3 dif SMART errors and system hangs on HDD. [PIC - 230 Million Unstable Sectors!]

[TurtleCrusher]

So, am I screwed? I have a dell mini 12 that I use for taking notes and general productivity while I'm in classes. The mini 12 takes 1.8" PATA ZIF drives, exactly similar to the first-gen macbook air. The HDD was slow as dirt to begin with, mind you! (HD tune gave it 23MB/sec read!)

This 32GB 1.8" ZIF SSD looks like it'll do, any opinions?

Kingspec 1.8" 32GB ZIF LIF SSD $49.57

 

[Skiprudder]

Are you still running Vista on it? This should work, but you'll want to do some research on SSDs on Vista, their aren't automatic SSD optimizations like there are on Windows 7 or 8, and I believe commands like TRIM won't work.

You might actually be better off with a regular HDD like:
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-PATA-6...d_sim_sbs_pc_3
or
http://www.amazon.com/SAMSUNG-HS12YH...d_sim_sbs_pc_2

 

[Elixer]

Yeah, your HD is on the wait out. Hope you have backups!

As for the replacement, PATA ? Ouch.
Good luck, finding something that works well with that these days.
I would stick with a HD though.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

Are you still running Vista on it? This should work, but you'll want to do some research on SSDs on Vista, their aren't automatic SSD optimizations like there are on Windows 7 or 8, and I believe commands like TRIM won't work.

You might actually be better off with a regular HDD like:
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-PATA-6...d_sim_sbs_pc_3
or
http://www.amazon.com/SAMSUNG-HS12YH...d_sim_sbs_pc_2

I have been running 7 on the mini 12, so SSD support should be there. I love my Vertex 2 on my desktop!

Both of the hard drives linked are somehow slower than the one that was in the netbook originally, as the samsung was a 60gb 4200rpm 8MB cache model. It was painfully slow, and almost unusable at the beginning.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

I went with the SSD. The PC keeps locking up on me after a bit, but only when running the os off of the hard drive. Dual booting into Ubuntu on the HDD causes stalling after minimal use, as does windows 7. Running Ubuntu off a USB drive is fine however.

Update: Unstable sectors keeps rising every second, and when I shut the netbook off after this one it literally screeched for 3 whole seconds until it stopped.

Glad I backed everything up!

 

[AnitaPeterson]

So, OP, did you replace your failing HDD yet? Please keep us posted.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

So, OP, did you replace your failing HDD yet? Please keep us posted.

SSD is in the mail!