EIDE/SATA hard drive

Electra_King

Your help please. Sorry in advance but I have a number of questions. Basically my hard drive is about to give up the ghost. Well I am pretty sure that is the problem.

My questions:
I would like to buy a new internal hard drive (quickly!) and swap them over. But I believe there are 2 types, EIDE and SATA.

How can I identify what hard drive I currently have?

What would be a suitable replacement?

Can you recommend a good dealer (preferably internet based)?

My current hard drive is Maxtor 6Y160M0. I think it is a SATA but how can I be sure? It actually says on the top serial ATA but a friend thinks it is not SATA. I’m confused.

Thanks in advance.

Browntoa

download and run

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

will tell you under drives....

ST3200822AS [Hard drive] (200.05 GB) -- drive 0

just google the bit I have highlighted in bold from your scan and it should show the make/type of drive

from the information you posted its SATA

https://www.ultratecdirect.com/stocklists/searchresults.jsp?textSearch=6Y160M0

MAXTOR 160GB SERIAL ATA150

isofa

If it says Serial ATA on the top, then it is definitely SATA

Sata have a small connector with a thin 1cm-ish ribbon cable coming from them, IDE/PATA have a very wide ribbon cable, in grey, almost as wide as the drive itself.

Electra_King

Browntoa,
Thanks for link. Did not need it after all. I had another look, details as follows:

Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9
160GB SATA/150 HDD

Definitely SATA.

Electra_King

loaner,

For some time I have had a continual clicking/knocking sound followed by the "blue screen of death". I would normally switch everything off at the socket and then back on again.

Then yesterday, when I tried to switch it back on it would not even boot up and I had a number of beeping sounds. I did this (switching off at the socket and then back on again) about 10 times, and nothing. I then left it for a while and tried again. Finally it started back up.

AdamMerry

Browntoa wrote: »

download and run

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

will tell you under drives....

Off topic but thanks for the link, i had Belarc on my flash pen that i used regularly for my job but lost it when my flash pen went dead and i had forgot what the program was called.
Been looking to re-download this for ages so a big thanks to you Browntoa

:T :A :T

Electra_King

loaner,

In the process of backing up now.

I do hope you are wrong. What else could it be?

Electra_King

I have had a look at the link you have given but I am completely confused.
I looked at the troubleshooting section but seems to not cover the problem I am having. Along with a diagnostics called Seatools for DOS which I don't understand.

Can somebody please help me?

If it is not the hard drive how can I find out what it is?

The "blue screen of death" messages I get vary. All however refer to
kernel_date_inpage_error
and
beginning dump of physical memory
and after restarting I have
disk boot failure_insert disk

AHAR

To run the Seatools diagnostic tool you'll need to create a bootable CD from the file you download. If you've got CD burning software like Nero etc. that'll do the job for you.

I suspect the hard drive has very nearly had it especially as it's a Maxtor. Where I work, when I have to replace a failed hard drive it's been a Maxtor more often than not. We had an IDE version of the same drive you have fail last month. I wouldn't trust them to last the lifetime of the computer.

Electra_King

Ahar,
To be honest I have thought it was the hard drive all along. (see first post) But what if it is something else and I only find out after replacing the hard drive?

Is it worth me running seatools? How easy is it to run for a complete novice?

As my first post, Can you recommend a suitable replacement? and
Can you recommend a good dealer (preferably internet based)?

Sorry for all the questions!

AHAR

If you want to confirm whether the fault lies with the hard drive you should run that SeaTools diagnostic tool.
Have you got some CD burning software for creating the bootable disk from the image file you download from the Seagate site?
Once you start up the computer with the CD you just choose a short or long test an it'll report what problems if any it finds.

I'd recommend DABS or Misco for a replacement. In the short term any drive is likely to be fine and in the long term it's impossible to predict reliability, so I'd go for one with the longest warranty. Remember that a warranty will only replace the drive and not the data that was on it!