Help with my HDD!!

I've been using my Dell Inspiron 600m for four years now and for being that old, it runs fairly well. However, lately it's been acting strange. Every now and then when I wake it up from sleep mode, the backlight of the screen comes on and power goes to the laptop, but the hard drive doesn't spin and the screen stays blank. This has also happened while I was in the middle of doing something too. I'm just assuming that my HD is going and that pretty soon it will just stop working. If anyone knows another reason why it can be doing this, please let me know. Also, if any of you recommend a certain brand of HD just incase this one decides to fail, that'd be great. Keep in mind I'm a 16 year old with a part time job that needs to pay for gas and car insurance, so I can't be spending too much money on other stuff. Thanks!!

Tags: dell, hard drive, hdd, inspiron 600m, laptop, mac os x, windows 7, windows vista, windows xp

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Permalink Reply by Ken on July 8, 2009 at 8:17pm: Ok well than these should be good. They currently have a sale on a Western Digital hard drive but you have a ton to choose from. Also replacing hard drives are so easy even a caveman could do it, and personally I dont like those computer repair shops but its totally up to you. Also you may want to look into these; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Michael O'Rourke on July 8, 2009 at 8:33pm: I actually have a Belkin cooler, I just never use it. It blocks the fan on the bottom so it doesn't make it cooler, it just makes it hotter! I just prop the laptop up on erasers to get better airflow, lol!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by reaper on July 8, 2009 at 8:40pm: yea those coolers are a waste of plastic lol

Permalink Reply by Michael O'Rourke on July 9, 2009 at 8:59am: This doesn't seem too bad. Would this work in my computer? http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9093054&st=laptop...; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by reaper on July 9, 2009 at 4:21pm: yea that should work just fine; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Cookenstein on July 8, 2009 at 9:57pm: Your Dell is likely out of warrantee, my first and best if any suggestion is BACK UP your data!! If you think your harddrive may be going, don't wait till it does. You are likely right. harddrives have no set in stone life cycle, that seems to be consistent. you got 4 good years out of it,, so prepare yourself to upgrade it. the inspiron 600s are easy to swap harddrives, you can likely get one twice the size for very little money. Best of luck. Rc; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Michael O'Rourke on July 9, 2009 at 8:36am: Thanks for your input! I was planning on upgrading my laptop sometime in the future. I just didn't expect it to come so soon!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Sean Moriarity on July 9, 2009 at 4:56am: it's defintely time to put some maintenance into the laptop. First check your battery and make sure it still has some power to the cells. I learned a hard lesson with my laptop the battery was shot, but I had it plugged into the AC outlet until I suffered a power hit and just about destroyed the data on the HD. The next phase will be to replace the HD and Western Digital is not the best in my opinion, but it's the cheapest out there and being 16 and a tight income I think this is you best path. If you happen to get some extra cash the Iomega and Seagate is rated the best on consumer reports. it all depends on how you prioritize your data. Good Luck.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Michael O'Rourke on July 9, 2009 at 8:34am: I was planning on getting a new battery for my laptop eventually. It's OK for now though. I only get 40 minutes out of the battery but I just use it around the house so I keep it plugged in. I'll probably end up getting a new HDD and maybe some more ram (I've been wanting to play The Sims 3 but can't because I only have 768MB Ram!); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by BigRed on July 10, 2009 at 8:58am: Definitely feel like its a drive failure. I've seen them die fast, slow, and absurdly slow when dropping the physical drive against a hard surface would have it working for another few weeks (NOT SUGGESTED!!!)
Just Parroting what everyone else said, Backup, replace.
They're fun to take apart afterward though and see how tiny all those parts are crammed into that little casing!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Haydn on July 11, 2009 at 9:05pm: Hey Michael, I've got a Dell 6000 from around the same time. They used a Hitachi drive in mine which is a fine drive, but they do eventually fail. I had to replace mine a couple of years back with, yes another Hitachi Drive. They really are great for performance & price!

Laptop drives aren't at such a premium as they used to be, so get ready to replace yours & rememnber to back-up regularly!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Michael O'Rourke on July 12, 2009 at 9:34am: Thank you! My dad has an Inspiron 6000 also! His absolutely sucks though. It's slow, freezes, and the hinge is broken so he can't shut it without the frame popping off.; ▶ Reply to This