Hard drive

[buildersbutt]

Hi all, had a computer built nothing special just a bog standard one about 18 months ago. New to computers no one told me not to turn off on power button on tower and consequentlly the hard drive is u/s. Been to shops and they quote £200, I. Can nearly buy a new one for this price. Your thoughts on this, is there a cheaper option? Seems a waste just for a hard drive Thanks for your time!

 

[CylonRaider]

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials...5"+SATA+III+Hard+Drive+-+HDD+?productId=48301

 

[Monkeh]

HDDs start at around £40, so just buy one (match the size of your existing one), plug it in (it's not too hard, just ask for instructions if you need them), and install Windows (I hope you have media? If not, ask, we can assist).

Actually, you may have a warranty on the drive, depending on what model it is and where you bought it.

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Other+products/2TB+Seagate+Barracuda+ST2000DM001+3.5%22+SATA+III+Hard+Drive+-+HDD+?productId=48301

Please don't feed the Seagate monster. I know it's cheap, but there's a reason for that. There's also a reason they had to offer free data recovery to hundreds of thousands of customers.

 

[SimoninEaston]

Hi all, had a computer built nothing special just a bog standard one about 18 months ago. New to computers no one told me not to turn off on power button on tower and consequentlly the hard drive is u/s. Been to shops and they quote £200, I. Can nearly buy a new one for this price. Your thoughts on this, is there a cheaper option? Seems a waste just for a hard drive Thanks for your time!

(Servers stay on 24/7 and their hard disc drives keep going for years...)
Replace yours with one off of fleabay - look for drives from western digital, or seagate - or think about buying a solid state drive from Samsung, as these are getting cheaper and cheaper and can give you nice performance benefits... you shouldn't have to pay anywhere near £200!

 

[Flyboytim]

New to computers no one told me not to turn off on power button on tower and consequentlly the hard drive is u/s.

Windows 8 - which has been around since 2012, and more recent versions - have been designed to be switched off in various ways using the on/off button of the PC/laptop/tablet.

In the first version of Win8 there was utter confusion among many PC users who had upgraded where the shut down button could be found, since the "Start Menu" had gone. People just could not believe after years of being told to "shut down the computer properly" by Windows, that you could at last just power off the computer, and it was now smart enough to gracefully shut down, instead of coming to a car-crash that needed the drives to be checked, start in safe mode etc, the next time you powered up, added to the insult that Windows itself had crashed in the first place, usually, forcing you to turn it off.

Even in previous versions of Windows, shutting off the power regularly rarely did any disk damage, and if you were using the PC with another Operating system, such as Linux, just powering off never seemed to affect the hard disk life.

So why the Hard drive should have packed in due to that method of operation/shutdown is a mystery. Yes they do die, but usually after longer than 18 months. Perhaps it hasn't and there's a different fault?

As mentioned above, hard drives are to be had for amounts from £40, and fitting them in Tower PCs is rarely more than a few minutes task, but a new license for and installing Windows will bring the price up to over £100, and if time is taken to make sure all is behaving properly, I suppose £200 could almost be justified.

If there is one bit of DIY that will save you money and frustration is learning how to upgrade and maintain your computer.

A tower or desktop is the one device in your home that is totally user serviceable, from case and power supply, motherboard and disk drives to memory modules and accessories! All you need is a screwdriver.

 

[CylonRaider]

Please don't feed the Seagate monster. I know it's cheap, but there's a reason for that. There's also a reason they had to offer free data recovery to hundreds of thousands of customers.

The entire point of my post was to point out that large drives can be purchased relatively cheaply not to endorse Seagate. I didn't even look at the manufacturer.

Having said that, I generally use Western Digital But I've recently had a newish 1Tb WD drive giving constant bad block errors and yet I've got a 200gb Maxxtor that's about 8 years old (render drive) still giving sterling service !

 

[jockscott]

A tower or desktop is the one device in your home that is totally user serviceable, from case and power supply, motherboard and disk drives to memory modules and accessories! All you need is a screwdriver.

If only that were true.

 

[Monkeh]

Please don't feed the Seagate monster. I know it's cheap, but there's a reason for that. There's also a reason they had to offer free data recovery to hundreds of thousands of customers.

The entire point of my post was to point out that large drives can be purchased relatively cheaply not to endorse Seagate. I didn't even look at the manufacturer.

I didn't think it was, I was just saying in my own way that I disrecommend Seagate.

Replace yours with one off of fleabay

I also disrecommend second hand drives. They come in special boxes for a reason. Better off spending that money down your nearest casino.

A tower or desktop is the one device in your home that is totally user serviceable, from case and power supply, motherboard and disk drives to memory modules and accessories! All you need is a screwdriver.

If only that were true.

Indeed, you need both a screwdriver and a clue. Thankfully, both are relatively easily obtained!

 

[JBR]

Even in previous versions of Windows, shutting off the power regularly rarely did any disk damage, and if you were using the PC with another Operating system, such as Linux, just powering off never seemed to affect the hard disk life.

This begs a question. For years I have been shutting down my Windows 7 laptop by pressing (briefly) the 'on' button, but have recently been informed on the Microsoft forum that this is bad practice.

Now I don't mean holding down the button, which completely turns off the power and usually results in an option to start in Safe Mode, I mean pressing the button briefly. I always believed this to be a safe method for shutting down, as it is listed as an option in Power Options and, moreover, what happens on-screen looks the same as when you shut down using the desktop option.

So is it, or isn't it, a 'correct' method to turn off the computer?

 

[AronSearle]

Even in previous versions of Windows, shutting off the power regularly rarely did any disk damage, and if you were using the PC with another Operating system, such as Linux, just powering off never seemed to affect the hard disk life.

This begs a question. For years I have been shutting down my Windows 7 laptop by pressing (briefly) the 'on' button, but have recently been informed on the Microsoft forum that this is bad practice.

Now I don't mean holding down the button, which completely turns off the power and usually results in an option to start in Safe Mode, I mean pressing the button briefly. I always believed this to be a safe method for shutting down, as it is listed as an option in Power Options and, moreover, what happens on-screen looks the same as when you shut down using the desktop option.

So is it, or isn't it, a 'correct' method to turn off the computer?

It's how I have always turned off.

 

[jockscott]

Even in previous versions of Windows, shutting off the power regularly rarely did any disk damage, and if you were using the PC with another Operating system, such as Linux, just powering off never seemed to affect the hard disk life.

This begs a question. For years I have been shutting down my Windows 7 laptop by pressing (briefly) the 'on' button, but have recently been informed on the Microsoft forum that this is bad practice.

Now I don't mean holding down the button, which completely turns off the power and usually results in an option to start in Safe Mode, I mean pressing the button briefly. I always believed this to be a safe method for shutting down, as it is listed as an option in Power Options and, moreover, what happens on-screen looks the same as when you shut down using the desktop option.

So is it, or isn't it, a 'correct' method to turn off the computer?

If your computer freezes (for whatever reason Microsoft haven't sussed yet), that's the only way to shut it down (unless you do what my dad does,,,, switch it off at the mains)

 

[empip]

Hi all, had a computer built nothing special just a bog standard one about 18 months ago. New to computers no one told me not to turn off on power button on tower and consequentlly the hard drive is u/s. Been to shops and they quote £200, I. Can nearly buy a new one for this price. Your thoughts on this, is there a cheaper option? Seems a waste just for a hard drive Thanks for your time!

Is the drive itself proven to be broken, or does the m/c just not boot up ?

-0-

 

[JBR]

Even in previous versions of Windows, shutting off the power regularly rarely did any disk damage, and if you were using the PC with another Operating system, such as Linux, just powering off never seemed to affect the hard disk life.

This begs a question. For years I have been shutting down my Windows 7 laptop by pressing (briefly) the 'on' button, but have recently been informed on the Microsoft forum that this is bad practice.

Now I don't mean holding down the button, which completely turns off the power and usually results in an option to start in Safe Mode, I mean pressing the button briefly. I always believed this to be a safe method for shutting down, as it is listed as an option in Power Options and, moreover, what happens on-screen looks the same as when you shut down using the desktop option.

So is it, or isn't it, a 'correct' method to turn off the computer?

If your computer freezes (for whatever reason Microsoft haven't sussed yet), that's the only way to shut it down (unless you do what my dad does,,,, switch it off at the mains)

No, I don't mean holding down the button. Yes, I have done that in the past if the computer freezes. As you say, it is the only way to shut it down.

What I meant is, is it OK to routinely shut down the computer by (briefly) pressing the 'on' button, provided this has been set up in 'Power Options'?

 

[Monkeh]

What I meant is, is it OK to routinely shut down the computer by (briefly) pressing the 'on' button, provided this has been set up in 'Power Options'?

No different to selecting shutdown from the menu. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a buffoon to be ignored.

 

[Dave54]

What I meant is, is it OK to routinely shut down the computer by (briefly) pressing the 'on' button, provided this has been set up in 'Power Options'?

No different to selecting shutdown from the menu. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a buffoon to be ignored.

Yes, I've been doing it that way for years. The "shutting down" screen comes up the same as when using the software "shut down" option. It also does the "updating" thing the same if it needs to.