Re: How long do XP laptops last?

"Mark Shapiro" <> wrote in message
news:1j7o3ca.1l8nrxc1fx22sN%.. .
>I got a Dell XP laptop 3 years ago.
> Have firewall, virus protection, do
> all updates, don't open attachment,
> don't use file sharing, don't move it.
> Every year, the hard drive dies with
> no warning. It is gone. Twice I
> replaced it. This time I'm not going
> to replace the hard drive.
> Why do PC laptops die so quick?
> I have a 10-year old Mac laptop that
> still runs fine - if I don't go to modern
> web sites. Why do hard drives die
> so fast on Windows laptops?
> Or is my experience rare?

You may be just unlucky. Out of a dozen or so hard drives that I have had
in PCs over the years, I have only ever had one die on me. Coincidentally,
it was the drive supplied by Dell in a PC that I bought from them. Also
coincidentally, the DVD burner failed some time earlier within the warranty
period (I didn't bother to pursue Dell for it as they are as cheap as chips
to buy).

M.I.5 wrote on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:42:47 +0100:
> "Mark Shapiro" <> wrote in message
> news:1j7o3ca.1l8nrxc1fx22sN%.. .
>> I got a Dell XP laptop 3 years ago.
>> Have firewall, virus protection, do
>> all updates, don't open attachment,
>> don't use file sharing, don't move it.
>> Every year, the hard drive dies with
>> no warning. It is gone. Twice I
>> replaced it. This time I'm not going
>> to replace the hard drive.
>> Why do PC laptops die so quick?
>> I have a 10-year old Mac laptop that
>> still runs fine - if I don't go to modern
>> web sites. Why do hard drives die
>> so fast on Windows laptops?
>> Or is my experience rare?
>
> You may be just unlucky. Out of a dozen or so hard drives that I have had
> in PCs over the years, I have only ever had one die on me. Coincidentally,
> it was the drive supplied by Dell in a PC that I bought from them. Also
> coincidentally, the DVD burner failed some time earlier within the warranty
> period (I didn't bother to pursue Dell for it as they are as cheap as chips
> to buy).

Unlucky? Well since MacBook's have their own anti-shock technology and
others usually doesn't, pretty much explains it to me.

And add to the idea that laptops are often used as portable devices. Yet
most of them use mechanical hard drives. And mechanical hard drives
makes for poor portable devices. As shock and vibrations causes head and
platter damage. Thus you can end up with a failed hard drive. I also
have been using mostly solid state drives (SSD) for over a year now. So
one less thing to worry about.

Btw, I have never returned a failed computer even under warranty. It is
just faster repairing them myself. Although I have sort of got away from
repairing motherboards. Don't do repairs on them like I used too.

--
Bill
Asus EEE PC 702G4 ~ 2GB RAM ~ 16GB-SDHC
Xandros Linux (build 2007-10-19 13:03)

"BillW50" <> wrote in message
news:hbhtha$7o8$...
> M.I.5 wrote on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:42:47 +0100:
>> "Mark Shapiro" <> wrote in message
>> news:1j7o3ca.1l8nrxc1fx22sN%.. .
>>> I got a Dell XP laptop 3 years ago.
>>> Have firewall, virus protection, do
>>> all updates, don't open attachment,
>>> don't use file sharing, don't move it.
>>> Every year, the hard drive dies with
>>> no warning. It is gone. Twice I
>>> replaced it. This time I'm not going
>>> to replace the hard drive.
>>> Why do PC laptops die so quick?
>>> I have a 10-year old Mac laptop that
>>> still runs fine - if I don't go to modern
>>> web sites. Why do hard drives die
>>> so fast on Windows laptops?
>>> Or is my experience rare?
>>
>> You may be just unlucky. Out of a dozen or so hard drives that I have
>> had in PCs over the years, I have only ever had one die on me.
>> Coincidentally, it was the drive supplied by Dell in a PC that I bought
>> from them. Also coincidentally, the DVD burner failed some time earlier
>> within the warranty period (I didn't bother to pursue Dell for it as they
>> are as cheap as chips to buy).
>
> Unlucky? Well since MacBook's have their own anti-shock technology and
> others usually doesn't, pretty much explains it to me.
>

I understood that Macs use the same hard disc drives that every one else
uses.

"BillW50" <> wrote in message
news:hbhtha$7o8$...
> M.I.5 wrote on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:42:47 +0100:
>> "Mark Shapiro" <> wrote in message
>> news:1j7o3ca.1l8nrxc1fx22sN%.. .
>>> I got a Dell XP laptop 3 years ago.
>>> Have firewall, virus protection, do
>>> all updates, don't open attachment,
>>> don't use file sharing, don't move it.
>>> Every year, the hard drive dies with
>>> no warning. It is gone. Twice I
>>> replaced it. This time I'm not going
>>> to replace the hard drive.
>>> Why do PC laptops die so quick?
>>> I have a 10-year old Mac laptop that
>>> still runs fine - if I don't go to modern
>>> web sites. Why do hard drives die
>>> so fast on Windows laptops?
>>> Or is my experience rare?
>>
>> You may be just unlucky. Out of a dozen or so hard drives that I have
>> had in PCs over the years, I have only ever had one die on me.
>> Coincidentally, it was the drive supplied by Dell in a PC that I bought
>> from them. Also coincidentally, the DVD burner failed some time earlier
>> within the warranty period (I didn't bother to pursue Dell for it as they
>> are as cheap as chips to buy).
>
>
> And add to the idea that laptops are often used as portable devices. Yet
> most of them use mechanical hard drives. And mechanical hard drives makes
> for poor portable devices. As shock and vibrations causes head and platter
> damage. Thus you can end up with a failed hard drive. I also have been
> using mostly solid state drives (SSD) for over a year now. So one less
> thing to worry about.
>

Whilst I agree that hard disc drives would seem to be a poor choice for
portable computers (laptops) due to the way they are used and handled,
nevertheless, they do seem to be more reliable than one might expect. I
have not had a laptop drive fail either at home or in the office.

In news:1j7vejk.18lsdvu1vy89z4N%,
Mark Shapiro typed on Tue, 20 Oct 2009 05:45:13 -0700:
> ... and the OS is not constantly writing to the disk.
> Maybe 7 will be less drive-grinding. Maybe I just won't
> buy a Dell again.

It is pretty easy to run Windows XP SP2 from RAM alone (like a Windows
Live like those Linux Live distros) and to have it stop writing to the
drive. I've done this is most of my computers here. As you can merge
Microsoft's EWF to any Windows XP SP2 system. Too bad they don't have
this under Vista or Windows 7 yet.

--
Bill
Asus EEE PC 701G4 ~ 2GB RAM ~ 16GB-SDHC
Windows XP SP2

In news:4add7782$,
M.I.5¾ typed on Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:41:04 +0100:
> "BillW50" <> wrote in message
> news:hbhtha$7o8$...
>> Unlucky? Well since MacBook's have their own anti-shock technology
>> and others usually doesn't, pretty much explains it to me.
>
> I understood that Macs use the same hard disc drives that every one
> else uses.

Nope, MacBook's have their own anti-shock hardware and some even have
anti-shock hard drives coupled with the anti-shock hardware.

http://macs.about.com/b/2009/08/10/s...rpm-drives.htm

--
Bill
Asus EEE PC 701G4 ~ 2GB RAM ~ 16GB-SDHC
Windows XP SP2

In news:4add789c$,
M.I.5¾ typed on Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:45:46 +0100:
> "BillW50" <> wrote in message
> news:hbhtha$7o8$...
>> And add to the idea that laptops are often used as portable devices.
>> Yet most of them use mechanical hard drives. And mechanical hard
>> drives makes for poor portable devices. As shock and vibrations
>> causes head and platter damage. Thus you can end up with a failed
>> hard drive. I also have been using mostly solid state drives (SSD)
>> for over a year now. So one less thing to worry about.
>
> Whilst I agree that hard disc drives would seem to be a poor choice
> for portable computers (laptops) due to the way they are used and
> handled, nevertheless, they do seem to be more reliable than one
> might expect. I have not had a laptop drive fail either at home or
> in the office.

You probably don't run them while you are moving them around. Those that
do, have suffered hard drive crashes. I remember when the iPod first
came out and they were having about 50% hard drive failures. They fixed
it I guess by incorporating antishock hardware into them. Thus shutting
down the hard drives to avoid damage.

I seem to recall a number of years ago somebody posted that they were a
computer tech who serviced laptops used in vehicles. It might have been
right here in this newsgroup. And they stated police cars for example
would need to replace the hard drives about once every two months.

So I do believe hard drives are poor choices in portable devices.
Although if you only power them up while the device is stationary, you
shouldn't have much of a problem. But then, they are only portable when
powered down, now are they not?

--
Bill
Asus EEE PC 701G4 ~ 2GB RAM ~ 16GB-SDHC
Windows XP SP2

On Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:23:09 -0500, "BillW50" <> wrote:

:>In news:4add7782$,
:>M.I.5¾ typed on Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:41:04 +0100:
:>> "BillW50" <> wrote in message
:>> news:hbhtha$7o8$...
:>>> Unlucky? Well since MacBook's have their own anti-shock technology
:>>> and others usually doesn't, pretty much explains it to me.
:>>
:>> I understood that Macs use the same hard disc drives that every one
:>> else uses.
:>
:>Nope, MacBook's have their own anti-shock hardware and some even have
:>anti-shock hard drives coupled with the anti-shock hardware.
:>
:>http://macs.about.com/b/2009/08/10/s...rpm-drives.htm

I retired almost 4 years ago after spending my last 10 years working
as a Senior Tech at a Toshiba Premier ASP. At least a year before I
retired Toshiba was shipping some of their models with anti-shock
technology both in the hard drive and in the notebook itself.

me/2

In news:,
me/2 typed on Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:13:07 -0700:
> On Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:23:09 -0500, "BillW50" <> wrote:
>
>>> In news:4add7782$,
>>> M.I.5¾ typed on Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:41:04 +0100:
>>>> "BillW50" <> wrote in message
>>>> news:hbhtha$7o8$...
>>>>> Unlucky? Well since MacBook's have their own anti-shock technology
>>>>> and others usually doesn't, pretty much explains it to me.
>>>>
>>>> I understood that Macs use the same hard disc drives that every one
>>>> else uses.
>>>
>>> Nope, MacBook's have their own anti-shock hardware and some even
>>> have anti-shock hard drives coupled with the anti-shock hardware.
>>>
>>> http://macs.about.com/b/2009/08/10/s...rpm-drives.htm
>
> I retired almost 4 years ago after spending my last 10 years working
> as a Senior Tech at a Toshiba Premier ASP. At least a year before I
> retired Toshiba was shipping some of their models with anti-shock
> technology both in the hard drive and in the notebook itself.
>
> me/2

That is very good to know. So far that makes Macs, IBM, and now Toshiba
using anti-shock technology. You would think everybody would be using
them.

So as a Senior Tech, how did you tell if a drive failed from shock or
general failure? And did you get a lot of drive failures in general?

--
Bill
Asus EEE PC 701G4 ~ 2GB RAM ~ 16GB-SDHC
Windows XP SP2

Somewhere on teh intarwebs BillW50 wrote:
> In news:4add7782$,
> M.I.5¾ typed on Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:41:04 +0100:
>> "BillW50" <> wrote in message
>> news:hbhtha$7o8$...
>>> Unlucky? Well since MacBook's have their own anti-shock technology
>>> and others usually doesn't, pretty much explains it to me.
>>
>> I understood that Macs use the same hard disc drives that every one
>> else uses.
>
> Nope, MacBook's have their own anti-shock hardware and some even have
> anti-shock hard drives coupled with the anti-shock hardware.
>
> http://macs.about.com/b/2009/08/10/s...rpm-drives.htm

So do ThinkPads.
--
Shaun.

"Give a man a fire and he's warm for the day. But set fire to him and he's
warm for the rest of his life." Terry Pratchet, 'Jingo'.