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<title><![CDATA[HDData comments:]]></title>
<link>https://www.giveawayoftheday.com/hddata/</link>
<description><![CDATA[free licensed software daily]]></description>
<language>en</language>
<lastBuildDate>Sun, 14 Mar 2010 20:25:12 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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<title><![CDATA[By: Bill3]]></title>
<link>https://www.giveawayoftheday.com/hddata/#comment-110261</link>
<description><![CDATA[HARD DISK - Precautions for new ones prior to putting them into use

1 To test the bearings, run on the bench for 24 hours or more, with cooling if necessary. At hourly intervals, put the HD against your ear, and the bearings should make a shushing / humming noise; any rumbling is not acceptable, and indicates a flawed bearing. Try comparing the sound against an old HD. 
2 Overwrite the complete HD, then formate in reiser, then X3, and finally, in NTFS for XP.
3 Set up a few partitions at random.
4 Run the manufacturers diagnostic tool, that you can download from their site. Now you've tested the platters.
5 If the HD passes all these tests, its very likely to last, so you won't waste valuable time, installing XP and your data. Also, it's cost you little time, because all the tests are set and walk.]]></description>
<pubDate>Sun, 14 Mar 2010 16:25:12 -0400</pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.giveawayoftheday.com/hddata/#comment-110261</guid>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Bill3]]></dc:creator>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[By: Don]]></title>
<link>https://www.giveawayoftheday.com/hddata/#comment-110260</link>
<description><![CDATA[Speedfan is much better and it is free all the time. This load of carp only found one of my harddrives. How they can sell this when it only finds some of your hardrives is beyond me.]]></description>
<pubDate>Sun, 14 Mar 2010 01:00:01 -0500</pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.giveawayoftheday.com/hddata/#comment-110260</guid>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Don]]></dc:creator>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[By: BuBBy]]></title>
<link>https://www.giveawayoftheday.com/hddata/#comment-110259</link>
<description><![CDATA[Just came across another freeware hdd scanner/monitor. I'll add the disclaimer that I haven't tried this yet (too busy) but it certainly appears quite comprehensive (seems to be more of a diagnostic tool). I'm only adding this software here, because if I don't do it now while I remember... it won't happen (someone will like it).

http://hddscan.com/]]></description>
<pubDate>Sun, 14 Mar 2010 00:25:07 -0500</pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.giveawayoftheday.com/hddata/#comment-110259</guid>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[BuBBy]]></dc:creator>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[By: someone]]></title>
<link>https://www.giveawayoftheday.com/hddata/#comment-110258</link>
<description><![CDATA[Program installed and runs fine under Win2k. However its unable to detect drives driven  neighter by onboard nor external sata controllers (both configured in a jbod array). 

Its absolutely unusable in this configuration.]]></description>
<pubDate>Sun, 14 Mar 2010 00:22:17 -0500</pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.giveawayoftheday.com/hddata/#comment-110258</guid>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[someone]]></dc:creator>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[By: Phoenix]]></title>
<link>https://www.giveawayoftheday.com/hddata/#comment-110257</link>
<description><![CDATA[I've still got my 1st "fixed drive" running on my old Motorola-68000-based machine: a "full-height", "IBM"-branded Seagate, with the old ESDI-506 interface connecting it to a SCSI-host-card, which I got &amp; started using around 1986 or so;

 I've never turned off that drive, and it just keeps on working; That seems to be how they like to run;

 With the advent of those "Winchester-technology"-drives, the heads don't actually "fly" over the heads anymore; they ride on the glass-passivation-layer of the platter, although while they're in a "constant-crash" condition, (constant-contact), if the drive's spinning and takes a hard enough "jolt" or physical shock, the head CAN &amp; just MAY "punch through" the passivation layer, since that passivation-layer's only from one to three microns or so thick, (or is it "thin"?);

 So if you want to move your laptop &amp; it's "On", put it in "Sleep-Mode" or turn it off, but stop that drive from spinning BEFORE you move it, and then once you're where you want it to be, you can "wake it up" or turn it back on, and let the drive spin again;

 If you're in a place where there are a lot of freight-trains that vibrate the ground (and your floor), put some "isolation pads" under the table or case of the computer, (desktop or laptop), so the vibration won't be transmitted to the PC &amp; its drives or CPU HSF-assembly.

 Since most hard drives will either quit within the "infant mortality" 90-days, let them run for a few hours, then turn them off, &amp; repeat; If you don't have any problems doing that every day for the first 3 months, then the drive is likely to run for many, many years with no troubles;

 I've never found ANY "S.M.A.R.T."-monitoring hardware or S/W that will tell me anything I don't already know, or that doesn't give me impossible readings, like this "HD Data" prg, which finally "found" my drive, but it's telling me that I've got almost 50 YEARS of run-time on it, and the drive in this machine hadn't even been designed that long ago;
 (It's an eSATA, connected so it can "talk to" either an AHCI/eSATA controller &amp; S/W, or ATAPI/eIDE controller &amp; S/W, with the proper cables connected to it).

 Thanks anyway, GAOTD, but I'll have to pass on this one; I can't justify trying to load up a program that won't do anything for me, and which has so many very good freeware alternatives available, ("CrystalDiskInfo", "SpeedFan", etc.), But please do keep trying, though! This is one offering that has brought out some others who have put forth a lot of very good information!.

 And at least the GAOTD folks ARE trying to get us some useful, and "different", things to try out! I'd give them an "A" for effort on that score alone!]]></description>
<pubDate>Sat, 13 Mar 2010 23:15:22 -0500</pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.giveawayoftheday.com/hddata/#comment-110257</guid>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Phoenix]]></dc:creator>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[By: Charles]]></title>
<link>https://www.giveawayoftheday.com/hddata/#comment-110256</link>
<description><![CDATA[Somewhat disappointing - only picks ups up 3 of 4 hard drives. Info window very small and requires scrolling - UGH!

Speedfan 4.40 is free and excellent!]]></description>
<pubDate>Sat, 13 Mar 2010 22:27:50 -0500</pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.giveawayoftheday.com/hddata/#comment-110256</guid>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Charles]]></dc:creator>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[By: Johan]]></title>
<link>https://www.giveawayoftheday.com/hddata/#comment-110255</link>
<description><![CDATA[Well, installed it, and it eats CPU. So nah, i wont use it.]]></description>
<pubDate>Sat, 13 Mar 2010 22:25:58 -0500</pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.giveawayoftheday.com/hddata/#comment-110255</guid>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Johan]]></dc:creator>
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<item>
<title><![CDATA[By: goodgotd]]></title>
<link>https://www.giveawayoftheday.com/hddata/#comment-110254</link>
<description><![CDATA[just hit a glitch in the temp monitor. it showed my HDD1 temp at 195 degrees F. informal (touch) testing showed it wasn't out of line with either of the 2 drives. installed active@disk monitor as doublecheck- it's the coolest of the drives at 80 f. No thanks, it's gone.]]></description>
<pubDate>Sat, 13 Mar 2010 19:55:41 -0500</pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.giveawayoftheday.com/hddata/#comment-110254</guid>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[goodgotd]]></dc:creator>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[By: Bill3]]></title>
<link>https://www.giveawayoftheday.com/hddata/#comment-110253</link>
<description><![CDATA[WELL, SOME BRILLIANT OUTSTANDING SUPERLATIVE, COMMENTS. MIKE HAS REALLY EXCELLED HIMSELF, ALONG WITH BUBBY, CHAS, TK, GOODGOTD, TO NAME A FEW. IT REALLY HAS BEEN A PLEASURE TO GAIN THE ADVICE AND EXPERIENCE OF ALL YOU GUYS TODAY.

A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL FROM BILL3

MIKE please see no 28 on Passwords yesterday.

Here's something you may like, that I copied and pasted from one of my manuals

HARD DRIVES

HARD DISK FAILURE - common cause of

1 The most common cause of Hard Drive Failure is excessive SHOCK. People having the PC on a desk above a heavy drawer that they slam closed, or under the desk where it is hit by the chair, or behind a door etc. The BANG causes the head to bounce off the platter spinning @ 5400 / 7200 RPM.

2 Corporations, experts, amateurs, etc, all have different contradictory experiences, and apart from buying quality, it appears the luck of the draw. 

3 In engineering, a well established knowledge of bearings predicts, that a few fail very quickly, while most last for years. Most techs report this with hard disk bearings. 

HARD DISK - prevent the need for data recovery and failures - Feb 2010 

Introduction - Bench tests by Bill3

It is very important to first consider the parameters re heat kills :-

1 I live in Auckland, New Zealand, winter rarely goes below 0 C, summer rarely above 27 C.
2 Summer is the kill zone for computers. Power supplies die first, because they intake hot air from the case, then hard drives, because they are usually, stupidly cramped together, and get no air flow, so heat just builds up in them.
3 All the cases I have examined, have totally inefficient cooling, so I have researched an efficient design, that works mainly on convection cooling, so you only need one 120 mm fan running very quietly, at half speed, when the weather is cool.  

As 7200rpm hard drives are standard today, in most desktop PCs, and not just in servers, hard drive cooling is important, as tests demonstrate they get hot to the touch, standing on the bench, after only 10 minuets in summer. Initially, heat is generated by motor, which is conducted into the body and platters, then as the temperature rises, data can be corrupted, and the chances of failure increase dramatically. This is often the reason for XP crashing. 

Bench tests clearly show that if you mount a 50 mm fan, 8 -10 mm off the back of the motor, the hard drive remains cool, even after 24 hours in summer. In winter the fan only needs to run quietly, at half speed. This is cheaper and much more effective, compared to bought HDD coolers, I have seen, that generally have 2 fans. All you need are 4 motherboard mounting pedestals, to stand off your fan mounting plate, and 2 more  motherboard mounting pedestals, that you file and epoxy resin to the side of the HDD motor, that hasn't got the screw holes.The fan mounting plate you can make from a scrap piece of 1 mm stainless steel, that you will aquire free, from any small sheet metalwork factory.  Costs :  Hand made HDD coolers 5 - 10 NZ$ + 1.5 hours work. Bought HDD coolers 25 NZ$ upwards. Finally, modify your drive bay, to accommodate the HDD's with the fans bolted to them - I usually completely remove the old bay, and make a new one.

HARD DISK MONITORING - does not prove helpful

Provided your computer is built to keep cool, the principles of failures in engineering experience, demonstrate that to a large degree, monitoring will not predict a failure; rather like mum knowing that whatever she does, she will never predict the day, if or when, her child injures themseves. Alternatively, predicting when your car will go wrong, to achieve this, the cost of monitoring would be massive. Individually testing components, will to a large degree, identify those that are about to fail, unfortunately, this is usually a very expensive exercise. Catastrophe theory, demonstrates that failures occur exponentially against time, or simply put, they happen so quick. A good example is bearings in any engineering application, they only need one tiny flaw to develop, that introduce minute metal particles, which grind the rest of the bearing up, and wreck it in seconds. 

HARD DISK - Technical data on failures

http://www.heatsink-guide.com/content.php?content=hdd.shtml

Most recent IDE hard drives come with internal temperature sensors, and are capable of reporting their operating temperature via SMART; software utilities are available for displaying the temperature of your hard drive. This temperature readout is not very precise, but definitely good enough to give you a hint whether your drive is running too hot or not. Consult the website of your hard drive manufacturer to learn about the maximum operating temperature of your hard drive. Typical maximum temperature range is 50-55°C, with some drives being able to operate at up to 60°C.

There is, however, an important factor to consider:
Unlike CPUs, which are reliable parts, and fail rarely (even when operated very close to their maximum temperature), hard drives tend to fail more often than any other part in the PC. The MTBF (mean time between failure) of a hard drive can be substantially increased by lowering the drive's temperature. Some drive manufacturers even state this fact in their drives data sheets; but even if this information isn't included there, it is still true. So, even if your drive never exceeds its maximum allowed operating temperature, additional cooling will improve the drive's reliability. Unless you do daily backups, a hard drive failure usually results in substantial data loss - investing a small amount of time and money in your drive's cooling solution can often prevent the need for data recovery (which isn't cheap).

With optical disks, overheating usually results in destruction of the surface that actually contains the data (e.g. chemical dye in the case of CD-R/DVD-R media). However, with hard drives, overheating typically causes long-term failure of the mechanical and electrical parts of the drive; the magnetic platters that carry the data are less affected. Therefore, data recovery companies will normally be able to recover data from damaged overheated drives - but be prepared to pay much more for getting your data back than for a new drive.
Does hard drive cooling affect performance?
Although this is often claimed by manufacturers of HDD cooling products, the temperature does not directly affect the performance of the drive in any significant way - seek times and data transfer rate will stay the same, no matter how hot the drive is running.

Old hard drives had a thermal recalibration loop - from time to time, the hard drive would make a short pause and recalibrate itself. When the drive warmed up, the platters expand, and their geometry changes, thus making recalibration necessary. With such drives, good cooling resulted in less frequent recalibration, and therefore did improve performance, especially for Audio/Video applications. However, these days are long over - all recent drives with embedded servo do not have a thermal recalibration loop. Temperature will not affect performance in any way.
Do drives only get hot when accessed often?
No. What generates most heat in a drive is the friction between the platters and the air that surrounds them. The magnetic plates inside the drive rotate at a high speed, but the air inside the drive doesn't, and even if the plate is perfectly flat, there's a lot of air resistance, so a powerful spindle motor is required to keep the drive spinning at high speed.

The movement of the drive's heads and the heat emitted by the drive's electronics only have a small contribution to the total heat emitted by the drive. Therefore, even drives that are mostly idle still require cooling (unless, of course, auto-spindown is enabled and the drive shuts itself down after not being accessed at all for a longer period of time).
Hard drive cooling solutions
The best solution for cooling hard drive is one that is well-integrated with the case cooling concept. When purchasing a case, make sure that fan intakes and drive bays are located in a way that proper cooling of the drives is possible. A fan bay for a large fan (the bigger, the better - server cases usually come with 120mm fan bays) right in front of the drive bays is perfect. If your case has a fan bay suitable for cooling drives, get a good fan and install it there. This is cheaper than buying a dedicated hard drive cooler, provides good cooling for the drive, and will have a positive effect on overall case ventilation.
Dedicated hard drive coolers
If your case does not allow proper ventilation of the drives by using normal case fans, you might want to look at special hard drive coolers. A multitude of different models are available on the market; they usually come with small 40mm fans, which are less efficient and typically louder than larger case fans. Some come with heatsinks for hard drive cooling, others rely on fans alone.

There are, however, exceptions to this rule, like the Global WIN IStorm, which features an unusual cross-flow fan.

The most simple hard drive cooler simply consists of a 5.25 drive bay cover with two embedded 50mm fans.

More advanced drive coolers come with a heatsink/fan combination, or are just large passive heatsinks that should be mounted on the drive (which, of course, only helps if there is at least a minimum amount of air flow across the drive).

To show the advantages and disadvantages of different hard drive cooling concepts, here's a look at a few typical HDD coolers:

    * Global WIN King Kong II - a standard hard drive cooler with two 50mm fans
    * InClose BayCooler II - High-quality three-fan cooler with dust filter
    * Global WIN IStorm / IStorm II - unusual hard drive cooler which uses a cross-flow fan
    * Vantec "Ultimate HDD cooler" - Cooler with two fans and a heatsink
    * CoolerMaster CoolDrive - Cooler with a large heatsink and two 50mm fans with dust filter

Best Regards Bill3]]></description>
<pubDate>Sat, 13 Mar 2010 19:37:35 -0500</pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.giveawayoftheday.com/hddata/#comment-110253</guid>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[Bill3]]></dc:creator>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[By: MichaelC]]></title>
<link>https://www.giveawayoftheday.com/hddata/#comment-110252</link>
<description><![CDATA[Excellent information today, suggestions leading me to DL several alternatives.  Today's offering had too many comments against it to try.  Thanks, everyone.
The last HD we had that failed started making <strong>grinding</strong> noises beforehand.  Pretty obvious.  Favorite comment (from a tech, no less):  "sounds like a virus."  Oh, really?  Guess that would be the never-before-known <i>"grinding virus"</i>.  Of course, it was the drive, which we replaced.  (Put the old one in a freezer for a while &amp; then were able to retrieve most of the data.)]]></description>
<pubDate>Sat, 13 Mar 2010 19:10:17 -0500</pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.giveawayoftheday.com/hddata/#comment-110252</guid>
<dc:creator><![CDATA[MichaelC]]></dc:creator>
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