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debianlinux
Myconerd - DBK



Registered: 12/09/02
Posts: 8,334
Loc: Over There
Last seen: 10 months, 19 days
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HDD Judgement Call
#5251961 - 02/01/06 05:02 PM (18 years, 3 months ago) |
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I started running low on disk space and scrounged some $$$ together and purchased a new Seagate 160GB ATA-133 IDE HDD.
Once I got it home and popped open my factory Dell case I remembered that I was running low on spare bays. I currently have an 80GB drive and a 250GB drive using two of the 3.5 inch bays and the third bay sits empty between them to provide some airspace for the heat to dissipate. So, I decided to get a 5.25 inch adapter and place the new drive in the 5.25 inch bay. After some consideration I decided to go further and invest in an aluminum hard drive cooler exactly like this one, only black to match my case.
I got this device in the mail today and as I was assembling the apparatus it occured to me that I could stick one of the older drives in instead.
Hmmmm, I thought..... The 80GB is the oldest drive (~2.5yrs) and is also the system drive. The 250GB is no spring chicken (~1.5yrs) and is home to all my precious media. I figure it really is a crap shoot as to which drive deserves the amenity of a cooler so I figured I'd let you guys help make the decision with this poll:
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daussaulit
Forgetful

Registered: 08/06/02
Posts: 2,894
Loc: Earth
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I think the one that would be doing the most reading and writing. So probably your main hard disk where the OS is on.
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OJK
Stranger

Registered: 06/08/03
Posts: 10,629
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I'd recommend downloading HDD Health. It monitors your drives for changes in their SMART attributes (the system by which modern drives work out performance). By following trends in the worsening of SMART attributes, it gives you a TEC estimation date - the estimated date on which the drive will reach a Threshold Exceed Condition - in other words, when the first SMART attribute will drop below the manufacturer's minimum recommended level.
You need to run it for a couple of weeks to get accurate predictions, but it's freeware, and I'm a big fan.
I'd stick the drive with the nearest TEC date in the cooler.
BTW, you can also just rig up a cheap case fan to blow air over your drives. I screwed one into one of the holes on one of my drive bays, so it's blowing air sideways over my three HDDs. The temperatures dropped from over fifty degrees Centigrade under load to below 40.
Oh, and I'd also recommend Steve Gibson's Spinrite as a great tool for keeping HDDs in good health. It's not freeware, but it's great software. You can probably find a copy on bittorrent if you don't have the cash.
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debianlinux
Myconerd - DBK



Registered: 12/09/02
Posts: 8,334
Loc: Over There
Last seen: 10 months, 19 days
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Re: HDD Judgement Call [Re: OJK]
#5255356 - 02/02/06 01:34 PM (18 years, 3 months ago) |
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I'm leaning heavily towards the 250GB as it holds all the media I've spent years collecting and also sustains the most reads/writes as it is my temporary download location, the drive serving streams across my network, the drive serving files via various methods of P2P, and is the scratch space for things like archive decompression and video encoding.
the system drive doesn't house any data that couldn't be replaced within 24hrs of total drive failure.
I was going to just throw a fan in there like you detailed but I like the aluminum housing and the 4 temp sensors and the 3 extra fan controls and the snazzy LCD.
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WhiteBunny
How deep doesthe rabbit hole go?


Registered: 07/29/05
Posts: 1,351
Loc: Earth
Last seen: 15 years, 7 months
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If you want to totally switch Harddrives is there a site that you can upload your entire drive on and then swap in your new drive and go and get all your files?
Wb
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Jim


Registered: 04/07/04
Posts: 20,922
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Re: HDD Judgement Call [Re: WhiteBunny]
#5255882 - 02/02/06 03:45 PM (18 years, 3 months ago) |
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that would take forever.
you can copy one hard drive to another
-------------------- Use the Fucking Reply To Feature You Lazy Pieces of Shit! afoaf said: Jim, if you were in my city, I would let you fuck my wife.
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