Quote: Originally Posted by
astrapc 
I seem to be screwing up and having to rebuild my system with a new hard drive every 3-4 months.
Sound becomes crackly, songs keep sticking like a scratched record. and the system doesnt always shut down.
Can anyone suggest how the best way to fix the hdd is. currently mine sits ontop of the boot carpet to keep cooler....and hopefully absorb some of the shock, but it just isnt working long term
if you're buying a new one every 3-4 months then you should consider investing in an SSD instead of a HDD. I use the term investing because although SSDs are expensive, it will not fail do to vibration, and will pay itself off vs. replacing a HDD every few months.
if you require more storage space than an affordable SSD can provide, then get a small SSD big enough for the OS and some programs (4GB-8GB) and use a HDD to store all your media files (it will still fail, but you won't have to reinstall the OS and programs again, just restore your media files).
you could also use a CF card for your media files (you can get them up to 32MB). CF cards are not robust enough to run a regular OS on it because they cannot handle as many writes/erases as an SSD but they are perfect for storing MP3's, videos, etc where it's primarily being read from, not written to. you can get IDE > CF adapters that will make the CF into a permanent drive.
good luck
