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tkmd · Jan 13, 2006, 07:37 AM

I have a 1.5Ghz PB that its HD is in the process of dying SMART status is still verified but if the PB heats up the HD starts to clicking noises followed by a beachball. I heard that there are 7200 drives out there a Hitachi and a Seagate - any suggestions on either? What I need is about 80 GB to 100 GB capacity. From Barefeats it seems that the Seagate is faster but I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with either of these drives.

mduell · Jan 13, 2006, 01:21 PM

What are the actual S.M.A.R.T. parameter values? (download SMARTReporter from VersionTracker to see them)

There are a lot of opinions on these forums about the noise and performance of the Hitachi and Seagate 7200RPM drives. The specs and most reviews rate them identically, but many people disagree.

The Hitachis are a bit cheaper, but the Seagates have a 5 year warranty (instead of 3). NewEgg loves you.

nod · Jan 13, 2006, 07:22 PM

I was recently running into quite a few disk i/o errors and timeouts, but the SMART status was "Verified" and I couldn't find anything wrong with the disk. A reformat and reinstall seems to have done the trick. Maybe you could try that? I've been a week w/out any problems so far.

VValdo · Jan 17, 2006, 05:23 AM

When your hard drive starts clicking, the clock starts ticking...

meaning you have only so much time to back up your HD before the whole thing goes. At least, this is what happened to me. Back up immediately. Then in all likelihood you'll need to replace the drive.

W

tkmd · Jan 17, 2006, 08:55 AM

Yeah thanks- its wierd I get the beach balling only when the system gets hot. In these cases, I get the beach ball I have to literally pick up one end of the computer and hold it at an angle for a second the HD resumes whatever its suppose to do and the beach ball disappears. When its hot, temp monitor reporting 106 F on the HD, the senario repeats itself about ever 10 seconds.

But really no suggestions on HD models?

mduell · Jan 17, 2006, 09:10 PM

The Hitachi 7200RPM drives are less expensive than the Seagates. There is much debate with flying opinions about which are quieter, but according to the spec sheets they're within a decibel of each other.

Newegg carries both.

Footy · Jan 17, 2006, 09:42 PM

5 year warranty is nice. My last HD replacement was a Seagate.

tkmd · Jan 18, 2006, 03:30 PM

Thanks for the input. I decided to go with the seagate. Now about taking the PB apart....BTW Mcduell, the link shows the Hitachi models and the one Seagate. Please note that the Seagate model # ST910021AS is for SATA hookups the PB uses the older style ATA denoted by the model number ST910021A (no 'S' at the end).

tkmd · Jan 23, 2006, 11:21 PM

Well, I just installed the Seagate HD. Just a couple of word/ suggestions:

- Taking apart the AL pb is not a simple task the first time. I used the instructions noted at www.xlr8yourmac.com They were good, but the 3 brackets that one needs to unsnap in front of the dvd drive is NOT directly in front of the splits in the dust shield. There are about 1/4" to the right of them. Take your time and use a new (ie not dulled) phillips screwdriver.

-Since the the space is tight when pulling out the hd - make sure that the ribbon that connects to the hd is seated properly on the board. It came loose for me and the PB didn't recognize the hd until I figured that out.

- The HD is faster but its hard to notice (since I had a 5400 RPM before it. ) I have a shortcut to my application folder in my dock - right clicking, thus bringing up the menu is definitely faster and maybe slightly faster application opening. OTOH, when I first got the PB with the toshiba in it, it was dead silent, but after about 3 months of heavy use it developed a louder whine. I rate hd loudness on two levels, one is the sound of the heads and the other the noise at idle. The Seagate emits a soft fan-like noise at idle and I'm concerned because in my experience this will only get louder. The head are dead silent I cant hear them at all.

- I would only recommend a this drive if your going to keep your PB for a long time and have a 4200 drive in it. If I had to do it over again I would have probably gone for the 5400 rpm version because it would have been cheaper and there isn't as large of a performance gain going 5400->7200 as I expected.

ICD2k3 · Jan 24, 2006, 12:41 AM

Thanks for the info... I just bought a 5400 100GB seagate yesterday and am waiting for it to get here.

Thankfully, there's a place on campus that said they can install it for me for free... I hope they don't mess something up

I'm moving up from a 4200 60GB, but I heard the 7200s were louder, and it was between 20GB vs. a little more speed.

is it noticibly louder?

tkmd · Jan 24, 2006, 06:10 PM

is like a soft fan noise - its not too irritating (mind you I am very anal when it comes to silent computing). For example when I first got the PB it had a Toshiba 5400RPM drive in it. It was dead silent. Could hardly hear it in a completely silent room. after encoding some movies with it ( cpu pinned at 100% for about 12 -15 hours, the Toshiba started to make a soft fan like noise. after 6 months of continued abuse I noticed that the hd would pause (I would get the beach ball) until I tilted the hd at an angle. I hope that the soft fan noise in the Seagate will stay like that after the abuse that its slated for.