Imminent Failure!

[r1zeek]

It seems my HDD is dying.

From what I can deduce, it seems to be dying anyway. All of a sudden (while my rig was sitting in MemTest) when my HDD was accessed it have started to hear a scratchy sound coming from the HDD. It doesn't make me feel safe, but I have backed up all my important data already.

The drive (Seagate Barracuda IDE 7200 120GB) is about a year old (as of september and it hasn't been overly used (been about half full all the time)

I need a minimum of downtime so what should I do:

Wait until the drive fails then buy a replacement (the drive came with an OEM system so I don't think I have a guarantee on it)

or should I:

Buy a new drive now and port everything over while it still works fine

Help is muchly appreciated

[skattrd]

Check warranty first mate - get the serial number off the drive and check on the seagate site.

If theres no warranty buy a drive now, it looks like you're going to have to do anyway

[Steve]

When was it last defragged?

[r1zeek]

PrivatePyle> I bought the system from Watford Electronics (Savastore.com) about september last year, I know I voided my warranty (they told me) because I modded the case etc.

Kez> Defragged about 2 weeks ago, after about 4 months of not defragging :$

[Jonny M]

The computer is "warrantied" as a whole though, and any physical damage to the system results in the warranty being voided. Having each individual component covered would be a nightmare for the shops.

[r1zeek]

So, what do I do?

[Steve]

Go on the Seagate website and check the serial to see what sort of warranty it has. You might be able to return it. Otherwise the firm who bought the drive may have to, in which case you should ask them to raise the RMA - tell them you'll pay for pnp or something like that...

[r1zeek]

Thing is, that would take a fair while, I am after the smallest downtime possible

[skattrd]

Check warranty if its in warranty wait until it fails, Seagate do an advanced RMA - (definitely for SCSI unsure about ATA drives) where they send you a replacement drive before they receive and test your defective one. You have to enter your cc number and if they don't receive the drive in 30 days they bill you for it, I've used this process before for WD and Maxtor without any probs at all,

[Jonny M]

Now thats what I call customer service, if only more companys were like that.

i'll be getting sea gate drives from now on.

Maxtor do the same. Only people who don't that I've used are IBM/Hitachi

/grr's at 2 weeks waiting for a replacement 120GXP.

[skattrd]

Maxtor do the same. Only people who don't that I've used are IBM/Hitachi

/grr's at 2 weeks waiting for a replacement 120GXP.

Grrrr @ Maxtor - they took 2 weeks to send me an advance replacement for my Atlas IV.