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New hard drive

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NJ-Buckeye

NJ-Buckeye

Be cool-everyone dealing w something u don't know
Staff member
    • I think my hard drive is ready to go.. self tests indicate a couple of the tests failed.. yet the machine acts perfectly fine.. This machine is extremely important to my job
    Lenovo ThinkPad W520.. probably 3-4 yrs old .. with a 320GB drive that I only consume 90GB

    What's the difference in the possible replacement hard drives...
    I do suspect I could be better off with a faster drive

    I use Norton for my backups to an external drive and I am current
    Is a backup diff than an image backup?

    If I replace the hard drive.. does a simple 'restore' get me back to where I am now.. completely?
    will I be able to do a restore since the drive will be clean with no Windows 10 op sys?

    Will I have all my...
    1) software, MS office, files, browser, favorites, passwords
    2) sys came with a restore partition on hard drive.. does that restore as well?
    3) what will I lose so I can prepare to manually restore?

    Should I let Geeksquad do it?
     
    I am not familiar enough with Norton to help guide you through it, although Google has a bunch of articles.

    I am posting because I'm skeptical your drives are failing. As a semi-frequent reformatter, I don't know that I've ever had any internal drives die on me. I've got 4 or 5 drives in my workstation that are all 5 years old (several maxed out on space) and a laptop that's been kicking for over 7 years now with upgraded ram.
     
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    I too have never had an internal drive go bad... but I've run Lenovo's Solution Center apps to test.. and it says 3 of the 6 drive tests failed.. yet I'm working just fine
     
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    NJ-Buckeye said:
    I too have never had an internal drive go bad... but I've run Lenovo's Solution Center apps to test.. and it says 3 of the 6 drive tests failed.. yet I'm working just fine
    Click to expand...
    run the SMART test (I can't remember what APP they are in). If the SMART test says its starting to fail ... then i wouldn't chance it.

    to me Storage is so cheap (as long as your not buying SSD) that i wouldn't risk it.
     
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    I would avoid Geeksquad like the plague. I have replace maybe a hundred drives, recovered data off a dozen more where companies that charge thousands told my firms that it was impossible, etc. I'm busy now (new job yay!) but I'm sure the local nerd squad on BP will have you set up. I'll chime in tomorrow. . . though you'll be set by then I bet. :)
     
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    AuTX Buckeye said:
    run the SMART test (I can't remember what APP they are in). If the SMART test says its starting to fail ... then i wouldn't chance it.

    to me Storage is so cheap (as long as your not buying SSD) that i wouldn't risk it.
    Click to expand...

    It was the SMART tests that failed...
    why would I or wouldn't I want to go SSD

    Just tried to do an Image Backup and it failed... so things are looking bleak...
     
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    If I replaced the drive.. obviously it will be blank...
    so could I install Windows 7.. upgrade to windows 10
    and do a restore from my external backup (from Norton)?

    what will I miss?
     
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    Conceding I'll need a new drive or at least prudent to take precautionary backup plan

    I have: SEAGATE ST9320423AS Momentus 7200.4 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 2.5 internal notebook hard drive

    Any suggestions for a replacement?
    Does brand mean anything in this space.. Seagate, Western Digital, Crucial,

    I assume SATA means I should only replace with SATA.. yes?
    Looks like a 2.5 inch drive that is 9mm high... or so I think
    Web made me think SSD was the cat's meow.. I trust Mili
    Is an SSHD better/same/as bad as an SSD?

    Currently I only use 100GB of the 320GB
    fast is good.. instantaneous is always desired... but what dictates speed RPM? cache?

    Or do I just replace it with the same make and model?
     
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    NJ-Buckeye said:
    Conceding I'll need a new drive or at least prudent to take precautionary backup plan

    I have: SEAGATE ST9320423AS Momentus 7200.4 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 2.5 internal notebook hard drive

    Any suggestions for a replacement?
    Does brand mean anything in this space.. Seagate, Western Digital, Crucial,

    I assume SATA means I should only replace with SATA.. yes?
    Looks like a 2.5 inch drive that is 9mm high... or so I think
    Web made me think SSD was the cat's meow.. I trust Mili
    Is an SSHD better/same/as bad as an SSD?

    Currently I only use 100GB of the 320GB
    fast is good.. instantaneous is always desired... but what dictates speed RPM? cache?

    Or do I just replace it with the same make and model?
    Click to expand...

    Yep, since your laptop has a SATA interface (SATA drive installed), then you'll need a SATA replacement. Both RPM and cache dictate read/write/transfer speed along with the specs of the interface and data bus. Chances are that any new drive you get now will as fast or faster than what your laptop architecture can handle. If you've only used 100 GB of the 320 GB on the drive, you can get the same size or slightly higher for $60-$80. I haven't heard too much on SSHDs yet (@Dryden would probably be up to speed on them). I've never had any problems with WD or Seagate, who've been around forever...
     
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    Best disk diagnostic app is Crystal Disk Info. Get the simple Shizuku portable edition without ads.

    Replacing hard disks in desktop PCs is generally a snap, because you just plug both in and use an imaging utility like Acronis True Image to make a 1:1 copy of the old disk data onto the new drive. The problem you'll encounter doing this on a laptop however is that it isn't possible to plug in two internal drives at the same time. You need a good backup of the data on an external device, and you're going to need the install media for Windows 7, 8, or 10, which from my experience is the biggest hangup for home users because laptop vendors generally don't provide any of that. Instead, the "recovery media" resides in a hidden partition on the hard drive, which doesn't do you much good if it's a mechanical failure and that partition is already damaged.

    Do you have the factory Windows 7 OEM DVD for the laptop?
     
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    Dryden said:
    Do you have the factory Windows 7 OEM DVD for the laptop?
    Click to expand...
    yes

    I also have a Sabent internal hard drive enclosure with USB cables

    I have good backups on an external drive and am running FileHistory
    but attempts to do an ImageBackup have failed (bad clusters).. last good one is 2011
     
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    Here's my thought process going forward.. please fix me where I'm wrong
    my replacement drive should be here any day
    my important machine is this Lenovo (which is still going along fine)
    I have a spare Dell laptop
    I know I have good file backups (using Norton)
    I THINK I have a good image backup now (using ImageBackup from File History option)
    both onto an external drive

    the Lenovo drive is a 7200 rpm thus..so is replacement
    the Dell drive is a 4500 rpm
    both are the same physical dimensions.. even tho the new drive is 7mm vs 9.5mm, the web says no problem, both fit perfectly in the enclosure.. screws holes line up same)

    My game plan using the Dell as my guinea pig
    swap the Dell hard drive with the new blank hard drive
    loading that drive with Windows 7 Pro of which I have the disk
    then upgrading it to Windows 10
    then doing the restore from the external drive ImageBackup onto the Dell w/new replacement drive

    then swapping the new drive into the Lenovo

    what say you?

    PS My plan B is to merely swap new drive into the Lenovo and follow same steps with Windows 7 to 10; followed by restore from Image
    Plan C is to do some type of copy from existing Lenovo hard drive to new replacement drive that would be in this hard drive device I have w USB connectivity

    PS am getting indications that upgrade to Windows 10 corrupted some files that could be root of some of my problems
     
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    All hard drives die. Prepare for that eventuality and do so long before it happens. You don't always get warning signs and then you're out $1000-3000 in recovery fees. The reason you don't realize they all die is that most people don't keep using old equipment or they've been fortunate enough to avoid it. They don't just die of old age either. They can die very early. I just built a server with 4 well reviewed server drives and two of them failed within 2 months of being used. That's not frequent but it can definitely happen.

    Regarding old hard drives, is this a regular drive? Old platter drives last longer but are way, way slower. Applications, files, windows run so much faster from a solid state drive (which is flash memory, like in your digital camera or cell phone, no moving parts)

    The basic rule of thumb is to use platter drives to store files. They are more reliable, last longer and can handle more read/write cycles.

    Use solid state drives to run your operating system. It is far faster and snappier at opening applications and files. It's also going to die sooner than the average platter drive.


    If you can't afford both or don't have room in your machine, get a good sized SSD drive.


    Installation of the drive is pretty simple. It's the rest that can be a bit trickier (more tedious than difficult though it's not simple) packing up the old files, determining all of the programs you need (and finding the installation files), installing the operating system, then reinstalling the system files and programming.
     
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