hard drive

Hello

I have a choice of a WD internal HDD, refurbished  by manufacturer for $32 or a new Toshiba for $42 .

How do you feel about factory refurbished vs. new here?

A $5 warranty gives me two years and 30 day return.

TY

Petet

Hi Peter,

No need to restrict your choice to just those two..

There's plenty of hard drives available from different manufacturers, with conventional "spinners" hybrid type with small SSD coupled with a spinner, through to a pure SSD,

Its all down really to personal preference and the use that you are going to put it to….

Just for a "for instance"

1 a small capacity SSD as a boot drive with the OS on it together, with a separate hard drive for data storage is fine for some folks.

2 Hybrids work well for some folks who may not wish (for some reason!) to keep their data on a separate drive…. the speed advantage is quite good on the SSD part and "usual" on the spinning part, best of both worlds some might say…( others might say the reverse!)

3 Some folks ( who are well off) or who place high priority on access speed, go for large capacity SSD and hang the expense!

4 Guarantees and warranties are very important to some people, including their terms and duration… other folks just say "Hey! these drives are so darn cheap now I'm not over fussed about guarantees…

5  Some folks have the belief that hard drives are everlasting, and cannot see any reason why they might ever fail, whatever type they are……. (They are wrong!) see 6 below:

6 All drives will fail at some time… it's just a question of…"when", not "if" some seem to last a long time. others fail sooner…. that's why you are wise Peter to have good disc images and a sound back up strategy as I think you do…..

7 To sum up Peter try and balance these factors:

8 the use of the drive that you have in mind

9 is the data critical?

10 Balance the cost against the benefit…. this is more a philosophical argument, but would you be happy to buy a cheaper life jacket, buoyancy aid, fire extinguisher, first aid kit, or set of new brake linings for your car?…… try and review both the positives and negatives, don't for example make an automatic assumption that more expensive is always better…(or the converse!)

11 Finally its worth considering the likelihood of a potential problem happening within your timeframe in comparison with the likely trouble, damage or loss it would cause…

I hope this is not all as clear as mud!

Regards

paws

Thank you so much for all your information.  As we speak I installed the HDD, set the BIOS and am now verifying the macrium reflect image. There appears to be no more ticking noises. I got a WD on sale for $39 -  1T.

Did the best I could as there were not that many for a low end price that i would trust. I have had 2 WD dives for 10 years so sort of like them. I avoided my old Seagate and any Toshiba etc.

Thanks again and I'll let you all know if there is an issue.

Peter

That' s good to hear Peter

Sounds excellent to me

Regards

paws

Well, this forum has been of enormous help with any growth I have attained.

TY

Peter

Hello

I checked my content and saw no 'flickering' however I know I would have posted here for help.

Anyway, for those who may read this, when I replaced the hard drive, the flickering and ticking stopped. I have waited a week to be sure before reporting this.

Peter

That's also good to hear Peter.

A clicking sound from a hard drive is often an indicator that the hard drive is on it's last legs (in the final stages of complete electro mechanical failure…. ) it's not always a definite symptom of imminent failure but strongly suggests that all is not well with it.

I think you did well to replace it when you did…

Regards

paws