Due for a new hard drive

[philly_phenom]

I've been having some shows freeze up during playback recently, so I ran chkdsk with the repair option & if found several bad sectors - the files were playable after that. I know this drive is on the way out (Aluratek 500 GB external USB 2.0), but while I save up for a replacement,

1) Is there anything I can do to tell XP to avoid those sectors when writing in the future (or does chkdsk keep this info somewhere)? and

2) Anyone have any recommendations (I'm leaning WD or Hitatchi)? This drive was new last September. Granted PVR use is rough on drives, but 6 months is pretty short for a drive to fail.

[Torque]

I have had really good experience with Seagate drives. I have a 250GB at home and a 320GB at work (both are suspended) and are dead silent and fast. The WD drives I have had have been pretty noisy when seeking... but I never suspended them with elastic either, so YMMV.

[pcostanza]

I have a number of systems between home and work and have Seagate, WD and Maxtor in all my systems. I've had only 2 drives fail in my 'computer' life. Both were WD's but they were also the ones heavily used (and possibly abused). I personally like them in this order. Seagate, WD, Maxtor.
Just my .02 worth.

[Deusxmachina]

Maxtor tended to be rated lower than others, but they got bought by Seagate the other year so maybe things have picked up. Many (all?) Maxtor externals will have Seagate drives in them.

I don't know if there's much difference anymore between Seagate and WD other than Seagate generally has a longer warranty. I'd just plan on getting whichever one of the good brands is cheapest at the time.

If the case isn't that great on that external, that's likely why it died in six months. Using externals for more than sporadic use is generally a bad idea unless the case is well-ventilated. An external would have to have a heck of a case (or no case) for me to use it every day with GBPVR.

[K.S.]

1) Is there anything I can do to tell XP to avoid those sectors when writing in the future (or does chkdsk keep this info somewhere)? and

scandisk does mark bad sectors

2) Anyone have any recommendations (I'm leaning WD or Hitatchi)? This drive was new last September. Granted PVR use is rough on drives, but 6 months is pretty short for a drive to fail.

1. get a replacement drive via RMA, almost all manufacturers have a 2 years replacement warranty.
2. take a look on your HDD temps, such a premature failure smells like high temps. if so, do whatever necessary to get the temp <40°C
3. you'll get very different recommedations. mine: avoid WD, seagate & maxtor. have had failing drives of each brand in my hands. no experience with hitatchi, over 4 samsung drives which are still in use (well, the first one is a 2GB model & it's functioning now as a dust collector & paperweight, but it has been in action for about 8 years), barely audible & never a failure

[stustunz]

look for a quiet hard drive nothing worse thena the ones that sound like a jet engine starting up or that clicking some of them do
as for brand i think they all fail when you drop them

[elite]

Another vote for seagate, most recommended in the audio recording world for
reliability and noise...

[malchihi]

Samsung also has a very good line of spinpoint drives. I currently have a few of their drives and they are dead silent(using regular screws, no suspension) and very fast. If you need something external consider buying a hard drive and a case seperately(it may or may not save you money).

[JimF]

Since you have a different recording drive than the system drive, the best way to go is with the WD low power (GP, or green power) drives. They spin at 5400 rpm for low power and high reliability, but have very high data rates due to the density (250 GB per platter). They seem to be the most reliable at the moment, with the others having various problems related to both hardware and firmware that I won't go into in detail.

I think the WD7500AACS 750GB is usually a good buy, but there are also 500 GB and 1TB sizes.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6822136150

[agh!]

I'll add a vote for
Manufacturer : SAMSUNG
Product : 500GB S300 16MB 7200RPM
Cool and quiet. I have 2, one in each of the two PC's I have, the media centre and my main desktop. I use them just for live media files on the media PC and the other in the main desktop machine for back ups of media files. 6 months of continueous use with at least 15 recordings and playbacks a week.

I have another of these Samsung drives as an external hard drive inside this freecom external drive: http://www.dabs.com/ProductView.aspx?Qui...&InMerch=1