mum that it needs to be done as soon as possible so she's lent me her credit card and I'm hoping to buy one online in the next few hours. I appreciate that this isn't a chat forum and know I can't expect an instant answer but a.s.a.p. please . Does anybody have any suggestions? __________________ You know you need a new lawyer when he tells you that his last good case was a "Budweiser." Macintosh IIx, 8mb RAM, 120mb hard drive.

01-28-2003, 04:33 PM	#3
timdmgd Triple-A Player Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Redhill, Surrey, UK. Posts: 244	Thanks Jacques but I'm only interested in internal, I want to replace the factory fitted drive. __________________ You know you need a new lawyer when he tells you that his last good case was a "Budweiser." Macintosh IIx, 8mb RAM, 120mb hard drive.

01-29-2003, 12:32 PM	#9
timdmgd Triple-A Player Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Redhill, Surrey, UK. Posts: 244	Thanks for the replies OS X people, mervTormel & mclbruce, the links were no good for me unfortunately (for purchasing, anyway), as I'm in England. tsugaru, I'm dubious about buying another IBM drive. Last year, I bought an IBM 120gb 120GXP as a slave to my (almost dead) 40gb Maxtor and started regretting it straight away after learning that IBM only recomend it be powered up for 333 hours per month. That's why I have 'Put the hard disk to sleep when possible' selected in the Energy Saver control panel. It gets on my nerves seeing the beachball waiting for it to spin up. But for the time being....... mervTormel, I was tempted to go for the Seagate Barracuda ATA V 120GB UDMA100 but was a bit concerned that the site I bought from listed it as PC only compatible, whereas the one I've gone for, they specifically list as Mac/PC. I think it probably would have been ok though. Also, I read about it on the storage review site and think I saw it has a different power connection. Kind of put me off a bit. I've ended up going for a WD1200JB. After looking at the storage review site and seeing all of the praise it gets here. It's very unusual for me to do anything about a problem before it happens. In the past I'd have waited for the drive to die before doing anything about it. I just hope my Maxtor holds out until the new one arrives. RIP Maxtor 40gb . __________________ You know you need a new lawyer when he tells you that his last good case was a "Budweiser." Macintosh IIx, 8mb RAM, 120mb hard drive.

02-01-2003, 09:36 PM	#10
timdmgd Triple-A Player Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Redhill, Surrey, UK. Posts: 244	I just wanted to let you know (those that could give a toss) that I got my new Western Digital 120GB drive today. I made a copy of my boot drive onto it (using CCC) and fitted it easily. Quite an achievement for me. __________________ You know you need a new lawyer when he tells you that his last good case was a "Budweiser." Macintosh IIx, 8mb RAM, 120mb hard drive.

02-02-2003, 12:19 AM	#13
redcap3000 Prospect Join Date: Dec 2002 Posts: 3	Maxtor As long as a drive is ATA/IDE, it'll work with your mac after you format it. So far, I've bought 3 drives from maxtor.. one of them was an extremely expensive (300 bucks at the time) and it stopped working, after a few months of some heavy DV editing. I erased it, still didn't work, AND I lost 30 gigs of DV. Yippie. Turns out nothing was wrong with the drive, but with the Firewire bridge inside. Anyway, my other two maxtor drives "sort of" work right now. I have another 20 gig, and my first a 12.7 7200 rpm, that I sold, and a 40 gig that was once inside a firewire case. A couple weeks ago the 40 gig (Dimond max) was giving me troubles: not spinning up, making horrific ratching noises over and over and over, so I put it to rest. But now it works.. for now.. before then it wasn't working at all and I thought all the data was forever lost! My point is: you can't depend on maxtor drives to reliably hold data. All modern IDE drives are extremely quiet (usually ata/66 or higher.) I have two WD, which are EXCELLENT drives, for internals, a 7200 RPM 40 gig, and a 120 gig 5400 RPM. They're cheap, fast, and so far I haven't had any problems with them, and I usually never spin them down. I'm really eyeballing a 120 WD 7200 rpm, at this point. The best advice I can give you with your new drive is: Make at least 2 partitions! 120 gigs is a lotta data, and once you start filling up, will get very fragmented and take hours upon hours to defrag. I'd recommend one drive for swap space (if you use it) at the top, one drive for your system, one drive for your downloads/non executables, and one drive for games. (This is if this is your only drive.)

01-28-2003, 04:25 PM	#2
Jacques All Star Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: New York, NY Posts: 972	For externals, nothing less than the new Lacie drives (firewire) - they are VERY quiet as well, which is a important for me.

01-28-2003, 04:53 PM	#4
mervTormel League Commissioner Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 5,536	here's where to start shopping... http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_a...a4544716db2374 seagate is the most reliable, IMHO. start there, and then pan left and zoom out. get the largest capacity you can afford.

01-28-2003, 10:02 PM	#5
mclbruce Hall of Famer Join Date: Mar 2002 Posts: 3,878	I've heard Seagate drives are highly regarded. Since it's your mom's card i'd go to OWC to buy the hard drive: http://eshop.macsales.com/ Actually I like the prices and return policy at OWC, I recommend them to most people. 80 Gig drives are priced well these days.

01-28-2003, 10:58 PM	#6
tsugaru Major Leaguer Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Edmonton Posts: 267	I would recommend the IBM Deskstar series. I have a 60GB Deskstar 120GXP. Get one of the 120GXP or 180GXP models. They are extremely quiet, and have extremely high performance. And also come with a 3 year warranty.

01-29-2003, 03:58 AM	#7
tamenti Triple-A Player Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Denmark Posts: 102	I have two Seagate Barracuda 80gigs. One in my iMac and one in an external case. They are both "always-on" as the iMac is doing all my server needs, web/mail/file. The HD's are extremely quiet, I can only just hear them if I put my ear to the iMac when its writing. I sleep in the same room as my computers, and my iBook is way more noisy than my iMac with the two 80gig drives. And I havent had a single problem with either of the drives.

01-29-2003, 09:33 AM	#8
petey All Star Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: peteyville Posts: 794	mervtormel, that pricegrabbers link didn't work too well for me. (no 2.5" 60GB HD's in existance, for example). too bad, as i've been looking for a comprehensive HD price/search engine for a long time. anyone have any other such sources?

02-01-2003, 11:09 PM	#11
Bossa Nova Prospect Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 47	Tim, I got the western dig with the 8mb buffer and it's been a great drive. I have been a fan of the Seagates and the ibm travelstars prior and those are good to. But now that Hitachi has taken over the ibm stuff I wonder what will happen.

02-01-2003, 11:53 PM	#12
tsugaru Major Leaguer Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Edmonton Posts: 267	Hmmm.. interesting. I use my IBM drive way more than 333hours per month and it is still going strong. Also, I turn my computer off when I am done with it, so that saves some wear and tear.

02-03-2003, 08:54 AM	#14
timdmgd Triple-A Player Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Redhill, Surrey, UK. Posts: 244	Really happy with it so far. I've made it into 4 partitions, one (40gb) for OS X, one (5gb) for OS 9 (still use it very occasionaly), one (43gb) for DV & one (23) for games. __________________ You know you need a new lawyer when he tells you that his last good case was a "Budweiser." Macintosh IIx, 8mb RAM, 120mb hard drive.

02-03-2003, 04:26 PM	#15
vincentm Prospect Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada Posts: 45	I have a 80 Gigs HD from Western Digital w/ 8 Megs of buffer and it works great. It's not making noise and is very fast.

02-07-2003, 10:12 AM	#16
jeffo All Star Join Date: Mar 2002 Posts: 713	I personally dont care for Seagate drives, I have had bad luck with them. I know that alot of people do like them and they are very common in the industry so that has to say something. I happen to like Western Digital quite a bit. I have a external AcomData drive. NEVER BUY ONE!!! at least if you do buy one pray to everything that is holy that you never have to call tech support.