Hard Drive Info

[centermedic]

Apparently my hard drive is about to crash. Disk check hangs up. Anyhow, does anybody know how I can look up my interface ie: sata, sata2 etc etc? Thanks.

[swintec]

you can look at the drive itself.  should say on the sticker what it is.  SATA is 1.5 GB/s, SATA2 is 3 GB/s and SATA3 is 6.

[centermedic]

you can look at the drive itself.  should say on the sticker what it is.  SATA is 1.5 GB/s, SATA2 is 3 GB/s and SATA3 is 6.

I was hoping to avoid that. Computer is still in use and i will likely order a drive so my down time is minimal.

[squigey]

Try going to device manager...assuming you're running Windows. Under disk drives it should have some sort of model number listed...look up the model and you should be good to go.

 

SATA should be backwards compatible...the only hang up might be large drives.

[JDD]

I was hoping to avoid that. Computer is still in use and i will likely order a drive so my down time is minimal.

Approx, how old is the PC? Which version of windows? Is this a box machine (Dell, HP, Gateway, etc) if so there should a pc model number.

[swintec]

If it is a primary drive (boot) and it is going bad, having it running can be making matters worse and your chances of data loss gets greater with each passing minute.  I trust you have backed up what you want just in case?  Is this a windows drive?  what are you using, chkdsk?  this can sometimes take a very long time (hours)..to the point where it looks like it is frozen but it really isnt.

[centermedic]

If it is a primary drive (boot) and it is going bad, having it running can be making matters worse and your chances of data loss gets greater with each passing minute.  I trust you have backed up what you want just in case?  Is this a windows drive?  what are you using, chkdsk?  this can sometimes take a very long time (hours)..to the point where it looks like it is frozen but it really isnt.

Boot disk is made and everything is backed up on an external drive. Chkdisk ran for 12 hours and it was self initiated. Probably had a brown out and computer restarted.

Approx, how old is the PC? Which version of windows? Is this a box machine (Dell, HP, Gateway, etc) if so there should a pc model number.

Its about three years old. It is an HP p6714y

Try going to device manager...assuming you're running Windows. Under disk drives it should have some sort of model number listed...look up the model and you should be good to go.

 

SATA should be backwards compatible...the only hang up might be large drives.

My hard drives are listed as generic...go figure. Can I connect a sata three hd to a sata interface?

[squigey]

Boot disk is made and everything is backed up on an external drive. Chkdisk ran for 12 hours and it was self initiated. Probably had a brown out and computer restarted.

Its about three years old. It is an HP p6714y

My hard drives are listed as generic...go figure. Can I connect a sata three hd to a sata interface?

Yep, not an issue. It'll just transfer data slower. Unless you have an SSD, it's not really an issue.

 

Try device manager, then the ide/atapi controller section. Although it might list an IDE controller still, around 3 years ago you'd still most likely have an sata drive.

[mrzood]

HDTune should tell you what interface the drive is.

[JDD]

Apparently my hard drive is about to crash. Disk check hangs up. Anyhow, does anybody know how I can look up my interface ie: sata, sata2 etc etc? Thanks.

Here is the link to the Specs of you PC http://h20565.www2.hp.com/portal/site/hpsc/template.PAGE/public/kb/docDisplay/?sp4ts.oid=5035348&spf_p.tpst=kbDocDisplay&spf_p.prp_kbDocDisplay=wsrp-navigationalState%3DdocId%253Demr_na-c02675196-21%257CdocLocale%253D%257CcalledBy%253D&javax.portlet.begCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken&javax.portlet.endCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken

 

It is a 1TB Sata3 7200 rpm hard drive. Here is one that I have about 30 of in my office and never have had an issue.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2W00ZD1577

[SWMich4G]

Here is the link to the Specs of you PC http://h20565.www2.hp.com/portal/site/hpsc/template.PAGE/public/kb/docDisplay/?sp4ts.oid=5035348&spf_p.tpst=kbDocDisplay&spf_p.prp_kbDocDisplay=wsrp-navigationalState%3DdocId%253Demr_na-c02675196-21%257CdocLocale%253D%257CcalledBy%253D&javax.portlet.begCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken&javax.portlet.endCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken

 

It is a 1TB Sata3 7200 rpm hard drive. Here is one that I have about 30 of in my office and never have had an issue.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2W00ZD1577

It makes me sad that I paid less for mine 3-4 years ago.  I had to switch to Seagates vs paying over 2x as much for the newer blacks. 

[JDD]

It makes me sad that I paid less for mine 3-4 years ago.  I had to switch to Seagates vs paying over 2x as much for the newer blacks. 

 

 

I have used the Seagates on some clients that did not want to put a lot of money into a machine and these are still going also.  I would just really stay away for the WD green drives they are horrible. I have replaced everyone I purchased.

[centermedic]

Here is the link to the Specs of you PC http://h20565.www2.hp.com/portal/site/hpsc/template.PAGE/public/kb/docDisplay/?sp4ts.oid=5035348&spf_p.tpst=kbDocDisplay&spf_p.prp_kbDocDisplay=wsrp-navigationalState%3DdocId%253Demr_na-c02675196-21%257CdocLocale%253D%257CcalledBy%253D&javax.portlet.begCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken&javax.portlet.endCacheTok=com.vignette.cachetoken

 

It is a 1TB Sata3 7200 rpm hard drive. Here is one that I have about 30 of in my office and never have had an issue.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2W00ZD1577

Excellent. Thanks for the help guys. I was considering either a WD Black or a Seagate Barracuda.

[CAREND]

Mainboard shows an IDE connection and four sata connections.  Could have just looked up the HD in device manager.

[centermedic]

Mainboard shows an IDE connection and four sata connections.  Could have just looked up the HD in device manager.

I checked. The info was not listed. All i got was standard disk drive.

[SWMich4G]

Excellent. Thanks for the help guys. I was considering either a WD Black or a Seagate Barracuda.

 

I've never had a problem with either, and have about 4 of each.  However, some of the Barracudas have a head-parking issue that I have yet to find a definitive fix for.  It basically stops the drive after a short period of non-use, which makes a really annoying sound.  Supposedly it should also put extra wear on the drive, but is done for energy saving. 

 

If this is your boot drive, you should consider upgrading to a SSD.  It's the single biggest performance enhancement you can make to your system, and assuming you have a second drive for mass storage, they are quite affordable in 128GB and 256GB sizes.

[SWMich4G]

Also, if it's your system drive don't forget to backup your application data before the drive dies.  It's easy to forget, but backing up your email, bookmarks, and any other program-specific profiles/settings is always a good idea. 

 

As long as we're on the subject, can anyone recommend software to repair a drive with corrupt headers?  It has to have the ability to repair an actual mounted drive/partition as opposed to the physical disk itself, since the drive is encrypted.  I can successfully mount it (decrypt) since I restored the encryption headers, but the beginning of the data is trashed, including the folder structure.  The software Get Data Back NTFS did a good job at reading most everything, but I didn't know if there were other (cheaper) options. 

 

Windows likes to occasionally initialize encrypted volumes without asking permission.

[JDD]

If the drive is still working, I would try a drive to drive image. Very easy to do and you won't forget to back anything up.

[centermedic]

I've never had a problem with either, and have about 4 of each.  However, some of the Barracudas have a head-parking issue that I have yet to find a definitive fix for.  It basically stops the drive after a short period of non-use, which makes a really annoying sound.  Supposedly it should also put extra wear on the drive, but is done for energy saving. 

 

If this is your boot drive, you should consider upgrading to a SSD.  It's the single biggest performance enhancement you can make to your system, and assuming you have a second drive for mass storage, they are quite affordable in 128GB and 256GB sizes.

Great idea. I had no idea that the SSD prices had come down so much. I have a second installed drive that is 250 gb and the 1 tb external drive. I should be ok with a 128 gb SSD.

[SWMich4G]

If the drive is still working, I would try a drive to drive image. Very easy to do and you won't forget to back anything up.

 

I prefer reinstalling.  I used to do it every couple months (so I didn't have to buy a Windows license!) but have been busy with 2 jobs & don't have any days off to do it anymore.  Reinstalling from a clean install eliminates any viruses/malware/bloat that you've developed on your drive.  I have a printout of everything to backup before the wipe and the order everything has to be reinstalled, as well as a usb stick with all the needed applications and drivers so it only takes a few hours to do everything.  This is immensely easier when you have a separate system drive and store all permanent files on other physical disks. 

 

For most people, cloning the drive is easier, but I don't like the drawbacks.  I do very occasionally save an image of my boot drive for backup-backup reasons (in case I totally forget a new app has profiles or settings to backup or something like that), but have never used one. 

 

EDIT: Also wow I forgot SSDs went back up in price.  The drive I bought 18 months ago is going for 150% of what I paid, and that's for the refurbished version!  Still ~$90 for a SSD is not bad, and 128GB is plenty if you only store OS, applications, and a couple games on the drive. 

[JDD]

I prefer reinstalling.  I used to do it every couple months (so I didn't have to buy a Windows license!) but have been busy with 2 jobs & don't have any days off to do it anymore.  Reinstalling from a clean install eliminates any viruses/malware/bloat that you've developed on your drive.  I have a printout of everything to backup before the wipe and the order everything has to be reinstalled, as well as a usb stick with all the needed applications and drivers so it only takes a few hours to do everything.  This is immensely easier when you have a separate system drive and store all permanent files on other physical disks. 

 

For most people, cloning the drive is easier, but I don't like the drawbacks.  I do very occasionally save an image of my boot drive for backup-backup reasons (in case I totally forget a new app has profiles or settings to backup or something like that), but have never used one. 

 

EDIT: Also wow I forgot SSDs went back up in price.  The drive I bought 18 months ago is going for 150% of what I paid, and that's for the refurbished version!  Still ~$90 for a SSD is not bad, and 128GB is plenty if you only store OS, applications, and a couple games on the drive. 

I agree, a fresh install is nice. Except I would never spend a few hours. I would create a syspreped image and apply from that. It would take approx 30-45 minutes for a Windows 7 image to be applied and all your apps are already installed.

 

Talking about viruses, how often do you get them. I manage over 18,000 pc in 3 different countries and we get maybe 3 or 4 viruses a year.

 

Also not purchasing windows you can use the trial then from command line run "slmgr -rearm" and that resets it for another same length trial and you can run that command 3 times I believe on Windows 7.

[digiblur]

I agree, a fresh install is nice. Except I would never spend a few hours. I would create a syspreped image and apply from that. It would take approx 30-45 minutes for a Windows 7 image to be applied and all your apps are already installed.

 

Talking about viruses, how often do you get them. I manage over 18,000 pc in 3 different countries and we get maybe 3 or 4 viruses a year.

 

Also not purchasing windows you can use the trial then from command line run "slmgr -rearm" and that resets it for another same length trial and you can run that command 3 times I believe on Windows 7.

 

Even with today's SSD's cutting down the install time to 10 minutes or so for Windows I still prefer this exact method.  Any PC, laptop, that I have purchased always gets fresh install of Windows to wipe off the OEM garbage.  Once I have the base OS drivers and such installed, the PC gets imaged for a restore later.  Makes things so much easier when you want to blow out the OS and start over.

[JDD]

Even with today's SSD's cutting down the install time to 10 minutes or so for Windows I still prefer this exact method.  Any PC, laptop, that I have purchased always gets fresh install of Windows to wipe off the OEM garbage.  Once I have the base OS drivers and such installed, the PC gets imaged for a restore later.  Makes things so much easier when you want to blow out the OS and start over.

Agreed, I stopped buying boxed PC's because of the bloatware, But on a laptop you have no choice except to blow it away and start fresh.

[kg4icg]

Go to a Microsoft store and get one of the select models which covers every price point in laptops, and you will find no bloatware even online.

 

[digiblur]

Go to a Microsoft store and get one of the select models which covers every price point in laptops, and you will find no bloatware even online.

I will believe it when I see it. I would wipe it anyways so I know what was installed on it and what wasn't.