New 40GB HD Kinda whines on a Win98 PC Dare to use on Amiga?

[marcfrick2112]

Hello all,
My dad's older (IBM-Compatible)PC has finally died, despite new HD and CD-RW. The HD is a Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 8 40 GB HD (IDE). Ok, no big deal, but towards the end of the PC's life, this HD started to make squealing sounds, not very loud, but definitely something sounded funny. My HD's on my Amiga's weather IDE or SCSI make clicking or ticking noises, never squealing. The drive is made in China (of course) Ideas? Could the drive be faulty? Could a dying PC have somehow 'killed' a HD? Should I dare risk putting this drive in my Amiga 1200T to replace a reliable 8.5 GB HD? Any ideas??

[Piru]

Whiney noises - that's Maxtor for you. Your guess is as good as anyone elses.

You could try booting with the diagnostic CD and letting it test the HDD, it might be able to tell whether it's dying or not. You need a PC for that though. Burn the ISO image to CD-R(W), plug the HDD to the PC, from bios set the PC to boot from the CD-ROM. Boot & test. Set everything back to previous state.

I hope the Seagate "maxtor"s will be more reliable....

[Speelgoedmannetje]

You cannot damage your computer with a faulty hd (or, well, hardly), so surely you should try :-).

[Piru]

@Speelgoedmannetje

The data on the dying HDD would disagree, though.

[motorollin]

I have an old Maxtor that whines. I wouldn't trust it, as I've seen a lot of hard disks which seize up after whining for a while. That's even worse than a bad sector, as you can't get anything back.

If you absolutely must use it, make sure you take regular backups of whatever you put on it.

--
moto

[marcfrick2112]

First Thanks to both of you, secondly @ Piru:
Oh Boy, after the bad run of luck I have had with PC's lately, that is Not what I wanted to hear...
OK, I have an empty drive bay, I assume for best performance, my PC was set up as: HD Primary IDE channel Master, the CD-RW as Secondary IDE channel Master. Can I connect this HD to either Primary or Secondary channels? Hopefully, the ISO can be burned with say, Nero 6?
As Before, any chance of messing something up permanently? I  got no OS CD with my PC...

Thanks for your help....

by Piru on 2006/4/27 4:15:42

Whiney noises - that's Maxtor for you. Your guess is as good as anyone elses.

You could try booting with the diagnostic CD and letting it test the HDD, it might be able to tell whether it's dying or not. You need a PC for that though. Burn the ISO image to disc, plug the hdd to the PC, from bios set the PC to boot from the CD-ROM. Boot & test. Set everything back to previous state.  

[marcfrick2112]

@motorollin:

OK, Be completely frank, here. From what I have said about this HD, would you use it for all your Amiga data? All progs.,pics,sounds, music, etc.? As of right now, I cannot back up all of this HD, and losing the HD is Not an option. I would rather err on the side of caution....
Would I be better off getting a SCSI drive for more storage space? I have never personally had a SCSI drive fail on me....(Granted, my first HD ever, a SupraDrive 40MB, got lost during a move...)
 Thanks for the input.

[Piru]

@marcfrick2112

Easy way to handle it:

- First download the ISO and burn it with Nero (works fine, just select 'Copy' and 'Burn from image' or so, my nero is in finnish so I can't know what the english one had...)

- Power off the system and unplug the current HDD. Remove both IDE cable and power (there is no need to detach the actual HDD from the case). Connect the IDE cable and power to the Maxtor drive to be tested (have it on the table or on top of a book or so, so it doesn't make contact and short. Well this is paranoia, but the bottom of the drive has some electronics exposed, so better not have anything metallic touch there when powered...). This way there is no way you can accidently feck up the original drive.

- Power on and go to the BIOS. Select CD-ROM as bootable device. Save changes and exit.

- Boot the system from the CD. Test the HDD.

- Once done, power off and remove the Maxtor HDD, replug the IDE cable and power to the original HDD.

- Power on and go to the BIOS. Select the HDD as bootable device. Save changes and exit.

[motorollin]

marcfrick2112 wrote:
OK, Be completely frank, here. From what I have said about this HD, would you use it for all your Amiga data? All progs.,pics,sounds, music, etc.?

Absolutely not. Especially if you can't back it up. It might appear to be working fine, and then one day it won't spin up, and you've lost the lot.

marcfrick2112 wrote:Would I be better off getting a SCSI drive for more storage space? I have never personally had a SCSI drive fail on me....

SCSI drives are said more durable and better made than IDE disks. I would recommend replacing the disk. IDE drives are cheap these days, but if you can afford a SCSI disk and have a controller then  that would be a better option.

--
moto

[marcfrick2112]

Thanks Piru!
I will try it...
Sorry if I sound like a newbie, I am not really, just having a terrible bad luck streak with PC's lately...

Piru wrote:
@marcfrick2112

Easy way to handle it:

- First download the ISO and burn it with Nero (works fine, just select 'Copy' and 'Burn from image' or so, my nero is in finnish so I can't know what the english one had...)

That's OK, I couldn't tell you what the finnish version had  :-D

[_yak_]

Uhm, I have Nero 6, had Nero 5 and AFAIK you don't do it with Copy function. In Nero 5 there was an option in File menu. It should be "Burn image file" or something (don't know exactly, I have a Polish version here). In Nero 6 this option was moved to "Burner" menu (or something simmilar, the menu after the "View" menu). Then you choose the ISO file, set some basic parameters like burning speed and hit "Burn".

[marcfrick2112]

@moto:
 
Thanks for your input.
I really don't have a lot of money (my Amiga's see to that!) but if I go the IDE route, how can I be sure that I will get a reliable drive? This Maxtor drive was supposedly 'brand new' from a well-known local PC chain here in Milwaukee....Do you have any recommendations as to HD brands?
Grr, I may just have to go SCSI.... Have you ever bought SCSI drives off of EBay? I hate that idea, but SCSI drives from 'normal' sources are hideously expensive..

[motorollin]

I have always found Western Digital very reliable. I would avoid Fujitsu and IBM as they have caused me problems in the past, but no doubt others will disagree :-)

SCSI drives aren't that expensive. Try contacting AmigaKit. They sold me one for about £25 (I think it was about that - if it was more, then it wasn't much more.

--
moto

[marcfrick2112]

Thanks moto, will try Western Digital...and AmigaKit...
Regarding SCSI drive prices, how big a drive did you get for your 25 pounds? (Sorry, I have no idea how to get special characters on an IBM-Compatable PC....do it on my Amiga all the time)
   I will check AmigaKit regarding shipping. I checked earlier tonight, they showed no SCSI drives for sale. AmigaKit US, mind you. If I have to order from the UK, I would be better off taking my chances on EBay, as international shipping can be murder  :evil:
Anyway, thanks, need to go to bed now....

[motorollin]

The drive I bought was 20GB, which is vast in Amiga terms IMO. I don't recall ever seeing them on their web site, but Matthew from Amigakit new I was after one so he let me know when he had some. If you contact him directly he can let you know if he still has any, and if not he can probably get you one.

--
moto