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-   -   Sony VAIO HDD Replacement (https://www.tombraiderforums.com/showthread.php?t=219133)

laralives 02-01-18 21:49

Sony VAIO HDD Replacement
 
Hello everyone,

I was wondering if anyone had a suggestion or opinion on the following matter.

There's a machine that is giving me a "S.M.A.R.T hard drive detects Error. Please consider backing up your hard drive.. blah blah blah" right before it boots.

I understand that I will have to replace it the laptop in an indeterminate amount of time. However, my main question is, should I buy the exact same HDD or should I be looking for an alternative?

At the moment it has this HDD: [url]https://www.cnet.com/products/samsung-spinpoint-m7-enhanced-640gb/specs/[/url]

My biggest concern is, if this HDD has already gone, it doesn't really inspire much reliability if I were to purchase the exact same HDD. (I also understand that this might be the best/only fit for this laptop, but if someone may suggest other HDD's or even SSD's I am certainly open to looking at them)- the size doesn't really make much of a difference to me, as I think even a 250GB SSD would suffice for this machine.

Any thoughts and suggestions are much appreciated.

Regards,

-LL

Dustie 03-01-18 10:09

It's a 2,5" SATA3 HDD and there's plenty of them around. 2,5" (size) is the standard for laptops these days, as well as SATA3 (interface, data speed).

Samsung isn't making HDDs anymore, only SDDs, so if you want to get a Samsung drive it will have to be an SDD, you can easily get a 2,5" model.

As for which brand/manufacturer you should go for, I found the options are really few these days for HDDs - WD, Seagate, Toshiba... and that's about it. I ended up getting a Toshiba 3,5" HDD, it's working OK for now. It's nearly impossible to find something that everyone finds reliable - if you look at reviews people have issues with hardware from all manufacturers... so it's pretty much a lottery.

laralives 03-01-18 20:43

[QUOTE=Dustie;7809623]It's a 2,5" SATA3 HDD and there's plenty of them around. 2,5" (size) is the standard for laptops these days, as well as SATA3 (interface, data speed).

Samsung isn't making HDDs anymore, only SDDs, so if you want to get a Samsung drive it will have to be an SDD, you can easily get a 2,5" model.

As for which brand/manufacturer you should go for, I found the options are really few these days for HDDs - WD, Seagate, Toshiba... and that's about it. I ended up getting a Toshiba 3,5" HDD, it's working OK for now. It's nearly impossible to find something that everyone finds reliable - if you look at reviews people have issues with hardware from all manufacturers... so [B]it's pretty much a lottery[/B].[/QUOTE]

It appears that there still seems to be a fair bit of Samsung HDD's floating around, but I'd rather go with something more reliable. It appears that the [URL="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0031M9JCE/ref=asc_df_B0031M9JCE5322679?tag=cnet-pc-20&smid=AE3YR9AX5P25J&linkCode=df0&creative=395129&creativeASIN=B0031M9JCE&ascsubtag=74557d40-f0c6-11e7-9132-b7e2733fa567"]same model[/URL] it currently has is available on amazon.

However, it doesn't appear to be as reliable.

I have read some articles that state that if I were to choose an HDD, that I should make sure that it has the same rpm, in this case 5400. Would you say this is true?

--

About it being a lottery with regards to liability, it seems to be the unfortunate truth with many things. *le sigh*

Dustie 04-01-18 14:13

I'm pretty sure you can chose a higher RPM drive even if your older one had a lower speed. 7200RPM seems to be the highest speed these days from what I can see... and it probably won't go any higher as SDDs are slowly taking over. You might want to go for a drive that has a bigger cache, such as 16 or even 32MB.

How long have you had your current HDD for? Because I've had a Samsung HDD for 8 years now and my impression is they are/were among the most reliable ones. Which is why I was sad to discover I could no longer get them in retail here. Mine is in a desktop computer though, so maybe that's why it seems to last longer, I can imagine laptop drives might be more issue-ridden considering all the movement they're subjected to in a portable computer.

I bought a Toshiba 500GB 3,5" HDD this year a few months ago and it seems to work OK thus far. I can see that the most popular brands among buyers are WD and Seagate though.

laralives 05-01-18 13:22

[QUOTE=Dustie;7809958]I'm pretty sure you can chose a higher RPM drive even if your older one had a lower speed. 7200RPM seems to be the highest speed these days from what I can see... and it probably won't go any higher as SDDs are slowly taking over. You might want to go for a drive that has a bigger cache, such as 16 or even 32MB.

How long have you had your current HDD for? Because I've had a Samsung HDD for 8 years now and my impression is they are/were among the most reliable ones. Which is why I was sad to discover I could no longer get them in retail here. Mine is in a desktop computer though, so maybe that's why it seems to last longer, I can imagine laptop drives might be more issue-ridden considering all the movement they're subjected to in a portable computer.

I bought a Toshiba 500GB 3,5" HDD this year a few months ago and it seems to work OK thus far. I can see that the most popular brands among buyers are WD and Seagate though.[/QUOTE]

Oh, guess that article was mistaken. :ponder:

Hmm, perhaps, I don't recall how long I've had the machine for, but it has been a while. I guess, I simply didn't want to risk it again if this were to be a usual occurrence. From the reviews on Amazon, it doesn't appear that, that specific drive lasts long.

I initially would have ordered the one from Amazon, but I think now I would feel a bit better going out to BestBuy or something and picking whatever they may have in stock.

I've had both a Toshiba and a WD (external drive) die on me, so I guess I've been hesitant about those brands since then, but I guess technology may have changed since then, *hopes*.

Dustie 07-01-18 23:54

[QUOTE=laralives;7810235]Oh, guess that article was mistaken. :ponder:

Hmm, perhaps, I don't recall how long I've had the machine for, but it has been a while. I guess, I simply didn't want to risk it again if this were to be a usual occurrence. From the reviews on Amazon, it doesn't appear that, that specific drive lasts long.

I initially would have ordered the one from Amazon, but I think now I would feel a bit better going out to BestBuy or something and picking whatever they may have in stock.

I've had both a Toshiba and a WD (external drive) die on me, so I guess I've been hesitant about those brands since then, but I guess technology may have changed since then, *hopes*.[/QUOTE]

How funny. I had a WD external drive die, so I'm very hesitant about that brand now... I had never had a Toshiba drive on the other hand until now, so... as you can see it's all a bit silly because we stay away from certain brands and lean towards other ones, even when other people have opposite experiences.

Now that you say it, it could be that your specific laptop won't run a drive with higher RPM speed - you would have to check your computers specification to check if there are any limitations. Usually though, they should work. I think any computer made over the past few years can run 7200RPM HDDs just fine...

ANoDE 11-01-18 18:39

Personally, I'd go with an SSD. The performance boost fast memory access can give you is incredible.

These days SSDs are quite reliable also - especially for portable devices (as they aren't succeptible to damages by movement). I've had a Samsung Evo SSD for a few years now and so far it works pretty good. There's a few things you can do to expand the life span of the memory cells (stop indexing service, disable / minimize memory swapping, etc / keeping "spare" memory for disk self-repair, etc.).

Of course what you reported for HDDs also applies for SSDs it seems - everyone has different experiences...

laralives 21-01-18 21:03

[QUOTE=ANoDE;7811641]Personally, I'd go with an SSD. The performance boost fast memory access can give you is incredible.

These days SSDs are quite reliable also - especially for portable devices (as they aren't succeptible to damages by movement). I've had a Samsung Evo SSD for a few years now and so far it works pretty good. There's a few things you can do to expand the life span of the memory cells (stop indexing service, disable / minimize memory swapping, etc / keeping "spare" memory for disk self-repair, etc.).

Of course what you reported for HDDs also applies for SSDs it seems - everyone has different experiences...[/QUOTE]

(Unmentioned details: The laptop in question was left behind (with family) in a place far from where I live and unfortunately, the stores had been closed due to a snow storm just as I was leaving/planning to buy the harddrive.)

Nonetheless, I realized I can always have it shipped to that address from Amazon and fix it at a later date.

I did a brief search and found: [URL="https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-2-5-Inch-Internal-MZ-75E250B-AM/dp/B00OAJ412U?th=1"]this one[/URL].

However, I'm just concerned the port may not be the same and I won't be able to go back in time to see if it will fit, and be able to return it. (I believe this is what is referred to as the SATA connector? But are they the same/interchangeable? :ponder:

ANoDE 21-01-18 22:02

Yes, that one should do. :)

As Dustie pointed out, SATA (interface and connector type) is the current standard for laptop drives. I'd be rather surprised, if your laptop would feature something else. The only thing that could happen is, that sony used a custom connector - but since you are replacing your drive anyway you should be able to re-use the adapter they would have used to connect the drive.

Dustie 23-01-18 13:04

It should fit, unless Sony did something odd to their laptops. What is the model of yours?


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