Hey guys,

Which do you recommend for me?

A little background...

I'm letting my girl use my old HP Pavilion 9870 with an 80 GB WD HD. We recently got a Kodak Playsport Zx3 and after she transferred 16 GB of HD vids/pics to the 80 GB HD the PC would no longer go into windows...it would try and get as far as the windows login screen, but then would go back to asking to start in safe mode, last known good settings, etc. I took the HD out, transferred the vids/pics to my new PC's HD, deleted from the 80 GB, and now her PC starts up and runs just fine. I guess all that info isn't really needed, but it's what prompted me to start looking for a better storage solution...80 GB will not last very long anyway.

On to the main question, which would you recommend for me...

1.) Western Digital WD Elements 1 TB for $69.99

or

2.) Samsung Spinpoint F3 1 TB HD103SJ (on sale for $54.99 with promo code) + Adapter for $63.71

or

3.) Other...if you vote for this, please say what it is you recommend a maybe a little of why.

I'm currently leaning towards the Samsung Spinpoint F3 1 TB HD103SJ + Adapter for $63.71. I don't consider myself a "techy", but I'm the closest we have from both our families and friends. If I ever need to "operate" on anyone's hard drive I think this will come in very handy. I've also heard very good things about the Samsung. I haven't really gathered very much intel. about the WD or the adapter though. One last thing to mention is that I'm building a new PC and could possibly use the Samsung in it while giving my old PC with a 640 GB WD to her. I'm not exactly sure about what I would do concerning operating systems and transferring or whatever just yet though...I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

What are your thoughts/suggestions?

Thanks,
-TG

Anybody out there? Did I post in the wrong forum?

Have some patience, please! Geez... :sigh:

I'll give you a couple of brief comments, but you're asking the equivalent of "what looks better on me, red or blue?" - there are pros & cons to both options that you gave, and so some people won't bother wasting their time giving you an opinion, when the opposite to whatever they say can also be argued, based on different experiences (I nearly didn't reply, but I'll do so if it keeps you quiet ). Also yours isn't a question about data recovery or HDD repair (look in the top right of your screen about the topics intended on HDDGuru ).

First - you have a problem, even though you don't seem to realise it. Simply having 16GB of photos/videos would not stop Windows booting. You haven't given enough info to allow diagnosis of what problem you encountered, but that behaviour isn't normal. Without understanding & fixing that, you risk having the same issue in future.

Second - I wouldn't choose either of those 2 actual solutions that you listed. I wouldn't choose a WD drive (period); and I wouldn't choose any un-cased storage for use except temporarily on a bench (which I do regularly, but I'm always concerned about the risks). I've seen the consequences of too many issues with (likely) ESD damage and mechanical damage through typical users handling un-enclosed drives. Do you realise how fragile they are? However, the problem with enclosed drives can be overheating, if they are left running for long periods in a fanless enclosure, while getting enough I/O to prevent any idle timeout from occuring, or if no idle timeout has been enabled.

Given a choice, I'd have a Hitachi drive, in an enclosure with a fan - or if that isn't available, then a Samsung drive in an enclosure with a fan (with updated f/w if it was a Samsung F4 series). However as I said, any answers you get (including mine) are just opinions and can be debated - they all have pros and cons.

Further replies from me are not guaranteed, but at least you now have one and can't complain that there's no-one here

If you need to "operate" on your drive, as you say, then IMHO the WD would be a bad choice. These drives tend to have hardware encryption, and the smaller USB-powered versions integrate the USB bridge IC on the hard drive's PCB. The Samsung would be much more versatile in this respect. Furthermore, if you ever needed to get inside the WD's enclosure, then this would void your warranty. Another problem is that WD drives use SmartWare backup software which is implemeted in a virtual CD (VCD). This makes it difficult, if not impossible to use them as attached storage for PVRs and TV media players, for example. WD provides a firmware update to disable the VCD if this becomes an issue for you. I've also seen a recent thread at WD's forum where the moderator advises that newer WD drives ship with SmartWare on the user area of the drive rather than in a VCD.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

Hey guys,

Thanks for the replies. I didn't realize this forum was for recovery and repair...sorry about that.

I ended up going with the Samsung with the adapter. I plan to mount it in the old PC case with the 80 GB HDD. I can take out the old floppy drive and run the usb cable out through that hole. If/when I ever need to "operate" on some other drive, I can just take it out then...and be careful with it.