Defective Hard Drives

[1landshark]

About 2 months ago my HDD (Hitachi 80GB SATA HDD) went bad. Hitachi sent me a brand new one and it just went bad in exactly the same way. I ran HD Tach test and the test looks just like the last bad HDD so I am now running on my backup HDD. That's 2 HDD's in 2 months. I have no spyware, no viruses, only run ZoneAlarm and Webroot in startup. Don't go to any sites that might cause harm that I am aware of. Can someone give me some feedback on what might be causing my HDD's to go bad so quickly. I only use computer for work related and internet. I clean it regularly and it works great if the HDD is ok.
Thanks for any assistance.


Components:
AMD Dual Core X2 4400
Evga Nvidia 6800GT
2 - Hitachi 80 GB 8MB 7200 SATA HD
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe MB
2 GB Patriot PC3200 memory
Thermaltake A1838 CPU Heatsink Fan
Enermax EG565P

 

[1landshark]

I just converted my backup Hitachi to the C drive and decided to run the HD Tach test on the drive again. Now that the old C drive that was bad is no longer the C drive, the HD Tach test runs ok. It no longer shows that it is defective. But now my backup drive, which is now C drive, which before being C drive, ran just fine is howing a lot of low spikes as the C drive. It doesn't show that it is defective - just several low spikes. Wondering if something else could be affecting the drives.

 

[Bill Brasky]

How are your smart temps? I doubt that is the issue, though, because they would have to be excessively hot. Proly just bad luck.

Forgot to mention I just got one of those drives in June. I hope your problem isn't contagious.

 

[corkyg]

I have used the same drive for over a year. Not problems noted.I could be the drive's environment as stated above. Have you run Hitachi/IBM's Drive Fitness Test (DFT)? (I assume HD Tach test is 3rd party.)

DFT

 

[AMCRambler]

It could be a BIOS/firmware issue. We had a certain model type IBM pc where I work that were torching the drives in them in under 6 months from being purchased. Turns out the way the system was accessing the hard disk was causing the problem. There was a firmware update I believe either to the hard disk controller, or for the BIOS, I forget which, that alleviated the problem. Check Hitachi's site for firmware updates regarding drive crashing and also check your motherboard's BIOS updates.

 

[Bill Brasky]

Speedfan is another good tool that will show you smart temps. and can do the online indepth analysis. I don't think the numbers by themsleves mean much since there's usually something wrong with my drives. The tool is better for tracking the same drive's fitness over a period of time.

 

[1landshark]

I have Speedfan and although I may not know how to use all the functions, my temps seem ok. I will give a Bios update a try - am currently using Bios 1013 from ASUS. I ama currently running the the HDD in IDE mode with MSFT drivers and no Nvidea drivers for controllers. Would appreciate any other suggestions as just can't figure out what is killing these drives.
Thanks