HP Desktop - 3 Bad Hard Drives within 1 year

[vr6rafal]

Got a weird one. About a year ago I had HP desktop come in with bootup issues, it was HD failure.

Replaced Hard Drive with brand new Seagate 1TB.

Few months later same HP desktop comes back with same problem, unable to boot..., checked Hard Drive and numerous bad sectors, we replaced the Hard Drive 2nd time, again with brand new Seagate 1TB, free of charge as courtesy.

Again few months later same HP Desktop shows up, again, wont boot, bluescreen error 0xC21a. We checked the drive and again numerous bad sectors.

I'm puzzled as to what can be causing this, 3 bad drives or motherboard, power supply....?

 

[kwest]

Hope you are keeping track of the serial numbers

 

[mraikes]

Got a weird one. About a year ago I had HP desktop come in with bootup issues, it was HD failure.

Replaced Hard Drive with brand new Seagate 1TB.

Few months later same HP desktop comes back with same problem, unable to boot..., checked Hard Drive and numerous bad sectors, we replaced the Hard Drive 2nd time, again with brand new Seagate 1TB, free of charge as courtesy.

Again few months later same HP Desktop shows up, again, wont boot, bluescreen error 0xC21a. We checked the drive and again numerous bad sectors.

I'm puzzled as to what can be causing this, 3 bad drives or motherboard, power supply....?

Any controller errors in the logs?

I've encountered this kind of situation as well. At the time, I noticed a number of controller errors logged and wondered if the logged errors were chickens or eggs when it came to the HD failures.

My imagination tells me that a wonky controller might trash a hard drive in the way you've described, but I don't know if that's actually true.

Opinions?

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I'd start looking at environmental factors. Power source. What's it located near?

 

[HFultzjr]

Got a weird one. About a year ago I had HP desktop come in with bootup issues, it was HD failure.

Replaced Hard Drive with brand new Seagate 1TB.

Few months later same HP desktop comes back with same problem, unable to boot..., checked Hard Drive and numerous bad sectors, we replaced the Hard Drive 2nd time, again with brand new Seagate 1TB, free of charge as courtesy.

Again few months later same HP Desktop shows up, again, wont boot, bluescreen error 0xC21a. We checked the drive and again numerous bad sectors.

I'm puzzled as to what can be causing this, 3 bad drives or motherboard, power supply....?

I wouldn't doubt 3 bad drives in a year.

With the lack of quality control and general failure rates of today's drives, wouldn't surprise me one bit.

Check the items noted in other threads, then maybe try a completely different hard drive........Western Digital Black is the only thing I've seen that appears to have any quality, and it too has suffered....just the least of them all.

Good luck!

 

[NYJimbo]

Got a weird one. About a year ago I had HP desktop come in with bootup issues, it was HD failure.

How big was the original hard drive. What is the model of the computer. Are you sure they are bad sectors and not just bad files or corrupt entries or something.

If this was a laptop I would say they are smacking it around but a desktop is a bit tougher to put on your lap. So I question it being actual bad sectors.

 

[lan101]

I remember reading somewhere that in the last few years anything over 500gb was more prone to failure. I dont know if there's any evidence to support that or not. I may have even read that on technibble here in the forums somewhere.

 

[madcow007]

had a similar issue with an old compaq except it was much more frequent 1-2 weeks between failure turned out it was the power supply

 

[FoolishTech]

I wouldn't doubt 3 bad drives in a year.

With the lack of quality control and general failure rates of today's drives, wouldn't surprise me one bit.

Check the items noted in other threads, then maybe try a completely different hard drive........Western Digital Black is the only thing I've seen that appears to have any quality, and it too has suffered....just the least of them all.

Good luck!

Agreed. 3 drives in one year isn't really 'weird' especially given they are 1TB Seagates. Some high up in Seagate was quoted once saying that [even their] non-enterprise level hard drive standards and quality have been going down for a number of years, and drives are far more prone to failure than they used to be.

I remember reading somewhere that in the last few years anything over 500gb was more prone to failure. I dont know if there's any evidence to support that or not. I may have even read that on technibble here in the forums somewhere.

I've read that somewhere too, but can't pin my finger on it. But from general observation, I can agree with it.

devil's advocate out of the way here, I also agree with stonecat that environmental circumstances are a possibility and should be explored.

 

[RedFoxComp]

I remember reading somewhere that in the last few years anything over 500gb was more prone to failure. I dont know if there's any evidence to support that or not. I may have even read that on technibble here in the forums somewhere.

Yep, it's true. Areal density is the biggest issue. The smaller each sector is physically the easier it is damaged. Combine that with the fact that larger drives have even more of these smaller sectors to fail and you have a double whammy.

 

[AlaDes]

Honestly, I've had nothing but problems with seagate drives in the last couple of years. One reason I went with them is because of the length of their warranty and the ease of exchanging a bad one under warranty. However, after several doa drives and a couple of drives going out after only six months of use, I quickly switched to ED blacks, however, I only use 500G drives in laptops and 1TB drives in desktops due to warranty and reliability issues.

 

[HFultzjr]

Yep, it's true. Areal density is the biggest issue. The smaller each sector is physically the easier it is damaged. Combine that with the fact that larger drives have even more of these smaller sectors to fail and you have a double whammy.

Remember the old 40 and 80gb IDE drives?

Many ran FOREVER.....and are still running.

Bigger, faster, less expensive, disposable JUNK DRIVES are what we have available today.

Man, I hate this subject....gets my blood pressure boiling!

 

[BillMoney]

My personal pc looking to upgrade my storage drive to a wd red, get great reviews

As far as internals go i have a bad taste in my mouth from samsung and hitachi drives seagate and wd have been fine as far as desktops. In laptops they all go bad people are just too rough with their machines.

As far as externals wd encrypts there drives so i won't touch so only leaves seagate or a nas solution

 

[MSgherzi]

I personally use different brands and manufacturers for each HDD replacement after the first time. This is mainly because of, as suggested, the quality control with certain brands, letter lone specific drives, can be trash sometimes. Also, some controllers have issues with specific drives. Changing brands and/or specific drive types takes the guess work out of the equation.

 

[Cambridge PC Support]

Also, some controllers have issues with specific drives.

I've never had this before. Has anyone else had this experience?

 

[MSgherzi]

I've never hard this before. Has anyone else had this experience?

I honestly cannot prove this, all I can do is go off of prior experience.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

Have you considered replacing the power supply? Most hp pc's I've worked on don't seem to come with great power supplies. Perhaps the supply is not giving it clean power? I know I've had a motherboard to out in a month which I think was due to a cheap power supply.

 

[Rob_NNCC]

how hot do the drives get? My guess is crap seagate drives hastened to their grave by heat. (though a google report hits that heat does not kill).

I see the most seagate desktop drive fail than any other type. I ONLY sell Raptors and Blacks.

 

[brandonkick]

The newer drivers have different densities and that "can" be a factor in failure. I guess I'd say in drives that are failing faster then they should be anyhow.

Biggest issue here is the quality control has gone straight in the crapper. I remember a friend RMAing at least 3 of Western Digitals 2TB EARS drives before going with a more expensive 2TB EADS model and the replacements worked right out of the box and have been working reliably for over a year now. The EARS were noted for having piss poor quality and no quality checks before being crammed out the door.

I'd say it's entirely possible to have gotten three crap drives. Try a different brand, and a slightly more expensive model. Even if it means slightly less storage space, especially if they don't need a lot of space. Look at a 1TB Western Digital RED drive.