Extremely unlucky, or just age-of-system?

[TrekCaptainUSA]

This system is approaching year 4 of its existence. So far, its gone through 5 hard drives, and the 6th just died.

System's a Dell Latitude E6500... am I just extremely unlucky, or is this known to happen?

[Ferrit]

I hate to tell you this but Dell sucks period.
There is no mitigating it.
There is no excusing it.
There just is nothing to be said about it except SUCK SUCK SUCK.\
Anyone want to know how I really feel about Dell?
I just repaired another Dell laptop that is
3 years old and its on its 4th harddrive.
So yes it can happen and it does happen.

[MobilePCPhysician]

Test the power supply. It may be out of spec.

[Niclo Iste]

The E6500 was the flagship laptop of the office I left. They were nice to a point. I was constantly replacing drives but I assumed that was due to user abuse since a majority of the units came back with chunks missing out of the corners or splintered LCDs. They can survive some punishment though as they would run after repairing. You may just have a flaky one, which was a common thing to find with that series but if you were to get one that worked right, it will work for a long time.

P.S.
Maybe I'm mistaken? I mean I did get the ones with chunks missing and the screens splintered and the comment that always accompanied them was. "I was just typing and then the screen did that".

[slgrieb]

I think laptops that are actually used as mobile computing devices (unlike those that just sit on a desk with an external mouse and a permanent ac connection) are always going to have high failure rates for HDDs. Vibration and shock are bad for drives. And, really, I think we all know what that "engineered to withstand 1000 Gs and sustained fire from the Deathstar!" marketing is worth.

My take is that drive manufacturers tend to cut corners in the interest of profits until they have a toxic product and are forced to bite the bullet (because of declining sales and escalating warranty costs) and manufacture a decent product. At least for a while.

So, I'm personally inclined to think that drive problems are more about the drives themselves than the brand that use them. Now, that's not to take anything away from Ferrit's Dell bashing: I lived in Austin for 24 years, and for much of that time Dell ran a two page ad in the American-Statesman's Thursday Tech supplement advertising the many, many great deals on refurb units to be had at the Dell Factory Store.

[TrekCaptainUSA]

I agree that Dell sucks - I don't recommend Dell systems to anyone anymore, although the poweredge 2500 server I have from them has lasted for a LONG TIME (but its a server... it doesn't move much :P).

And these're HDDs, not SSDs. So I agree that the moving and the vibration can definitely take its toll on drives. I guess that's the case, then, although since the system's out of warranty i fully expect the next thing to die is something major that costs a TON to replace... like the system board or something. :P

[slgrieb]

I agree that Dell sucks - I don't recommend Dell systems to anyone anymore, although the poweredge 2500 server I have from them has lasted for a LONG TIME (but its a server... it doesn't move much :P).

And these're HDDs, not SSDs. So I agree that the moving and the vibration can definitely take its toll on drives. I guess that's the case, then, although since the system's out of warranty i fully expect the next thing to die is something major that costs a TON to replace... like the system board or something. :P

Well, these days eBay is your friend when it comes to laptop parts. Dell has service manuals online, and that really simplifies the repair process. However, I've gotta say that Dell's manuals also kinda suck. It isn't unusual to find that their diagrams and instructions don't actually quite match the machine you're working on, and they aren't nearly as clear about identifying the various screws in the computer (as compared to HP, say) so you have to be more organized about keeping them sorted. If you are replacing a mainboard, it doesn't hurt to mark the openings where the mounting screws were actually installed (as opposed to the diagrams). But, in the end laptop repair is fairly simple.

I know I'm belaboring the obvious here, but you never know who might read one of these posts; they might be starting from Square One and need some basic directions.

[Ferrit]

I dont mind saying this at all.
Moving the system does account for
some hard drive damage but 5 hard drives in that time frame?
Considering I also have 1 here that's done close to the same thing. I think not.
Otherwise other laptop brands would be killing that number of hard drives in that period.
I dont see that and i do work on a number of laptops.
I have replaced a goodly number of drives in laptops and its spread pretty evenly around
except for dell.
I think Dell just sucks

[nunob]

It's also noteworthy to mention that the laptop manufacturers spec the drives to be built for their machines and tell the hd manufacturers what they want. That is why when you contact the hd manufacturer they tell you to check with the laptop manufacturer on warranty status.

[slgrieb]

I dont mind saying this at all.
Moving the system does account for
some hard drive damage but 5 hard drives in that time frame?
Considering I also have 1 here that's done close to the same thing. I think not.
Otherwise other laptop brands would be killing that number of hard drives in that period.
I dont see that and i do work on a number of laptops.
I have replaced a goodly number of drives in laptops and its spread pretty evenly around
except for dell.
I think Dell just sucks

Ferrit raises some interesting points here, and it would be informative if TrekCaptain told us more about the drives. Were they all replacements from Dell, or were some retail? Now I'm really getting curious.

I've gotta say though, that I've been through periods when I've really experienced excessive failure rates with many products from any number of manufacturers. In fact, about the worst product run I ever had was with early WD Raptors. Heck, I think I've posted the Raptor Rant 3 or 4 times, so, I won't repeat it here. I have also gone through periods of extreme grief and hardship with (at various times) mainboards from Asus, Abit, MSI, Gigabyte, and Asrock. And we're talking retail products here; not oem builds.

[Ferrit]

I couldnt agree more about the grief from WD raptors
That was and still is my end for WD. Personally I lost a forty
and a 80 raptor. The 80 was in my own home server as the os drive.
You can imagine how pleased i was about that. I am convinced that
MobilePCPhysician might be onto something about the power.
I also agree this is more interesting cause the one I had that lost 3
hard drives before I put one in. They were all Dell replacements.
1 under warranty and 2 bought from Dell. I know I know, imagine
going back to the same well you got sick from before and expecting
a different result. LOLOLOL!!!!!!!