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Looking to buy a laptop HDD - suggestions?


Zombie

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Ran the MiniTool Partition Wizard, and it looks like it worked. Though, when I tried to format it in Windows no dice - it just hung (must've let it sit for 3+ hours to make sure I wasn't impatient). Can't change file format to NTFS either, or at least I'm out of options figuring out a way to do it. Just for giggles, I looked at the SSD in the Disk Management tool for Win 7, and it still shows those extra partitions. (Top part is the Win 7 Disk Management tool, and bottom is the MiniTool Partition Wizard):

 

SSD.jpg

 

So either the Disk Management tool is reporting the stats wrong (this seems rather unlikely as nothing changed even after I ran the MiniTool), or the MiniTool is reporting it wrong, or the drive is bugged. Is there a way to tell is a SSD is messed up? If worse comes to worse, I can always return it and get a different one.

 

- Zombie

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Well, at this point I'm out of any advice. Can you format that partition at all in the mini tool ?

 

Last thing I would do is, insert Windows DVD, boot up from DVD try to proceed as normal installation and choose disk management from there. Remove all partitions from SSD. But you need to have that disk, which I presume you do not have.

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Well, at this point I'm out of any advice. Can you format that partition at all in the mini tool ?

 

Nope, the option is grayed out. And windows can't complete it either.

 

While looking at the MiniTool, I found out that the partition is 0xEE EFI GPT (can't change it to NTFS). Did a cursory search and it looks like it was used in a Linux system possibly. Have no idea if there is a fix for this.

 

Last thing I would do is, insert Windows DVD, boot up from DVD try to proceed as normal installation and choose disk management from there. Remove all partitions from SSD. But you need to have that disk, which I presume you do not have.

 

I do not have any Windows disks (well, I do have the XP disks from my previous system yet, just in case I want to create a rig specific for testing X-COM UFO, ahem, biggrin.png ). But yeah, no Vista or Win 7 disks. My dad might have the disk though, will have to check. Even if he does, I doubt it'll work. :(

 

- Zombie

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Meh, I think I'll throw in the towel on this one. Been dealing with one headache and nightmare after another for the last two weeks straight. At this point, I need to get this sorted STAT as I'm not sure how long my current HDD will last. Sent the seller a message on eBay asking for help or if I can return it (still within the 30 days he gives), so we'll see. geek.gif

 

If worse comes to worse, I'll just run over to Best Buy, purchase a new SSD there, and let the Geek Squad deal with it. sorcerer.gif

 

- Zombie

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It might be easier to buy a new machine entirely and try to salvage what you can off the old hard drive with a USB 2.0 to IDE/Sata cable. That's what I'm planning to do to access the hard drive I saved off my old 80486 (don't laugh). I doubt there's anything fantastic on it, but it seems to me to be the most cost effective solution for my situation at the moment.

 

- NKF

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According to the seller, he did a check disk and looked at the drive with the Win 10 disk management tool before putting it up for sale and all was fine. Apparently, certain newer formats aren't recognizable by earlier Win versions.

 

I'm not ready to give up this laptop yet, it's got a lot of good life left in it, has decent processing power, good graphics, 8gb of ram, backlit keyboard & screen etc. The only thing that's basically wrong with it is the HDD. I did look at getting a newer system a couple months ago, but to get something close to mine I'd need to plop down at least $400-500 to get a used machine. Not worth it (at least not yet). ;)

 

- Zombie

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  • 4 weeks later...

Well, I transferred everything over to the SSD last night (finally!). I used the Apricorn migration software because the MiniTool Partition Wizard program always complained something was wrong and would force me into a migration upon startup (which would leave me to twiddle my thumbs for a couple hours while it finished)... at least with Apricorn I could use my computer while it was running to pass the time. Anyhow, there was a slight issue after it was complete because now there was 3 partitions instead of 2. Here again, MiniTool Partition Wizard wasn't any help as merging partitions is a premium feature. Luckily Win 7 Disk Management came to the rescue! :P

 

Today I took out my failing drive and stuffed in the SSD to see if everything worked (pro tip: leave the cover off the computer until you are sure you are good). Yup! I was pretty impressed with the load times of windows and a few other programs. Tomorrow if I have time I'll probably upgrade to Win 10 and then I should hopefully be set for a while. Thanks for the help everyone! :)

 

- Zombie

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Ran into a slight (actually, huge) issue the other day when I tried to upgrade to Windows 10. Apparently, the Win 10 upgrade program only looks in the first partition for your local copy of Win 7 or 8, if your copy resides elsewhere, it will not recognize it. (At least, I think this is what was meant). Thought I could maybe fix it by merging the two partitions on my SSD, but the MiniTool Wizard doesn't allow merging (ah, crippleware). So it looks like I can't upgrade to Win 10 anyway. And I'm not about to go searching for possible solutions as this is Microsoft's problem, not mine. rolleyes.gif

 

For reference, the error code the upgrade program gives is: 80070002.

 

- Zombie

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This is why I'm avoiding the upgrade and getting ready for a fresh install instead. If you still would like to try to get win10 installed the you could just use their media cretion tool to create an installation DVD for it. As long as you have the key at hand or you can recover it from the registry you'll be set.
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I don't have the key as I purchased this laptop used and the owner upgraded it from Vista to Win 7 pro. No Windows disks were included. Which is part of the reason why I'd like to upgrade to Win 10 as then I'll have a "stable" OS. How do I find the key in the registry?

 

- Zombie

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I don't have the key as I purchased this laptop used and the owner upgraded it from Vista to Win 7 pro. No Windows disks were included. Which is part of the reason why I'd like to upgrade to Win 10 as then I'll have a "stable" OS. How do I find the key in the registry?

 

- Zombie

 

If you go to Control Panel and click on System it should be listed at the bottom of that screen.

 

-NoX

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Searching around I did find a script somone made that will display the Windows Key on screen for you to note it down, and as for the installation discs, you can easely create one for future use with MS tool found here https://www.microsof...load/windows10.

 

As for the vbs script, I can't find the actual page but I can just paste the code here:

Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
MsgBox ConvertToKey(WshShell.RegRead("HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\DigitalProductId"))
Function ConvertToKey(Key)
Const KeyOffset = 52
i = 28
Chars = "BCDFGHJKMPQRTVWXY2346789"
Do
Cur = 0
x = 14
Do
Cur = Cur * 256
Cur = Key(x + KeyOffset) + Cur
Key(x + KeyOffset) = (Cur \ 24) And 255
Cur = Cur Mod 24
x = x -1
Loop While x >= 0
i = i -1
KeyOutput = Mid(Chars, Cur + 1, 1) & KeyOutput
If (((29 - i) Mod 6) = 0) And (i <> -1) Then
i = i -1
KeyOutput = "-" & KeyOutput
End If
Loop While i >= 0
ConvertToKey = KeyOutput
End Function

 

The reason for the code is because the key is not stored as plain text but in a binary value and jumbled(?)

Oh, forgot to mention that when saving the script file, remember to change the extension to .vbs

And I also should mention that I've only tried this with Windows 7, but it should most likely work with both 8 and 10 (wishful thinking?)

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  • 5 months later...
It has a flaw of 2 Year warranty. But it depends how much budget do you have. I personally use WD Blacks. They are pretty expensive, but that is what you pay for quality and I'm pretty satisfied with WD Blacks. So you have to ask yourself, do you want cheaper good performance disk, or expensive, longer warranty and probably better quality. RPMs / cache is not the only thing that matters, because there is few more things like Read / Write speeds and few other stuff. You might want to compare disks in case of their performance.
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  • 2 years later...

I just broke down and purchased a 2TB SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD. A couple years ago I "upgraded" to a 256GB SanDisk SSD and I'm plum out of room on it now. I'm planning on wiping it clean and using that on my X-COM testing rig. Anyway I've been happy with the performance of SanDisk. So much faster than mechanical HDDs. I really should have plopped down the cash for a bigger drive a couple years ago, but I

  1. Wanted to trial a SSD and didn't want to go feet first without trying it.
  2. Needed a backup, so I also purchased a 1TB Seagate mechanical HDD.
  3. Wanted to wait as the price of the larger sized SSDs were quite expensive, now they have reduced in price quite a bit.

 

- Zombie

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Yep, SanDisk is a pretty solid pick, even more so now that they have teamed up with Western Digital.

 

And, as you probably know, Zombie, the larger the drive tendentially the greater lifespan of it, particularly on more modern drives with auto-wear leveling.

 

A 2TB one is quite decent, although some AAA games these days can get to 100Gb and over... :P

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i'm looking for a new 2TB HDD,

can anyone help me to find the best one?

 

UH...external or internal?....might of helped....to uh answer you better...

 

you can get a external 2TB seagate for like 60ish bucks on Amazon. I bought it w/prime for my PS4.

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CRG94G3/ref=sspa_dk_detail_0?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B07CRG94G3&pd_rd_w=kOs2E&pf_rd_p=8a8f3917-7900-4ce8-ad90-adf0d53c0985&pd_rd_wg=l24Dn&pf_rd_r=6GMQ2XSFP38DXQWXZKZE&pd_rd_r=88b49db5-9ba8-11e9-bb63-9f01c3232729

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UH...external or internal?....might of helped....to uh answer you better...

 

you can get a external 2TB seagate for like 60ish bucks on Amazon. I bought it w/prime for my PS4.

 

https://www.amazon.c...63-9f01c3232729

 

NoX, you DID see it was a January 2017 post?

 

Better late than never I guess. pie.gif

 

Edit; Come more often, great to see you!

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  • 4 months later...

Thanks to the recent Black Friday sales, I can now count myself a member of the 2-tub club. I managed to get a 2TB Crucial MX500 SATA SSD.

 

*Insert angels-descending-with-trumpets-blaring*

 

I am thinking of potentially getting a Raspberry Pi and setting up a rudimentary NAS with my growing collection of old HDDs. Seems like it might be a fun project.

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