What's Wrong With These Hard Drives?

[sirchai]

Hello and Sawasdee khrap,

I'm using a fantastic program called "Hard Drive Sentinel" and the program seems to be pretty accurate telling you how long the hard drive was being used and how long it will last.

Have a Dell Inspiron 1440 notebook, which is pretty cool. Run Windows 7, the 32 but version on it. 2 GB of memory seem to be enough for now.Would an upgrade to 3 GB, or 4 be possible and affordable?

Last tome when it showed only a 23% of my hard drive and "told" me to replace it, I thought well, just a program, could be wrong, as said drive as only five months old.

Okay, was replaced by a new one. I think it's a Hitachi, but I'm certain that it's a Chinese copy. Just made my Sentinel test and it showed me only a health of 64 %.

But still a life span of 800 + days. My questions are: What do others think about this program? Are the hard drives, (500 GB) produced in Bangkok really that bad, to consider to buy a better brand when it dies again?

Tank in advance for any input that might enlighten all of is.

[kkerry]

Thailand is the world's largest producer of computer hard drives so you won't find many alternatives available in Bangkok from other countries. Most shops concentrate on Western Digital and Seagate. A big cause of failed hard drives is heat so make sure you keep the insides of your laptop free from dust so the fans run properly.

Check the Dell website for the maximum amount of RAM you can use with your laptop (and if you have any free slots). Win32 is limited to 3GB or thereabouts so if you want to upgrade 4GB or greater is the sensible way to go with Win64.

I'd be surprised if your Hitachi harddrive is a Chinese copy. They're part of Western Digital now so you can probably check on their site if your model and serial details are genuine.

[BudRight]

You don't need extra programs to monitor hard drive health. They are not like, for example, a dog that can have chronic diseases that come and go without killing it.

A hard drive is either fine or failing. 64% is apropos of nothing.

SMART will tell you if your hard drive is failing. If it is not, it does not need to be replaced. This happens automatically at POST. You need do nothing special.

Edited February 23, 2014 by BudRight

[sirchai]

You don't need extra programs to monitor hard drive health. They are not like, for example, a dog that can have chronic diseases that come and go without killing it.

A hard drive is either fine or failing. 64% is apropos of nothing.

SMART will tell you if your hard drive is failing. If it is not, it does not need to be replaced. This happens automatically at POST. You need do nothing special.

Thanks, but....I had the same program telling me that the drive needs to be replaced. The health percentage was at 20%.

The program was right. have you ever tried that program, or are you an armchair specialist?

There're people who know a lot about soft wand hard ware and people who think they know a lot.

Wouldn't that be very helpful for people to see A) the temperature of EACH hard drive. The tie it was being used, how many start ups and last but not least the remaining time, approximately.

I've learned a lot while living in Thailand, but I've also realized that many people are trying to talk about things they obviously don't know much about.

Thanks, please share your experiences.-

[sirchai]

Thailand is the world's largest producer of computer hard drives so you won't find many alternatives available in Bangkok from other countries. Most shops concentrate on Western Digital and Seagate. A big cause of failed hard drives is heat so make sure you keep the insides of your laptop free from dust so the fans run properly.

Check the Dell website for the maximum amount of RAM you can use with your laptop (and if you have any free slots). Win32 is limited to 3GB or thereabouts so if you want to upgrade 4GB or greater is the sensible way to go with Win64.

I'd be surprised if your Hitachi harddrive is a Chinese copy. They're part of Western Digital now so you can probably check on their site if your model and serial details are genuine.

Thanks, a very useful response. I'm even okay with my 2 Gb of RAM and do't need to upgrade it now. Was just a question to make it a little faster.

I'm aware that most hard drives are being produced in Bangkok, but what brand would you prefer? Seagate, or Western digital? MY first, the original that was in my notebook lasted for about four years and some months.

Thanks in advance.-

[JesseFrank]

You don't need extra programs to monitor hard drive health. They are not like, for example, a dog that can have chronic diseases that come and go without killing it.

A hard drive is either fine or failing. 64% is apropos of nothing.

SMART will tell you if your hard drive is failing. If it is not, it does not need to be replaced. This happens automatically at POST. You need do nothing special.

Thanks, but....I had the same program telling me that the drive needs to be replaced. The health percentage was at 20%.

The program was right. have you ever tried that program, or are you an armchair specialist?

There're people who know a lot about soft wand hard ware and people who think they know a lot.

Wouldn't that be very helpful for people to see A) the temperature of EACH hard drive. The tie it was being used, how many start ups and last but not least the remaining time, approximately.

I've learned a lot while living in Thailand, but I've also realized that many people are trying to talk about things they obviously don't know much about.

Thanks, please share your experiences.-

I have Hard disk sentinel on a PC and a server for a total of 11 HDD's, and I agree it is a very handy program.I appreciate it specially for the temperature of each HDD that is shown in the task bar, and for the warning that are sent to my PC if a HDD in the server has an issue.

When a disk has several bad or unrepairable sectors I may get a health warning of 90%, but I've never seen 20% or even 64%. Must be some pretty crap disks you have there. Did you buy those disks on the Cambodian border ?

Edited February 23, 2014 by JesseFrank

[JesseFrank]

Thailand is the world's largest producer of computer hard drives so you won't find many alternatives available in Bangkok from other countries. Most shops concentrate on Western Digital and Seagate. A big cause of failed hard drives is heat so make sure you keep the insides of your laptop free from dust so the fans run properly.

Check the Dell website for the maximum amount of RAM you can use with your laptop (and if you have any free slots). Win32 is limited to 3GB or thereabouts so if you want to upgrade 4GB or greater is the sensible way to go with Win64.

I'd be surprised if your Hitachi harddrive is a Chinese copy. They're part of Western Digital now so you can probably check on their site if your model and serial details are genuine.

All WD drives I have bought in Thailand the past few years are Made in Malaysia.

[thaimite]

I am not aware of the program you are using and would love to know how it came up with the the 23% reliability.

This may help in the decision. If there are a number of failed reads or writes (retries needed) for example it could be a reliable number. Personally I have never seen anything like that. Bad sectors tend to go bad and stay bad, unless your drive is overheating which could cause the calibration to drift..

In your position I would first make sure I have backups, and then run a well known and respected program called Spinright to see what it says. It can even repair some errors

As for my preferred make of hard drive I usually go for Seagate. I have not had much luck with Western Digital especially from the My Book range where I have had many fail within a couple of years of purchase. However this is purely a personal preference based on my experience and not market research or other quantifiable data. I have never used an Hitachi drive unless you count a Thai made IBM drive which failed 3 months after purchase and IBM refused to honour the 3 year warranty warranty. A few months later, IBM then sold out to Hitachi who replaced the same drive without question!!!!

Depending on the programs you use your computer for upgrading to 4GB or RAM could produce a big performance boost for little cost. 3GB is not normally an option, and as you are using 32 bit Windows anything more than 4GB of RAM would be a wast of money

Edit, Additional Thought

If your BIOS is wrongly detecting the drive type that could cause issues too,

Edited February 23, 2014 by thaimite

[NeverSure]

There're people who know a lot about soft wand hard ware and people who think they know a lot.

Wouldn't that be very helpful for people to see A) the temperature of EACH hard drive. The tie it was being used, how many start ups and last but not least the remaining time, approximately.

I've learned a lot while living in Thailand, but I've also realized that many people are trying to talk about things they obviously don't know much about.

I can put up to 24 (software) hard drives, each with its own drive letter (software) on one physical hard disk (hardware.) I simply would create 24 partitions (software) on the physical hard disk (hardware) and activate (software) and format (software) each partition (software.)

Now, since you know so much, tell me how you would "see A) the temperature of EACH hard drive" on each of those 24 hard drives (software.)

"I've learned a lot while living in Thailand, but I've also realized that many people are trying to talk about things they obviously don't know much about" was just a little off-putting for me.

Peace.

Edited February 23, 2014 by NeverSure

[JesseFrank]

There're people who know a lot about soft wand hard ware and people who think they know a lot.

Wouldn't that be very helpful for people to see A) the temperature of EACH hard drive. The tie it was being used, how many start ups and last but not least the remaining time, approximately.

I've learned a lot while living in Thailand, but I've also realized that many people are trying to talk about things they obviously don't know much about.

I can put up to 24 (software) hard drives, each with its own drive letter (software) on one physical hard disk (hardware.) I simply would create 24 partitions (software) on the physical hard disk (hardware) and activate (software) and format (software) each partition (software.)

Now, since you know so much, tell me how you would then monitor the temperatures on each of those 24 hard drives (software.)

"I've learned a lot while living in Thailand, but I've also realized that many people are trying to talk about things they obviously don't know much about" was just a little off-putting for me.

Peace.

As you are SO smart, you should also know that those software hard drives are called partitions instead of hard drives, and that Hard disk sentinel shows the Temperature from the disks 0-1- 2- etc, similar to how the Hard drives are numbered in your disk manager, with the letter of each partition that is on particular hard disk when you mouse over it.

There is also no need to know what is the temperature of partition C - Z if you know the temperature of Disk 0 - whatever

[Pib]

OP: I would be highly suspect of the program you are using to give you a prediction on your hard drive health since both of your drives you have are only a few months old and new. It's probably giving you false readings for whatever reason(s) especially if you did not have any other indicators the drives had a problem.

[jacnl2000]

That program's probably right. You could go to a local computershop and ask them first to inspect and cleanup the interior of your laptop.

Sent from my GT-S6810P using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[NeverSure]

There're people who know a lot about soft wand hard ware and people who think they know a lot.

Wouldn't that be very helpful for people to see A) the temperature of EACH hard drive. The tie it was being used, how many start ups and last but not least the remaining time, approximately.

I've learned a lot while living in Thailand, but I've also realized that many people are trying to talk about things they obviously don't know much about.

I can put up to 24 (software) hard drives, each with its own drive letter (software) on one physical hard disk (hardware.) I simply would create 24 partitions (software) on the physical hard disk (hardware) and activate (software) and format (software) each partition (software.)

Now, since you know so much, tell me how you would then monitor the temperatures on each of those 24 hard drives (software.)

"I've learned a lot while living in Thailand, but I've also realized that many people are trying to talk about things they obviously don't know much about" was just a little off-putting for me.

Peace.

As you are SO smart, you should also know that those software hard drives are called partitions instead of hard drives, and that Hard disk sentinel shows the Temperature from the disks 0-1- 2- etc, similar to how the Hard drives are numbered in your disk manager, with the letter of each partition that is on particular hard disk when you mouse over it.

There is also no need to know what is the temperature of partition C - Z if you know the temperature of Disk 0 - whatever

No. First you create a new partition (software.) Next you format it (software) and it is assigned a drive letter as in Drive F (software.)

A hard drive, as opposed to an optical drive (drive letter) or memory stick drive (drive letter) simply means that the software hard drive is on a hard disk. You can partition a hard disk and put multiple hard drives on it.

A hard drive is always software on a physical hardware hard disk.

[NanLaew]

I can feel a pissing contest coming on.... must go lie down.

[JesseFrank]

There're people who know a lot about soft wand hard ware and people who think they know a lot.

Wouldn't that be very helpful for people to see A) the temperature of EACH hard drive. The tie it was being used, how many start ups and last but not least the remaining time, approximately.

I've learned a lot while living in Thailand, but I've also realized that many people are trying to talk about things they obviously don't know much about.

I can put up to 24 (software) hard drives, each with its own drive letter (software) on one physical hard disk (hardware.) I simply would create 24 partitions (software) on the physical hard disk (hardware) and activate (software) and format (software) each partition (software.)

Now, since you know so much, tell me how you would then monitor the temperatures on each of those 24 hard drives (software.)

"I've learned a lot while living in Thailand, but I've also realized that many people are trying to talk about things they obviously don't know much about" was just a little off-putting for me.

Peace.

As you are SO smart, you should also know that those software hard drives are called partitions instead of hard drives, and that Hard disk sentinel shows the Temperature from the disks 0-1- 2- etc, similar to how the Hard drives are numbered in your disk manager, with the letter of each partition that is on particular hard disk when you mouse over it.

There is also no need to know what is the temperature of partition C - Z if you know the temperature of Disk 0 - whatever

No. First you create a new partition (software.) Next you format it (software) and it is assigned a drive letter as in Drive F (software.)

A hard drive, as opposed to an optical drive (drive letter) or memory stick drive (drive letter) simply means that the software hard drive is on a hard disk. You can partition a hard disk and put multiple hard drives on it.

A hard drive is always software on a physical hardware hard disk.

What you are talking about are Virtual Hard drives ( Vhd ) which as the word says are virtual and don't create temperatures.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VHD_%28file_format%29

VHD (Virtual Hard Disk) is a file format which represents a virtual hard disk drive (HDD). It may contain what is found on a physical HDD, such as disk partitions and a file system, which in turn can contain files and folders. It is typically used as the hard disk of a virtual machine.

A hard drive is this

http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/h/harddriv.htm

Hard drive

Alternatively referred to as a hard disk drive and abbreviated as HD or HDD, the hard drive is the computer's main storage media device that permanently stores all data on the computer. The hard drive was first introduced on September 13, 1956 and consists of one or more hard drive platters inside of air sealed casing. Most computer hard drives are in an internal drive bay at the front of the computer and connect to the motherboard using either ATA, SCSI, or a SATA cable and power cable. Below, is a picture of what the inside of a hard drive looks like for a desktop and laptop hard drive.

[NeverSure]

What you are talking about are Virtual Hard drives ( Vhd ) which as the word says are virtual and don't create temperatures.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VHD_%28file_format%29

VHD (Virtual Hard Disk) is a file format which represents a virtual hard disk drive (HDD). It may contain what is found on a physical HDD, such as disk partitions and a file system, which in turn can contain files and folders. It is typically used as the hard disk of a virtual machine.

A hard drive is this

http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/h/harddriv.htm

Hard drive

Alternatively referred to as a hard disk drive and abbreviated as HD or HDD, the hard drive is the computer's main storage media device that permanently stores all data on the computer. The hard drive was first introduced on September 13, 1956 and consists of one or more hard drive platters inside of air sealed casing. Most computer hard drives are in an internal drive bay at the front of the computer and connect to the motherboard using either ATA, SCSI, or a SATA cable and power cable. Below, is a picture of what the inside of a hard drive looks like for a desktop and laptop hard drive.

Not so. No matter how someone choses to word it, it is this: I can buy a hard disk, carry it home, hold it in my hand, install it in my computer with screws and cables and it is still a hard disk. It is hardware.

It doesn't become a hard drive until I put software on it. At the very least unless it is factory activated, I have to activate (software) it and format (software) it until it receives a hard drive letter (software.) With partitions I can have more than one hard drive on one hard disk.

The reason a hard drive is called that is to differentiate between an A drive which is always a floppy drive (A is reserved for floppy) or an optical drive which also gets a drive letter, etc. When I look in "my computer" I see a lot of drives including a removable drive (G) and two CD/DVD drives (H and J) plus my 4 hard drives. Two of the hard drives are on one hard disk but "My Computer" doesn't show that. It just shows it as two hard drives.

Now if I go into Disk Management, it shows only the hard disks and their partitions, and there I can create or delete partitions. It shows three physical hard disks with one of them partitioned into two hard drives, each with its own drive letter.

One can't get away from the clear fact that a hard drive is software on a hard disk.

Edited February 23, 2014 by NeverSure

[manarak]

There're people who know a lot about soft wand hard ware and people who think they know a lot.

Wouldn't that be very helpful for people to see A) the temperature of EACH hard drive. The tie it was being used, how many start ups and last but not least the remaining time, approximately.

I've learned a lot while living in Thailand, but I've also realized that many people are trying to talk about things they obviously don't know much about.

I can put up to 24 (software) hard drives, each with its own drive letter (software) on one physical hard disk (hardware.) I simply would create 24 partitions (software) on the physical hard disk (hardware) and activate (software) and format (software) each partition (software.)

Now, since you know so much, tell me how you would then monitor the temperatures on each of those 24 hard drives (software.)

"I've learned a lot while living in Thailand, but I've also realized that many people are trying to talk about things they obviously don't know much about" was just a little off-putting for me.

Peace.

As you are SO smart, you should also know that those software hard drives are called partitions instead of hard drives, and that Hard disk sentinel shows the Temperature from the disks 0-1- 2- etc, similar to how the Hard drives are numbered in your disk manager, with the letter of each partition that is on particular hard disk when you mouse over it.

There is also no need to know what is the temperature of partition C - Z if you know the temperature of Disk 0 - whatever

No. First you create a new partition (software.) Next you format it (software) and it is assigned a drive letter as in Drive F (software.)

A hard drive, as opposed to an optical drive (drive letter) or memory stick drive (drive letter) simply means that the software hard drive is on a hard disk. You can partition a hard disk and put multiple hard drives on it.

A hard drive is always software on a physical hardware hard disk.

55555

you two can bury the hatchet and also stop complaining about "people who think they know".

hard disk and hard drive are actually both shortened appelations for the same thing, namely a HARD DISK DRIVE, commonly abbreviated HDD.

LOL

hilarious

[NeverSure]

No. First you create a new partition (software.) Next you format it (software) and it is assigned a drive letter as in Drive F (software.)

A hard drive, as opposed to an optical drive (drive letter) or memory stick drive (drive letter) simply means that the software hard drive is on a hard disk. You can partition a hard disk and put multiple hard drives on it.

A hard drive is always software on a physical hardware hard disk.

55555

you two can bury the hatchet and also stop complaining about "people who think they know".

hard disk and hard drive are actually both shortened appelations for the same thing, namely a HARD DISK DRIVE, commonly abbreviated HDD.

LOL

hilarious

I think that these terms come over time from younger guys who weren't around when the first hard disk was available for the PC. I think it was in the very early 1980's and it had a capacity of a whopping 10 MB and the computer might have had 4 or 8 MB of ram.

Yes, HDD is hard disk drive, but it is still a drive that is on a hard disk, called HDD to differentiate it from a floppy, optical, removable etc. drive.

The earlier computers ran off floppy drives only and if you could afford $1,000 for a second floppy or B drive, you were really stylin' because you could have programs on that second floppy. Otherwise you had to boot from the floppy, remove it and insert the program floppy. Then when you removed it, you had to insert the boot floppy and reboot.

When the first hard disks became available for home and office computers, they were called hard disks to differentiate from the floppy disk. Both had drive letters. The hard disk always got the letter C because it was next in line after the reserved-for-floppy in the bios A and B for floppys.

So again, HDD was and is a drive put on a hard disk with software. Hard Disk Drive as opposed to floppy drive or any other drive.

[rakman]

The monitor program is reading the SMART parameters in the drives.

If the new drive you bought is a refurbished drive, it is possible the SMART parameters were not reset.

Depending on where you bought the drive and what packaging it came in, it is possible that pieces of the drive were replaced but the SMART recorded the data in the electronics. There is a way to reset the SMART, but its not an easy process.

You can run, as mentioned earlier, Spinrite which can do a full read write check of either drive. If one drive is empty of data, you can run the diag in full test mode and see what the logs provide.

SMART is not perfect.

[sirchai]

You don't need extra programs to monitor hard drive health. They are not like, for example, a dog that can have chronic diseases that come and go without killing it.

A hard drive is either fine or failing. 64% is apropos of nothing.

SMART will tell you if your hard drive is failing. If it is not, it does not need to be replaced. This happens automatically at POST. You need do nothing special.

Thanks, but....I had the same program telling me that the drive needs to be replaced. The health percentage was at 20%.

The program was right. have you ever tried that program, or are you an armchair specialist?

There're people who know a lot about soft wand hard ware and people who think they know a lot.

Wouldn't that be very helpful for people to see A) the temperature of EACH hard drive. The tie it was being used, how many start ups and last but not least the remaining time, approximately.

I've learned a lot while living in Thailand, but I've also realized that many people are trying to talk about things they obviously don't know much about.

Thanks, please share your experiences.-

I have Hard disk sentinel on a PC and a server for a total of 11 HDD's, and I agree it is a very handy program.I appreciate it specially for the temperature of each HDD that is shown in the task bar, and for the warning that are sent to my PC if a HDD in the server has an issue.

When a disk has several bad or unrepairable sectors I may get a health warning of 90%, but I've never seen 20% or even 64%. Must be some pretty crap disks you have there. Did you buy those disks on the Cambodian border ?

Why would a foreigner buy anything at the Cambodian border? Not even the cigarettes are genuine there. Nor Thaksin, who's sometimes advising advisors there.

The program is pretty cool and it shows 100% performance, but only a 64 % health. Power on time 53 days and 4 hours. Estimated remaining life time: 726 days. Total start/stop counts: 483.

Same program had warned me that the drive will stop functioning soon, when I had my older drive installed. The program was right. 100 % right.

I bought my drive at ABC computer in Sisaket, and they get them from Bangkok. All is backed up on an external drive. Using Acronis back up and restore. Takes only a short time to get the system back to how it was.

I'm really glad to see the drive's temperature and especially in summer, it seems to be very helpful. -

.

[sirchai]

What you are talking about are Virtual Hard drives ( Vhd ) which as the word says are virtual and don't create temperatures.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VHD_%28file_format%29

VHD (Virtual Hard Disk) is a file format which represents a virtual hard disk drive (HDD). It may contain what is found on a physical HDD, such as disk partitions and a file system, which in turn can contain files and folders. It is typically used as the hard disk of a virtual machine.

A hard drive is this

http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/h/harddriv.htm

Hard drive

Alternatively referred to as a hard disk drive and abbreviated as HD or HDD, the hard drive is the computer's main storage media device that permanently stores all data on the computer. The hard drive was first introduced on September 13, 1956 and consists of one or more hard drive platters inside of air sealed casing. Most computer hard drives are in an internal drive bay at the front of the computer and connect to the motherboard using either ATA, SCSI, or a SATA cable and power cable. Below, is a picture of what the inside of a hard drive looks like for a desktop and laptop hard drive.

Not so. No matter how someone choses to word it, it is this: I can buy a hard disk, carry it home, hold it in my hand, install it in my computer with screws and cables and it is still a hard disk. It is hardware.

It doesn't become a hard drive until I put software on it. At the very least unless it is factory activated, I have to activate (software) it and format (software) it until it receives a hard drive letter (software.) With partitions I can have more than one hard drive on one hard disk.

The reason a hard drive is called that is to differentiate between an A drive which is always a floppy drive (A is reserved for floppy) or an optical drive which also gets a drive letter, etc. When I look in "my computer" I see a lot of drives including a removable drive (G) and two CD/DVD drives (H and J) plus my 4 hard drives. Two of the hard drives are on one hard disk but "My Computer" doesn't show that. It just shows it as two hard drives.

Now if I go into Disk Management, it shows only the hard disks and their partitions, and there I can create or delete partitions. It shows three physical hard disks with one of them partitioned into two hard drives, each with its own drive letter.

One can't get away from the clear fact that a hard drive is software on a hard disk.

You're right, but a hard drive is hardware, as it has a few moving things. So the software and the drive make a hard drive to what we think it is.

[JesseFrank]

Now if I go into Disk Management, it shows only the hard disks and their partitions, and there I can create or delete partitions. It shows three physical hard disks with one of them partitioned into two hard drives, each with its own drive letter.

And for those who didn't get my point, above is where you ridicule your own snaring comment to Sirichai.

NeverSure, on 23 Feb 2014 - 22:02, said:

I can put up to 24 (software) hard drives, each with its own drive letter (software) on one physical hard disk (hardware.) I simply would create 24 partitions (software) on the physical hard disk (hardware) and activate (software) and format (software) each partition (software.)

Now, since you know so much, tell me how you would "see A) the temperature of EACH hard drive" on each of those 24 hard drives (software.)

Because Hard disk sentinel shows the temperature from each physical disk and identifies them in the same manner as they are identified in disk management under "My computer" , with a digit assigned to it instead of a letter.

So why the need to show the temperature of disk C -D - E individually, if you know that the temperature shown from physical hard disk 0 contains the virtual hard drives or partitions C -D -E.? Any one who knows so much will know that It is impossible that in this case disk C should have a different temperature from disk D or disk E, because they are all three on Physical disk 0.

[sirchai]

Gotta love it. Okay, I'm a sort of experimenting with many programs from Anti Virus to all other software.

The fact that you can see the temperature, which will warn you if let's say the fan's dirty, not enough cooling, etc... and( I don't give a flying one if you could possibly put 24 of them together), as most people here are using only one or two, Then the health and performance in a percentage.....

So here's a tool that works well. It did tell me exactly when my \hard drive or HDD died. Okay, I'm using it occasionally and it works well for me. -

Edited February 24, 2014 by sirchai

[manarak]

No. First you create a new partition (software.) Next you format it (software) and it is assigned a drive letter as in Drive F (software.)

A hard drive, as opposed to an optical drive (drive letter) or memory stick drive (drive letter) simply means that the software hard drive is on a hard disk. You can partition a hard disk and put multiple hard drives on it.

A hard drive is always software on a physical hardware hard disk.

55555

you two can bury the hatchet and also stop complaining about "people who think they know".

hard disk and hard drive are actually both shortened appelations for the same thing, namely a HARD DISK DRIVE, commonly abbreviated HDD.

LOL

hilarious

I think that these terms come over time from younger guys who weren't around when the first hard disk was available for the PC. I think it was in the very early 1980's and it had a capacity of a whopping 10 MB and the computer might have had 4 or 8 MB of ram.

Yes, HDD is hard disk drive, but it is still a drive that is on a hard disk, called HDD to differentiate it from a floppy, optical, removable etc. drive.

The earlier computers ran off floppy drives only and if you could afford $1,000 for a second floppy or B drive, you were really stylin' because you could have programs on that second floppy. Otherwise you had to boot from the floppy, remove it and insert the program floppy. Then when you removed it, you had to insert the boot floppy and reboot.

When the first hard disks became available for home and office computers, they were called hard disks to differentiate from the floppy disk. Both had drive letters. The hard disk always got the letter C because it was next in line after the reserved-for-floppy in the bios A and B for floppys.

So again, HDD was and is a drive put on a hard disk with software. Hard Disk Drive as opposed to floppy drive or any other drive.

Nice try, but nah... HDD is a metal box with connectors and with spinning disks inside = 100% hardware.

The "drives" with the letters A,B, etc. you are refering to are called "logical drives", they are in principle the same as "mounts" in unix.

[Gregory Morozov]

Thank you gentlemen, that was the funniest thread in this forum in months!

[Chicog]

You partition a drive and create volumes on it.

You don't create HDDs on HDDs.

[ravip]

You partition a drive and create volumes on it.

You don't create HDDs on HDDs.

HDDs on HDDs?

[NeverSure]

Some people are making this too hard. "Hard disk drive" is a drive (software) that is put on a physical hard disk and HDD is used to differentiate it from floppy, optical, removable etc. drives.

The reason there are two D's in HDD is because the first one denotes that it is a hard disk. If that's all we needed, we could call it a HD. Hard Drive. But it isn't all we need.

We need a Drive (letter) (software) on a physical hard Disk (hardware) So we say HDD to show that the drive (software) is on a hard disk. Hard Disk Drive. HDD.

What's so hard about this?

[JesseFrank]

Some people are making this too hard. "Hard disk drive" is a drive (software) that is put on a physical hard disk and HDD is used to differentiate it from floppy, optical, removable etc. drives.

The reason there are two D's in HDD is because the first one denotes that it is a hard disk. If that's all we needed, we could call it a HD. Hard Drive. But it isn't all we need.

We need a Drive (letter) (software) on a physical hard Disk (hardware) So we say HDD to show that the drive (software) is on a hard disk. Hard Disk Drive. HDD.

What's so hard about this?

Since English is your mother tongue, you should understand the meaning of the word "hard"

Hard Disk Drive

[NeverSure]

You partition a drive and create volumes on it.

You don't create HDDs on HDDs.

See above. The volume will be a drive and will have its own new drive letter. You create HDDs on a physical hard disk. They are drives on a hard disk, or Hard Disk Drives (HDDS.)

A CD that you can remove from an optical drive is also a volume. It also has the software that you can put into the hardware. It is a necessary part o a drive, but it's not a HDD.

"A removable local disk volume may be a CD, diskette, Zip disk, etc. or may be something plugged into a PCMCIA or PC Card slot." Link