How Important is a power supply?

Gollum

Gollum

Collector
Recently my Seagate 500Gb/32MB cache HDD died taking away most of my important data. Though I got a completely new HDD after free replacement within a week but all my data was gone. According to Seagate my HDD fell in the 0.33% of the failure rate of 500GB hard disks.
This was my secondary hard disk and did not contain my OS so the computer still boots.
This HDD was not even a year old and it died so fast. It didn't show any signs of overheating or SMART problems in everest or POST either.

Could this have been due to the power supply?

I also have another Seagate 160GB hard disk but its running fine.

System Spec:
Asus M2N VM DVI
XFX 9500GT
Zion 1GB @ 800MHz x2
SOny DVD Writer
LG combo Drive
SOme local powerr supply :-?

Apart form this my computer never gave any hickups, I keep it clean from the inside and have a good cabinet cooling system with an external power supply to power the cooling fans.
 
P

pimpom

Cyborg Agent
The short answer to your main question is that it's impossible to say. If we concentrate on the word "could", then the answer is Yes, it could be. That's not the same as saying "Yes, it must be the power supply".

A poor power supply - not just the SMPS but also the power line, UPS, etc - can certainly cause a hard disk to fail.

Hard disks have a device to protect it against voltage spikes in the power supply line. If the spike is momentary, the device absorbs the excess voltage. If the spike is longer, then the protection device shorts out permanently, making the HDD unusable, but the rest of the drive is often still OK and just needs replacing the protective device. If this type of fault occurs, it will usually prevent the computer from turning on until the HDD is disconnected.

This is just one type of HDD failure. A hard disk is a complex device and other parts can also fail. So it's impossible to say without an on-the-spot investigation, sorry.
 
mavihs

mavihs

Techie By Heart
which SMPS you have & wats the wattage?
which cabby you have?(just curios)
which version of Seagate HDD you had - 7200.10 or 7200.11 or 7200.12?
 
ajai5777

ajai5777

Youngling
Actually its the same question I asked here some time ago.I ended up buying a good PSU.However I havnt had any probs using local SMPS for 4.5 years.In my old rig I had a 400W frontech (local SMPS) and it worked fine with a 9500GT .In my current rig I used a 450W zebronics (another local SMPS) still had no problems.But for safety I bought a Pro 500W.
 
Cool Buddy

Cool Buddy

Wise Old Owl
PSUs are quite important as I realised after I heard of quite a few blown gfx cards/mobos etc. But the thing is, the price difference between good brands and local PSUs is so huge that it always hurts to buy a good PSU and we end up buying a local one. For instance, a local 450w PSU will cost around Rs. 400 while FSP saga II 400W costs Rs. 2000 and corsair VX450 costs Rs. ~3600. I have never seen such difference in any other component. for instance, a local mouse will cost 150 whereas a logitech PS/2 wil cost 300, just a difference of 100%. speakers will cost local 2.1 for 400, cheap creative or AL 900-1000. around 125% difference. But in PSUs it is more than 400-500% difference. But still, that's the only choice we have.
Yet, it always pays in the long run to have a good PSU coz one blown part and you end up spending much more than you saved on the PSU.
 
coderunknown

coderunknown

Retired Forum Mod
ajai5777 said:
Actually its the same question I asked here some time ago.I ended up buying a good PSU.However I havnt had any probs using local SMPS for 4.5 years.In my old rig I had a 400W frontech (local SMPS) and it worked fine with a 9500GT .In my current rig I used a 450W zebronics (another local SMPS) still had no problems.But for safety I bought a Pro 500W.
Click to expand...

maybe cause when you brought your local PSU (4.5yrs ago) you got a good quality PSU (lack of international PSUs here) locally. but with the easy availability of good PSU at 1.5-2k, local PSU's price came low. & to do it, is the quality.

OEM PSU manufacturers like Seasonic, FSP & a few more spend millions in R&D to get the best combo at cheapest possible price. local PSU, just hook up 2-3 pieces of aluminium foil & wrap some copper wires to make up the transformer. and a few CHEAPEST caps. & a microscopic circuit board. also the fan is 40mm in most. HECK!!! what will it cool? so efficiancy is dead low. also warranty is 6month, cause by the time its about to finish 1yr, BOOM. no PUFF (desi PSU not have enough power to even go BOOM BOOM :grin: ).

also the amount one saves by going for desi PSU over good efficiant ones, loose more money in less than 1yr. burnt PC parts, high electricity bill, blown up PSU (itself).
 
Piyush

Piyush

Lanaya
answer to your thread name:-
the power supply to the pc is just like the air,water and food to humans

---------- Post added at 09:42 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:40 AM ----------
mavihs said:
which SMPS you have & wats the wattage?
which cabby you have?(just curios)
which version of Seagate HDD you had - 7200.10 or 7200.11 or 7200.12?
Click to expand...

i never asked anyone this question
whats the difference between 7200.10 or 7200.11 or 7200.12?
 
OP
Gollum

Gollum

Collector
Sorry for replying so late. (thought this is a no reply forum) i think it was the .12 model of hdd. Cause .12 normally means 32mb buffer.
I got a brand new replacement hdd but rashi(supplier) gave me one with 16mb buffer X(
Haven't used my comp for nearly two months now. Thinking of buying an el cheapo used laptop for watching movies.
 
OP
Gollum

Gollum

Collector
When i checked the seagate website they had only 3 models and the one with .11 had 16mb buffer. So i thought that might be the case.

When i checked the seagate website they had only 3 models and the one with .11 had 16mb buffer. So i thought that might be the case.
 
Last edited:
Ronnie11

Ronnie11

Judgement Time!!
Wasn't there a firmware issue some time back with the 500gb HDD of seagate..Because many had complained of High failure among 50gb HDD of seagate including mine...i lost all my data as well,they replaced it but the service guy told me it has an updated firmware or something...
 
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