Replace this hard drive?

[brandonkick]

@Diggs

It sounds like you have a fairly good eye for detecting and monitoring failing drives.
I can't say the same personally, normally I've found most types of smart testing to be
worthless and haven't had much success (albeit haven't tried a lot either) to scan for
and correct bad sectors (by marking them bad).

When a 275GB SSD costs $80, and making a clone from a drive that is still readable takes
around 10 min of hands on time... I normally recommend that right away. It might seem
expensive compared to a 1 or 2TB hard drive for just $20-$30 more.... but how often do
people use more than 100-200GB out of their 1 or 2 TB drive? It's rare for me to see a big
drive like that filled beyond 200GB, although you do see it from time to time.

Do they not have cable internet in your neck of the woods? 1 Mbps DSL would be painful.
I guess for basic browsing it would do alright.... I remember back when I first got cable I think
our speed was 3 Mbps / 1Mbps. That was back around 2001 or so. The internet became "usable"
was the term I came up with. Going from very crappy dial up to a connection like that was insane.

 

[Diggs]

Guys, enough...... You don't work in my market (which is good for you) and you don't get it. I already lose about 30% of the business on drives that HAVE to be replaced. That jumps to 50-60% when I start replacing marginal drives instead of repairs and it's not that they go out and buy a new computer either. Many go without. I sell a new drive for $100. That is big $$$ to some in my market. I make general computer/network repairs sometimes and don't get paid until the beginning of the following month with disability/social security/etc. comes out. But you know what? I've NEVER not been paid in all my years. It works for me and my customers and I'm not asking it to work for you. Just sayin' - there's other options.

Some of you are the repair techs my customers have come to fear ("I can't go in their shop without a $250 bill...."). That's your business and that's fine. It doesn't work so well here.

 

[Krynn72]

First off, let me apologize for the tone of my last post. I was on a binge watch of Louis Rossmann's videos and was taking a similar attitude which I shouldn't have, especially against another tech. So I'm sorry for being a dick.

But I still feel like you should be able to sell a new drive without much problem to 99% of your customers. We are the cheapest shop around here. We sell "standard hard drives" for $50-$75 depending on the owner's whim. With labor to clone overnight I'll charge $129. Even if you sell the part at cost ($40 for that drive linked) you can still make the same amount of money for the same amount of work, and the customer gets a new hdd, probably better performance (because they probably have 5400rpm drives) and an extension on the life of their computer. In my own opinion, I think thats taking care of the customer better than letting their bad hdd limp along.

I called it salesmanship before, but that's often interpreted as swindling someone, but I think its properly educating people on what the best choice is for them. And I honestly think that getting a new hdd in there is better for the customer because in will save them from spending more money in the future due to the longer working life of the pc and decreased chance of needing data recovery from a fully failed drive. But if you disagree, fair enough because honestly you would, of course, know your customers better than me.

 

[Haole Boy]

Aloha everyone.

I'm the OP to this thread, and haven't been able to get back here to review it for several days. Thanx for all of your input and a very interesting discussion.

I especially appreciate Diggs outlook as my business is 99% residential and the cost of a new drive and clone operation is considered substantial for a lot of my clients.

In this particular case, the machine is used for business purposes so I will be contacting the customer to recommend a replacement drive. (I had to return the machine to him as he needed it as soon as he could get it.)

Again, thank you to everyone who responded.

Harry Z.

 

[ohio_grad_06]

Didn't read through all of this, but when in doubt, always replace. In fact, SSD's are cheap enough, ask them about one of those. But if a drive is questionable, I don't even mess with it unless the client is fully aware that it may go out, and that then, that will be on them, not me.

Also, I primarily do residential repairs, and most folks roll with it.

 

[GTP]

Guys, enough...... You don't work in my market (which is good for you) and you don't get it. I already lose about 30% of the business on drives that HAVE to be replaced. That jumps to 50-60% when I start replacing marginal drives instead of repairs and it's not that they go out and buy a new computer either. Many go without. I sell a new drive for $100. That is big $$$ to some in my market. I make general computer/network repairs sometimes and don't get paid until the beginning of the following month with disability/social security/etc. comes out. But you know what? I've NEVER not been paid in all my years. It works for me and my customers and I'm not asking it to work for you. Just sayin' - there's other options.

Some of you are the repair techs my customers have come to fear ("I can't go in their shop without a $250 bill...."). That's your business and that's fine. It doesn't work so well here.

I totally agree with this! We don't all live in a perfect world with customers with pockets full of money.
We do the best we can with what we have.