Endless Paradigm

Okay, you may have seen my rant about how a new HDD kills a GPU, which spent me hours to diagnose.  And me having to wait before being able to get a new one due to random stock issues...

And so here my rant continues (leave now!).

And when I finally got the new GPU, I discovered the Samsung 1.5TB HDD having the "clicking" issue (basically when it powers on, it makes clicking noises for about 10 seconds).  Although this is rather disturbing for something you're shoving a huge amount of data onto, I guess I don't mind the noise.  The problem is, however, resuming from standby.  Basically the HDD only seems to be fully on once it finishes its clicking spazz.  The computer obviously resumes long before, finds the HDD isn't there, so assumes that you unplugged it.  Am not sure why, but even after the clicking stops, Windows doesn't seem to detect the HDD, the only solution being to open the case, and re-plug in the SATA cable.
Interestingly, have not been able to find anyone with similar issues, although Googling the Samsung HDD clicking issue turns up many results.
Anyway, obviously having to keep pulling out the SATA cable when I want the computer to go into standby is really unacceptable, so I went back to return it.

People at the store were pretty insistent that this was normal behaviour however, and tried a second Samsung HDD of the same model and it had the same issue.  Wouldn't give me a refund, their point being that "this clicking is normal [for a HDD]" (yeah, sure, especially so many people over the internet returning drives over this issue).  Really sucks, but I did manage to convince them to swap with a WD 1.5TB 64MB Green drive for $5 more.  Just sucks that they didn't have any in stock, so I now have to go back again on Friday to pick the thing up.
Just hope that the WD doesn't have any issues.

And I thought getting a 1.5TB drive was as easy as buying it and plugging it in...



/rant

damn that sucks...hoopefully you didnt loose any important data!

Nah, HDD didn't die :P.  I noticed the issue when I plugged the power in and knew something wasn't right.

Damn, that sucks.
I need to get me a 1TB external HDD. ..

Fail. Good thing you didn't stick with the clicky drive - that sound means its fudgeed up in some way. I'd know cause I got through two HDs in one year [2007 if I remember correctly]

It should never click in an audible fashion (or any other fashion, lol).

Well I hope the WD doesn't give you grief!

my advice - google the wd drive your getting and see if it has any known issues before you get it.

Anger Wrote:my advice - google the wd drive your getting and see if it has any known issues before you get it.

and firmware updates!!!  the 1.5 and 2.0 drives have been plagued with issues.

Wee have 28x 2.0tb Western Digital drives and so far I have RMA'd 6 of them at work because they just stop being detected by the raid controller :(  Thank god for Raid6 because 2 of them have died at once!!!

Seems that all drives getting issues really, and it's difficult to tell whether a particular issue is affecting everyone or a select few.
Getting the 64MB model cause it's newer - hopefully if there was any issue with the older 32MB model, it's fixed in the 64MB one (plus it's only $1 more than the 32MB).

Like, there's many people saying their happy with the Samsung drives, and seeing that all the 1.5TB ones I've seen have this issue...  On the other hand, my main 640GB Samsung still is going strong with none of these issues.
Seagate, seems some people are avoiding over firmware issues, though I assume they should have fixed it by now.  Issue with these are mainly that the store I need to swap from sells them like $30 than the Samsung.
So only other choice is WD.  Hope they go well.

Thanks for the comments :P

you know why they thought it was normal for a drive, my guess is they thought you meant the read/write sound, if that is the reason then man that's funny

Nah, they were trying to bullcrap about the drive having to scan itself every time it powered on or something.

Anyway, got the WD and yay, doesn't have the clicking issue.  Still had the weird issue of the drive disappearing after resume, but seems that installing the Intel Matrix Storage drivers solved that.
And this caused no issues and I could install the thing in 2 minutes (yay for Antec case, didn't even have to go find a screwdriver).

Interestingly, the WD package looks "cheaper" than the Samsung.  The latter came in a clear box, with instruction manual and screws.  The WD drive just came in a plastic "bag" with only a packet of desiccant.