Gone Fishin'
I'll post the post I yanked tomorrow evening, I'm gone for a few days at a lake in Michigan (nice lakes, nice people, but you can't take alcohol to any public beach... which is... insane... and makes me want to never go to a lake house in Michigan ever, ever again... especially since it's 100 degrees F outside) and have limited access to the net till I'm home tomorrow.
Well, I have access to the net, but a day before I left the hard drive of the Powerbook started to (randomly and somewhat infrequently) make a loud clack while the entire OS or app would pause, generally while reading or writing... I've heard this noise before, and don't trust the drive at all, and would hate to get a bunch of stuff done only to have it all be lost. Since my Powerbook is my mobile computer, I've gone fishin' for a few days.
It's a little amusing, as this drive is only about a year old, and I'm not looking forward to dealing with it when I get back. Apple replaced it (the machine is now out of warranty, and I'm assuming the drive they put it is also now) with some strange 'Diablo' drive I've never heard of before (Noisy, but got the job done), but a year is a little insane... but I know I'm not alone.
2.5" laptop drives are dying like flies, and I've had friends have to get them replaced over and over in the span of months, especially in their iBooks. My guess, from personal experience and asking around, is:
- 2.5" notebook drives are just not well made technology right now. They aren't made for any real use, let alone actually working them, let alone using it for the better part of a day.
- Those making laptop computers are over-engineering them with thermal tolerances that are just killing the drives. Hard drives are generally sensitive to heat and vibration, and computers get so hot now and dissipate the built-up heat so poorly you're constantly running them in the red. And yes, it's pretty much the majority of them trying to make these super-thin laptops. Think about it -- if its burning your lap, its an oven inside.
What's a little annoying is that I baby my computers, and even have a fan running on my Powerbook when I'm 'really' using it so that its fan isn't going all the time, but it doesn't seem to have helped much...
So I'm probably going to have to pick up another internal hard drive and install it myself, which I'm not really looking forward to, as I almost pulled my hair out the last time I had to take apart a Powerbook... but it's a lot cheaper than dropping it off for a day and paying a goofy amount of money to have it done.
(I love tearing apart and messing with computers, even when they are incredibly hard to deal with, when I am planning for it and want to but otherwise find it incredibly annoying, especially when the hardware is difficult to work with)
So, let's say you want a good 2.5" notebook drive, that (listed by priority):
- Is reliable
- Inexpensive
- Runs cool
- Is speedy
...Any good recent purchases or recommendations?
Posted by drunkenbatmanJuly 10, 2005, at 04:52 PM
Comments (16)
Posted by: Greg Sm. at July 10, 2005 05:37 PM
"If you are using Tiger and it is infrequent, the HD may not be going bad"
Uh, if it is a clank noise, it is going bad. It just happened to mine (12" 867Mhz Power Book) and its S.M.A.R.T. status showed green until the minute it would not boot.
Posted by: foresmac at July 10, 2005 05:42 PM
I recently had to replace the HD in my 12" PBG4 after almost two years of never turning it off. Yeah, it sucks ass. I had a local certified apple tech replace it for $70. It was worth it to me since he warranted the work.
Anyhowways, I really wanted a 80GB Hitachi 5K100 5400 RPM 2.5" drive, but I settled for the 5K80 instead because I didn't want to wait for the drive to be on backorder, and I couldn't afford the 100GB version (also, I plan on getting a new Powerbook within the next year anyhowways). The extra capacity wasn't critical (because I still need a really good external backup drive), but the extra speed and larger cache is nice. The 5K100s have the following improvements worth considering however: double the duty cycle, 150% more shock absorption, and the same power dissipation as 4200 RPM drives.
I also considered the 60GB 7200 RPM drive as well, and they plan on releasing a 7K100 sometime soon, but I don't know when that is.
Posted by: mikey at July 10, 2005 06:22 PM
I've read really good things about the Hitachi drives, too. You don't seem to concerned about it (not in the list of priorities), but they're supposed to be fairly quieter than the Toshiba's and some others. If you really want reliability (but can sacrifice in some other areas) you should check out the 2.5" drives made for server blades... they're supposed to be pretty solid, but might not be the best for a laptop.
Posted by: Rory at July 10, 2005 06:36 PM
It's funny I've always worked my laptops to death every day and I've yet to have a laptop drive fail on me. Admittedly I now run my PowerBook from an external FireWire 800 drive when I'm at the my desk, but that's for performance reasons more than anything else.
I've pushed this 1GHz Al Book pretty hard, and the PowerBook G3 400 before that and the clamshell blueberry iBook before that. Maybe I'm just lucky? I do treat my Macs very carefully but they've all seen their fair share of being hauled around, used on shaky old trains and the like. The only hard drive to ever die on me without my express intervention was in my old graphite G4 a few years ago. For what it's worth my PowerBook has a 60GB Fujitsu drive.
If you think your drive might be on the way out check the SMART status in Disk Utility, it will say either verified or failing.
Posted by: John Röthlisberger at July 10, 2005 06:43 PM
Regardless of what brand and size (there isn't all that much to choose from anyway) make it a 7200 RPM drive. Unless that is what you were already running, the difference will be *significant*.
Posted by: Jason Terhorst at July 10, 2005 07:03 PM
Regarding the no-alcohol thing around the Lake... are you going to the Door County area? Some of the towns are pretty secluded, and you can understand why that particular area has all of those rules and such... I, too, am unable to cope without technology, or the Internet, but that place was just beautiful! The quiet, peaceful, smelling the flowers instead of car exhaust sort of thing. A buddy of mine has a place up there, and they love it. Sometimes, a place like that can be better than a day at the spa.
On the other hand... I probably wouldn't visit that area around this time of year... it's not 100 degrees, but it is humid, which really gets into the miserable-ness. The best time to enjoy the Door County (or any other place around the lake) is during late September or early October. Every color you can imagine is in the leaves of the trees, and they are everywhere. We saw this when we were driving - it took several hours to drive from our home in northern Illinois, but the visual treat was worth every minute of it.
Posted by: Nico Edtinger at July 10, 2005 07:28 PM
I had to notebooks before switching to apple. One is now 5 years old an although the notebook died after "drinking" to much coke the harddisk is still fine.
The other notebook is already broken and the display doesn't work all the time, but the harddisk is working too - after over 2 years.
In January I got a Mac mini and its harddisk made this "droping a pen" noise. But it worked. In March my powerbook, which I bought in May last year, started with the same noise. And OS X paused. The same as with your powerbook.
In April the harddisk of the powerbook died. I got a new one with 80 gigs, which is louder, but it twice the size and it works.
In May the harddisk of my Mac mini finally died. It didn't boot anymore with the harddisk blocking the bus (as the message in verbose mode said). It's currently in repair (took a bit longer to bring it to an apple service because of my holiday).
Something with the harddisks Apple uses sucks. A normal harddisk lasts for years - Apple's die after one year or earlier. I hope they're going to change the harddisk manfacture too.
b4n
Posted by: Ankalon at July 10, 2005 09:44 PM
Gee, Thanks. First the PPC switch and now drives. I'm starting to think I'll have a nice, shiny, aluminum paperweight in a couple of years. Good thing I bought Applecare, I think I have Nico's "tink/click."
P.S. Jason, Pardon me for being another jaded Wisconsinite, but I'd talk to a DNR officer up there. Something about them being hung for trying to enforce deer laws. Some of the older ones have scars around their necks. (It gets pretty hairy with some of the hicks who are serious about "state's rights" and other... things, like the right to harvest as many as you can shoot.) Even though that actually is true, I may just be trying to scare you back to your state. :shakes fist at south:
Get off my lawn you damn kids!
Posted by: drunkenbatman at July 10, 2005 11:28 PM
Regarding the no-alcohol thing around the Lake... are you going to the Door County area?
I'd have to ask exactly where were were, but I know it was fairly secluded and somewhat near "Buffalo Grove", and there were antique shops everywhere... It was nice, and quiet, and beautiful for sure.
Posted by: Eddy Hurst at July 11, 2005 12:28 AM
I've never owned a Powerbook, but something is sure wrong with the iBooks. In the year and a half I have had mine, the hard drive has been replaced three times. My girlfriend had to take hers to the Apple Store after having the hard drive die twice in two months. What could explain the problem with iBooks and hard drives?
Posted by: Beat Bolli at July 11, 2005 01:16 AM
Re the harddisk: I recommend Samsung. They're fast and quiet. I'd stay away from Hitachi, these are the former IBM disks that died in masses...
Posted by: jay at July 11, 2005 02:14 AM
DB:
I've always had great luck with Travelstar drives. I have an old VAIO Z550R that I've used for years. These days, I dual boot FC3 and XP Pro and mainly use it for tinkering. A while back, I replaced its stock 6 gig Travelstar (IBM flavor) with a 30 gig Travelstar (Hitachi flavor). Here's the kicker: the old drive still works flawlessly. I dropped it into an external firewire case, installed Tiger onto it, and use it as an emergency recovery drive for my iBook. If you're interested, you can see the drive replacement surgery here: http://jaydryden.net/ipw-web/gallery/Z505R-Upgrade
- J
Posted by: AC at July 11, 2005 02:24 AM
I have limited experience with PCs, and my iBook had been in the shop more than I would like, but I do not think it is fair to single out the iBooks or Powerbook lines. If Apple is having unusual amounts of drive failures, why would it not be the same for the other PC manufacturers?
Posted by: Patrick Weber at July 11, 2005 03:46 AM
I don't have a mac right now (although I'd LOVE one..), I do know what you are talking about with the heat issues.
I have a Dell Inspiron 8200, with a 2.4ghz Mobile P4, and this thing runs hot as hell. I have one of those desk fans (that is very noisy, but moves alot of air) running on the back of it while my laptop is propped up and that generally does the trick. The fans on the back generally turn off when I run that.. (good thing I have those cheap noise cancelling headphones). However, when the fan isnt on, or im moving around the house, my laptop fans usually run non-stop.
As for the hard drive issues, I generally dont have trouble with laptop hard drives, it just seems like desktop graphics cards that are my weak point. I guess maybe it is just time that 4 graphics cards that I had around my house died simultaneously...
Anyway, sounds like fun. I hope you get your laptop fixed :P.
Also, I dont know about this drive (I don't have it), but it is made by hitachi and is runnign at a nice 7200rpm..
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/IDE/hitachi_travelstar60GB_7200/travelstar60GB_7200rpm.html
60GB, 7200RPM, made for macs (if that is even possible), and somewhat expensive, $189.. :). Your choice.
Hope that helped.
Posted by: Derek at July 11, 2005 11:37 AM
Door County is on the peninsula in Wisconsin. If Drunkenbatman went to the Michigan UP, then he had an extra hour or more added on to his trip. It's not humid at all up here. It's actually very dry. Near the Great Lakes it actually can be kind of chilly due to lake effect.
If you are using Tiger and it is infrequent, the HD may not be going bad. I am trying to track down an issue where I/O blocks and confuses the drive but then recovers. The new KPI interfaces still have bugs...