What causes harddrive failure?

Hi guys,

In the 18 months I've had my Macbook, my harddrive has crashed three times! The first happened two months after I got it, then two other times after that about six months apart.

Luckily, when it crashed the third time a few weeks ago, the Apple store just gave me a brand new one (thank god for Apple Care).

I'm hoping that there was just something wrong with that machine and that it won't happen again on this new one. Does anybody know what else could possibly kill a harddrive three times? I rarely ever take it off my laptop stand, so I highly doubt it could be physical damage. Could I be doing something else wrong? Could the extra RAM I put in be a problem? It's not crap RAM or anything. Could my speakers or something else be shocking it? It's not like I mistreat the thing.

Thanks for any advice!

HDDs have a relatively short lives in notebooks because of two leading causes: 1) overheating, 2) shock and vibration. You can minimize the second cause by not shaking or bouncing your notebook while the disk is spinning (i.e., when the notebook is turned on). Also, make sure you have adequate cooling. Are the fans running? What do the HDD temperature sensors say?

As Juan says overtaxed 2.5" drives from overheating and shock is a negative for all laptops and minis. Surely you have had warranty claims against the HDD manufacturers?

Thanks! It doesn't sound like the fans are running and my hdd temp is hovering around 62˚C. Does that sound high?

rexmundi said:

Thanks! It doesn't sound like the fans are running and my hdd temp is hovering around 62˚C. Does that sound high?

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Ideally you should check the spec sheet for your actual model of drive, but yes, that does seem very much on the high side. Take a look at the relevant section on this chart for a couple Seagate drives:
http://www.bigbruin.com/reviews05/seagate200gb/index.php?file=1

Check out this article that talks about the failure risk for drives running too hot:
http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/technolo/drivetemp/drivetemp.htm
"For example, a hard disk drive running for an extended period of time at five degrees above the recommended temperature can experience an increase in failure rate of 10 to 15 percent."

That temperature sounds very high, mine is only at 38˚C. I do not think I have ever seen it go above 50˚C. If you do not hear your fans download smcfancontrol, it will tell you the rpm that your fan is running at and it allows you to control the fan speed.

Just curious, you did not make a note of the Manufacturer of the drives that died did you? There have been a lot of issues with certain 2.5" Seagate laptop drives.

hard drives can die a number of ways. Granted, Ive had at least 30 HDs in the past years (maybe more like 50). Anyways, knock on wood, i have yet to have ONE die on me.

do you move the laptop around a whole lot while on? maybe sudden sharp movements.

There are things that "just die" eventually. not much you can do besides back your data up at your discretion.

I dont buy seagate 2.5"s though, only WD and Hitachi.
3.5's, ill take a seagate any day.