Need Participants for project survey on Hard drive failure.

[surveyer732]

Hello, I am a senior in High school doing a project about the Failure rate of Hard drives through shipping and Use. I need people to complete a survey; I need at least 50 people surveyed. If anyone has the time would you please complete the survey below? Feel free to skip any questions you do not feel comfortable answering, but I would at least ask or at least a broad range. If not its up to you I need at least 50 People to answer the survey to compleat my project.

1. What is your age? (Please give me a broad range. don’t give me the exact age,example is 20-29, 30-39 and so on. This is the Internet after all)

2. What country/ region/ state do you live in? (Again don’t give me your exact location, please just give me Country/ State if it applies, do just what you feel comfortable filling out.)

3. What do you consider your experience level with computers is? (Low, Mid, High, Expert)

4. How long have you been in the technology field or at least interested in the technology field?

5. How long did you have your last hard drive?

6. Did your last replaced hard drive die or was it just upgraded?

7. Have you every ordered a hard drive that was shipped through the mail/UPS/FedEx?

8. Have you ever received a hard drive that was dead on arrival?

9. How has the packaging quality of the hard drives you have ordered been? (Poor, OK, Good, Excellent)

10. If you have had a hard drive that was dead on arrival, do you think it was due to poor shipping or the quality of the product?

If you have any other information you think will be helpful please feel free to add that in at the bottom of your post.

Thank you all for your time.

Sorry if this is in the wrong thread location i just selected the one the fited the best.

 

[badge]

1. 18-55 eastern edge.

2. US/Western/Northern Mexico.

3. Wet Finger technician. (I almost skipped this question)



4. For 16 years M/W/F.

5. About 12 years. It's still sitting here on the desk in the package.

6. Upgraded. Picked it up from the table and moved it closer to the case.

7. No, envelopes are too small to fit it in IMO.

8. Not DOA, a WD clinging to life is all.

9. Torn.

10. HMO negligence.

Note: I was a little uncomftorable answering some of the more technically directed questions. You may have noticed. Suggestion. Do a paper on the benefits of buying an SSD and not having to worry about shipping accidents and failure of moving parts.

 

[tecmo34]

1. 30-39

2. USA / OHIO

3. Mid

4. 4 years

5. Still going strong!!

6. Upgrade to a SSD

7. Mail - No ... UPS/FedEx - Yes

8. Yes - Samsung Spinpoint F3 500GB

9. Newegg's packaging has always been good condition

10. I think it was more the quality of the product, as it arrived with no appearance of damage.

 

[badge]

Tecmo34 did well in woodshop and Home Ec. *Lunch was his strongest subject. *noted on his HS diploma. Through his hard work, He's a promising great daycare apprentice today.

 

[badge]

tecmo34 is also an expert at watching soaps. One of the best in the 30-39 age group.

 

[tecmo34]

@Badge... I'm still an expert at Lunch! It is the only time I truly work in a given day! You got me wrong on the soaps though I'm an expert at watching cartoons. I gave up on soaps after Guiding Light went off the air.

 

[badge]

I have never 'never ever' watched a soap ever in my lifetime. Oprah is just too darned important. In high school, lunch for me was a bowl of chili .35 (cockroaches extra). Salad with french dressing .25 (yeah French, I didn't need my switchblade to get extras that way). Chocolate malt .25. I got a dollar a day and saved my nickel each day. I walked to school about one mile each way. I lived on the south side of the tracks (north side was Sonja Weaver's neighborhood and the other rich kids). Caveman and I lived south. During the 70's recession, my best friend, caveman, walked with me. He was forced to carry his shoes in his hand for the mile and then put them on when He got to school. Same after class. Walked home barefooted because He couldn't afford new shoes. Well, it's close to the truth. [:badge:4]

Edit for Writer's embellishments.

 

[AnUnusedUsername]

While I'm perfectly willing to fill out your survey, I'm sure you know a voluntary survey isn't a very reliable way of getting accurate statistics, the affected group almost always responds much more than the unaffected group. One of the first things statistics classes tell you is to make sure your data can be trusted, or at least make sure to mention the source if its unreliable (random survey - reliable, voluntary internet survey - not so much)


Age: 20-30
USA, New England
3. Well, I'll have a degree in computer science soon and I've built my pc's for awhile, take that for what you will.
4. This question isn't too clear, but I've been in college majoring in CS for 4 years.
5. ~10 years (an old 40gb WD),
it got upgraded, can't use Windows 95 forever. Upgrading when vista was new may not have been a great idea, in retrospect.
7.yes
8.no
9.depends entirely on the company from my experience. Newegg: great, an unnamed other source: mediocre.
10-N/A

Helpful Information That May Or May Not Be Relevant:
I'ts a lot more likely to kill a hdd yourself by moving it/the case its in around than that it will fail, but thats not to say it dosent happen. Common thing to remember is that if it doesn't fail in the first 2 weeks, it'll last 5 years.
Dead/dying HDD's can occasionally be sprung back to life(temporarily) by getting them to a low temperature(below freezing), provided you dont get moisture on them. I've recovered files from a few older hard drives this way.
Dont try to OC a HDD. It's technically possible (force a higher RPM, either through some driver/bios settings or manually upping the power), but not the best idea in the world. An easy way to kill your hard drive though.

 

[surveyer732]

Thank you all, who have taken this survey so far. It’s been a big help to me (and surprisingly a few laughs). To clarify I am currently taking Engineering Design and Development, a class based around researching, testing and creating a solution for a problem and for this I need a large amount of surveys if any one has any recommendations of where else to ask for help I would gladly take the assistance.

Also I still need more people to take this survey so I guess… Keep them coming?

 

[buwish]

1. 20-29
2. Illinois, USA
3. High
4. Since I was a youngster, so probably 15 odd some years.
5. Still working just fine (4.5 years for the oldest one)
6. N/A Still have it, but upgraded/replaced it as my boot drive.
7. Yes
8. No
9. Good
10. N/A

 

[EXT64]

Ah engineering classes. Fun stuff (I'm a Senior Mechanical Engineer in College).

1. 20-29

2. Virginia, USA

3. Mid-High, about to get higher

4. about 8-10 years

5. Hard question. I've got several sitting around that I no longer use, though I just stopped using them (they work fine). Oldest still used about 6 years I think

6. All still working fine

7. UPS and Fedex

8. No

9. It varied, unfortunately. There was a short period when Newegg was not packing them well and I heard a lot of others had Hard Drive problems. Fortunately by the time I got my newest drive (Spinpoint F3 1TB) they had gone back to better packaging (hard plastic case or static bag in a smaller well padded box inside the main box).

10. N/A

 

[tigsounds]

1: 30-90

2: Caracas, Venezuela (although I lived in the USA for many years).

3: Expert (MS Computer Science; Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, CA.)

4: 46 years

5: My "Last" drive, that would be one I'm now using, about 10 months.

6: It died, it was a Seagate 7200.11 (of course!)

7: Yes, from USA. Decent parts are hard to get locally.

8: No, but does the Seagate only lasting 3 weeks count? Hey Seagate.... [:tigsounds:1]

9: Mail ordered from a place in California called "Fry's", they packed excellently.

10: N/A

More information?? You seem to be more interested in shock-proof shipping for vulnerable components.
Go with liquid-displacement methods in a strong box, or, just how safe is the yoke of an egg (considering the shell doesn't break)?

 

[treefrog07]

1. 45-59

2. USA, Virginia

3. High +/-

4. Since 1986, trouble-shooting, repairing, and building since 1995

5. Still have it - about 3 months old - see 6. I have a lot of older ones too, e.g. 4.3GB WD circa 1998 - still works, just too small for today's machines.

6. It died, according to WD's lifeguard utilities. RMAed on-line, replaced within 7 days at no charge.

7. Yes, many. All received through either UPS or FEDEX

8. No

9. Good to excellent (all were OEM, without the retail packaging)

10. N/A

I hope you get an A

 

[Maziar]

1.20-29

2.Iran-Tehran

3.Mid-High

4.7-8 years

5.About 2 years

6.It was still working fine but i needed something with higher capacity so I upgraded it.

7.No

8.Fortunately no

9.It was OK(Its OEM so its nothing special)

10.I guess it can be both but its more likely because of the quality of the product.