Hard disk reliability

Discussion in 'Polling Station' started by Notes_Bloke, Mar 24, 2011.

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Hard drive reliability.

  1. Desktop drives fail the most

    13 vote(s)
    46.4%
  2. Laptop drives fail the most

    15 vote(s)
    53.6%
  1. Notes_Bloke

    Notes_Bloke Terabyte Poster

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    Whilst fixing yet another PC with a failed hard drive (for a friend), I got to thinking about all the hard disk replacements I've done over the last 14 years or so, both at work and outside of work, and I've realised that the majority have been 3.5 inch desktop drives, with only probably around 4 or 5 laptop drives having failed.

    Since laptops are being frequently moved and possibly banged against objects I would expect a higher laptop drive failure rate, than the more static desktop PC's.

    Have you guys who repair PCs/Laptops experienced the same, or do you find that the laptop drives fail more fequently?

    Cheers
    NB:D
     
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  2. greenbrucelee
    Highly Decorated Member Award

    greenbrucelee Zettabyte Poster

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    the smaller and more compact things become the more chance they have of breaking becomes higher and that goes for anything.

    I think with hard drives is that there are certain driver manufacturers which have more problems than others.
     
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  3. Apexes

    Apexes Gigabyte Poster

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    Interesting, never really thought about that before.

    We've got a whole set of laptops that are 4/5 years old and get used/moved about on a daily basis. yet they still keep going.

    I had a laptop last week which was actually screwed, it had been dropped from a high table onto a tiled floor, it was obliterated - but it had a freefall sensor in it, which shuts the disk off as soon as it detects it's falling - and the data was all there when i docked the drive!

    I'm yet to try SSD but i think these will increaser reliability once they become more affordable
     
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  4. soundian

    soundian Gigabyte Poster

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    Since you've supported a lot more desktops than laptops I'd expect the number of HDDs replaced to be higher. Is the percentage significantly higher though?
     
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  5. 1/4

    1/4 Byte Poster

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    Google did a large study on HDDs - doesn't talk about laptops IIRC but interesting none-the-less.

    Click
     
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  6. LukeP

    LukeP Gigabyte Poster

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    Over last year I haven't replaced any dead HDD in neither Desktops nor laptops. I've replaced at least 4 server drives though.
     
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  7. Bluerinse
    Honorary Member

    Bluerinse Exabyte Poster

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    I cant say i have seen a pattern with failed drives over the years. I think certain batches can be dodgy but it's hard to pin failure rates being higher or lower between laptops or towers.
     
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  8. Gav

    Gav Kilobyte Poster

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    I haven't replaced a desktop hard drive in a very long time, but I've probably replaced two laptop drives in the last few months.

    I think the fact that they're used on unstable services and have smaller parts mean that they're not going to last as long.

    Does anyone remember the line of Fujitsu hard drives a good few years back that were prone to completely random and regular failure?
     
  9. Kitkatninja
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    Kitkatninja aka me, myself & I Moderator

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    In my experience, I've had more PC HDD's fails compared to Laptop ones. However that may be because I've worked with a higher number of PC's compared to laptops :)

    -ken
     
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