Toshiba 2.5" Drive Motors - Prone to fail?

[IdontexistM8]

I might be wrong but it sounds like my current Toshiba 2.5" drive in my laptop is on the way out. It's a MK6026GAX and it's only been in 10mths.

What appears to be happening is the start of another motor failure. How do I know this? Well exactly the same thing happened with the previous Tosh drive (40gb GAX model - can't remember the exact code) I had in the machine (from purchase) which lasted just over 2 years before giving out.

The tell tale sign seems to be an increase in general noise. Usually I have my laptop slightly raised at something around a 10-15 degree angle for comfort purposes. As a result the motor whine is noticeable when the laptop is idle. Pick the laptop on while on and you'll hear the noise clearly and it sort of alters as you move it about.

The time before it got to the stage where it sounded like it was scraping inside prior to dying...Now we're not there yet but I've got this feeling it's headed that way...so some serious backing up is in order.

Anyway this leads me on to the question of whether these Toshiba drives are prone to early fails because of their motors? Now I use my laptop pretty heavily, not 24 hrs a day but a good 10+ most days. Even so I certainly wouldn't expect a fail in under a year. I had a look at the S.M.A.R.T. data and it quoted a power on time of 210 days. The laptop runs pretty hot most of the time but within it's regular management settings so although it's probably close to that 55 degree guideline I don't think heat is a cause.

Unsurprisingly I'm not overly happy and I'll be checking out the suppport/RMA situation with the retailer (Span - so at least they know what they're doing)..So has anyone else had similar experiences with Tosh drives, whether in laptops or desktops? And what should I look at if, as expected, I'll need a replacement?

Cheers.

[bredbored]

Usually I have my laptop slightly raised at something around a 10-15 degree angle for comfort purposes
...
Pick the laptop on while on and you'll hear the noise clearly and it sort of alters as you move it about.

That makes me wonder whether your laptop's case isn't sufficiently stiff, and that there is mechanical twisting of the drive contributing to your reliability issues.
It will be interesting to see what others contribute.

[IdontexistM8]

Well the drive is housed in a metal frame/caddy and then connected in the internal bay, plus the frame is held down with a single screw into the bay casing. I would have thought that would be enough, as it's not terribly unusual for laptops to be operating at a slight angle.

[IdontexistM8]

Well it's going back to WorldSpan for testing, but considering the model's been superceded and will probably take time to be sourced/replaced I'm not hanging about.

So it's down to either a Samsung 60, 80gb or something from the 5K100 range. Tricky decision, I'd be interested how big a performance difference there is between them.

I'll be ordering in the next 24hrs, so if anyone's got views, please post.

Ta..