[GTALUG] Looking for SSD HD

[Kevin Cozens]

Greetings, everyone.

I have a laptop that I don't use that often which runs Windows 10. It has 
killed 3 regular hard drives since I've had it. I don't know if it is 
getting bumped and causing a head crash, or if it is a power related thing. 
Windows will seem to lock up on me so I force a power off by holding down 
the power button. After that I have trouble with the HD when I try to turn 
the machine on again.

I don't think the laptop has been getting any more shock or vibration than 
my old laptop which had a mother board failure. These newer higher capacity 
drives may be more sensitive or it may be related to forcing power off when 
the machine locked up.

I'm thinking of switching to an SSD instead of a regular HD. I don't want to 
spend a ton of money as I don't use the laptop much. It would be to run 
Windows natively on occasion instead of via emulation. (I run Win XP via 
virtualbox on my main computer to use a Windows only 3D modelling program).

I would like an SSD with a capacity of around 250GB (or more) and not spend 
too much more than $100. I don't really want to get in to spending $200+. I 
might be able to get away with a 120GB HD as I don't expect to put a lot of 
programs on the machine.

I'm still concerned about how SSDs can wear out with use. My knowledge of 
SSDs may be a bit out of date. When using Linux I remember people saying you 
have to turn off atime and mtime (IIRC) to minimize wearing out the SSD too 
quickly. I don't know what equivalent tweaks may be needed when running Windows.

Any suggestions for drives I should consider? Any ones I should avoid?

-- 
Cheers!

Kevin.

http://www.ve3syb.ca/           |"Nerds make the shiny things that distract
Owner of Elecraft K2 #2172      | the mouth-breathers, and that's why we're
                                 | powerful!"
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