Discussion
Do any of you clever computer people know how long a hard drive on a sony vaio should last with normal use.I had mine die(totally) and its only 10 month old.I would have thought it would have lasted longer than that.I'm afraid what i know about computers i could write on a postage stamp so any advice at all would be great.Cheers.
It would depend partially upon the amount of travelling you do with the laptop. I had a total drive failure whereby the seals that hold the damping oil in the drive went and hosed the whole drive with gunk.
I suspect that if they get shaken around repeatedly then they will not last as long as you would expect a desktop PC drive to live for.
Still, 10 months sounds pretty poor. Is the laptop still under warranty? Of course, this doesn't help you get your data back if the drive failure is terminal but if this is the case there are some companies out there who specialise in recovering data from fritzed drives.
I suspect that if they get shaken around repeatedly then they will not last as long as you would expect a desktop PC drive to live for.
Still, 10 months sounds pretty poor. Is the laptop still under warranty? Of course, this doesn't help you get your data back if the drive failure is terminal but if this is the case there are some companies out there who specialise in recovering data from fritzed drives.
i guess the lap top has been travelled a fair bit but still is that not the point of a mobile puter.It is still under warrenty but its all the info on it i was bothered about.I've sent the hard drive to a specialist to see if they can get something back from it but i dont hold out much hope.(guess i should back up more often....doh)Sony tells me the warrenty is only valid in the uk too,which is a pain as i'm round the other side of the world at the moment in the middle of nowhere.I'd have thought it was a global warrenty.
10 months is appalling - and therefore it should still be under the warranty.
My old Toshiba (now used by my sister as a word processor) is 7 years old, still going... and travels EVERYDAY of its life... and is not exactly cared for.
All of the Dell's I've had have been fine.. current laptop is 3 years old, and does the travelling... battery is on it's way out, but rest of it is fine.
I'd moan at Sony...
My old Toshiba (now used by my sister as a word processor) is 7 years old, still going... and travels EVERYDAY of its life... and is not exactly cared for.
All of the Dell's I've had have been fine.. current laptop is 3 years old, and does the travelling... battery is on it's way out, but rest of it is fine.
I'd moan at Sony...
There are a number of factors which can cause laptops to break, and I find that most of the failures I experience are either caused by manufacturer defect or being left in the back of cars overnight. The cold weather plays havoc with the internals and I frequently see drivers having to be reinstalled on machines that have been subjected to really cold temperatures.
Jolting laptops in the back of cars shouldn't really hurt the disk too much, you're more likely to unsettle chips or damage the screen (providing it's powered off).
Most laptops have a 1 year warranty, so I'd claim against that if I were you.
Jolting laptops in the back of cars shouldn't really hurt the disk too much, you're more likely to unsettle chips or damage the screen (providing it's powered off).
Most laptops have a 1 year warranty, so I'd claim against that if I were you.
You get the same problem with other electrical equipment - if you read the manual for a VCR (yeah, like, everyone reads the manual 
) it says that you should leave it at room temperature for a couple of hours before using it.
If you take equipment from very cold to warm moisture will form within it - if any moisture is in the hard drive and you don't let it dry out before running the laptop, you could certainly get problems.
I had a hard time once explaining to the IT manager why the inside of my laptop stank of beer - I'd knocked half a pint of Stella into it the night before
) it says that you should leave it at room temperature for a couple of hours before using it. If you take equipment from very cold to warm moisture will form within it - if any moisture is in the hard drive and you don't let it dry out before running the laptop, you could certainly get problems.
I had a hard time once explaining to the IT manager why the inside of my laptop stank of beer - I'd knocked half a pint of Stella into it the night before
On the topic of stuff tipped into laptops we had a funny one last year.
One of the GM's brought a laptop into the department covered in wax, claiming that he'd been working by candlelight and had knocked the candle onto the keyboard. He didn't think we would be able to recover the thing, but the techy is pretty resourceful and got it working again, to discover a fair ammount of p0rn in the recent cache folders.
God only know what the candle was really for!!!!
One of the GM's brought a laptop into the department covered in wax, claiming that he'd been working by candlelight and had knocked the candle onto the keyboard. He didn't think we would be able to recover the thing, but the techy is pretty resourceful and got it working again, to discover a fair ammount of p0rn in the recent cache folders.
God only know what the candle was really for!!!!
nevpugh308 said:
Podie said: My old Toshiba ... is 7 years old, still going
Yea gods, what's it powered by, steam ?!?
Virtually... runs W98 and Word 2000... so acts as a word processor for my sister. Needs defragging once a month, but other than that, it soldiers on! (although we were just about to replace it with a Sony Vaio... but strangely I'm having second thoughts now!)
It probably depends how important the data is, but I think it's possible to recover from pretty much anything that hasn't been put through an industrial shredder. You may have to pay for it though. I think £1000 was the going rate for my companies internal service last time I checked.
woodster said: On the topic of stuff tipped into laptops we had a funny one last year.
One of the GM's brought a laptop into the department covered in wax, claiming that he'd been working by candlelight and had knocked the candle onto the keyboard. He didn't think we would be able to recover the thing, but the techy is pretty resourceful and got it working again, to discover a fair ammount of p0rn in the recent cache folders.
God only know what the candle was really for!!!!
hmm porn... white stuff in keyboard... sure it was wax?
Do any of you clever computer people know how long a hard drive on a sony vaio should last with normal use.I had mine die(totally) and its only 10 month old.I would have thought it would have lasted longer than that.I'm afraid what i know about computers i could write on a postage stamp so any advice at all would be great.Cheers.
apparently laptops can generate a LOT of heat and this can damage the hard drive. nice bit of designing, that
I've dealt with alot of Sony laptop's as we use them at work.
1st thing is that yes the warranty only covers the UK. If you, or the laptop, can return to the UK before the end of the warranty period they will fix it. (There might be some law that they will have to fix it as long as you notified them of the problem before the warranty ran out). Basically Sony has a worldwide policy of warranty repairs that is the same as their TV's etc. IE they will only repair the item in the country of purchase.
Sony's standard warranty is 12 months (you can extend it now I believe) so you are currently within the time limit.
2nd. Any component of a PC should really last a minimum of 3 years BUT as with anything mechanical or electrical there are failures under that time. Most disk manufacturers give either 3 or 5 year warranty on their products (so even if you are outside the Sony warranty the disk manufacturer may well have had to sort it for you). However, I have known laptops of lots of different makes fail at anything from 1 day old.
Finally, don't be so pessimistic(sp?) about the disk recovery service. The good ones are excellent and it's amazing what they can get back for you. They can even recover data from disks that have been in a fire so unless the insides have disintegrated you should be okay. I know from bitter experience after we lost a main server disk to find the backups hadn't worked on it for weeks
1st thing is that yes the warranty only covers the UK. If you, or the laptop, can return to the UK before the end of the warranty period they will fix it. (There might be some law that they will have to fix it as long as you notified them of the problem before the warranty ran out). Basically Sony has a worldwide policy of warranty repairs that is the same as their TV's etc. IE they will only repair the item in the country of purchase.
Sony's standard warranty is 12 months (you can extend it now I believe) so you are currently within the time limit.
2nd. Any component of a PC should really last a minimum of 3 years BUT as with anything mechanical or electrical there are failures under that time. Most disk manufacturers give either 3 or 5 year warranty on their products (so even if you are outside the Sony warranty the disk manufacturer may well have had to sort it for you). However, I have known laptops of lots of different makes fail at anything from 1 day old.
Finally, don't be so pessimistic(sp?) about the disk recovery service. The good ones are excellent and it's amazing what they can get back for you. They can even recover data from disks that have been in a fire so unless the insides have disintegrated you should be okay. I know from bitter experience after we lost a main server disk to find the backups hadn't worked on it for weeks
Most HD failures occur in the electronics or something mechanical. Any competent data recovery specialist ought to be able to recover the data at the last resort by dissasembling thr drive & rebuilding it using your platters in a new identical unit.
Unfortunately they tend to charge based on a "how much is your data worth to you?" basis.
[urban legend]
Ruby Wax trashed her laptop. No backups. contained all her current work/scrpts/interviews everything.
Time needed to repair the drive? 30 minutes.
Cost? £250,000
[/urban legend]
Hopefully your lot will charge on a fixed price basis...
Unfortunately they tend to charge based on a "how much is your data worth to you?" basis.
[urban legend]
Ruby Wax trashed her laptop. No backups. contained all her current work/scrpts/interviews everything.
Time needed to repair the drive? 30 minutes.
Cost? £250,000
[/urban legend]
Hopefully your lot will charge on a fixed price basis...
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