computer parts in china

[Nuhaus]

Everything except gmail. Gmail is sucking big time today. Anyone besides TD and me having trouble here inside the GFW?

cheers

For the last 2 weeks Gmail has been really messed up for me and my friends as well. Resorted to using Outlook as writing an email takes forever as the page tries to autosave.

[slabo]

BSOD !! My hard drive is dying.. Well at least that's what I can tell from the error messages Im getting. Second BSOD in one day, ouch. Since moving to China I've dropped linux and downgraded to using Windows and now on Win7. Not so bad, compared to the old days. But troubleshooting is still cryptic...
In the market for a new drive now. this is the one I have now.
Just writing to a forum makes me think about every possible symptom, and now I'm not so sure I really need to replace the hard drive. It's only about 3 years old now..

Anyways, I noticed newegg.com offers a 5 year warranty on this WD drive, whereas the Chinese site is only offering 3 year warranty. Not that it makes a big difference, I'll probably throw out the drive long before that day comes anyway.
I'm torn between the WD mentioned above and this Seagate drive >> http://www.newegg.com.cn/Product/22-c07-245.htm

[CantDecide]

Funny you should mention that, I just went through the same decision process, I just unboxed my WD 320 GB Scorpio Blue (5400 rpm) drive, which I got from NewEgg here in the US. Unfortunately, it looks like it shook itself loose in the packaging, so I'm not sure it is in good condition. I don't know what to do, because I'm leaving for China Tuesday and I wanted to bring a bunch of media with me.

Slabo, its funny, I checked that HD on the US NewEgg website, and its about 120 yuan cheaper, with free shipping. Anyway, I don't think you can go wrong with either the WD or Seagate drives. Generally I prefer the Seagates, but for what I needed, I just got the WD.

[euphonius]

Josh,

Can't you just call NewEgg and describe the situation, tell them you are going to put the HD in your laptop. Run the standard tests and if it checks out, you're good to load the media and run. If not, return it. You won't have the media you wanted, but you'll not be carrying a fancy paperweight.

How long are you staying this visit? Any closer to having the residence permit and China license?

cheers

[slabo]

Hi Jeff,
The issue is not whether the the drive will be compatible or not, that I can decide according to the hard drive's interface. SATA II in this case. I was just looking which is the best deal and still get a performance boost. After a quick look at benchmarks, the two drives seem to perform almost the same, so really it won't matter either way, as long as I change the one I have now. Running out of space anyway..
But after running all the related HDD tests, seems the HD is fine. Again, MS trouble shooting, I might as well ask my dog what's wrong...

The question was why the warranty is different between the US and Chinese NewEgg and Amazon (identical prices for computer parts by the way). First I thought it must be a mistake on Newegg China side. But after trying to figure out the warranty on my Seagate HD.. turns out the warranty depends on the country you're in!!!
Yup, the same part, made in China, has a different warranty here than the US. Explain THAT if you can... It's not just for hard drives, USB flash drives, camera's .. electronics in general. .. To make things even worse, all this stuff is more expensive here, before it's shipped half way across the world. Call me stupid, but I just don't get it. Everything I've ever bought in China is at least 10% cheaper in the US.

see pm about visa..


err... Who's Josh??

[CantDecide]

err... Who's Josh??

That's me. :)

Sorry, I think Jeff was replying to the problem with my harddrive arrive loose in the packaging... To your warranty issue, I'm surprised a 5 year warranty is offered here in the US. I thought 3 years was normal, and you are right, if a drive is still in use 5 years later, that's pretty amazing, at least in a home setting.

Jeff, to your questions: I tried out the disk, and it seems ok so far. Apparently the Mac doesn't have a active bad-block searching program, but I'll have my friend with a PC run a few tests. I contacted NewEgg, and they offered me $10 back to keep the drive, so I'll take them up on that offer.

As for my Visa/License, no, I haven't had any luck. Now that I'm pretty much 1/2 through this adventure, I've kind of given up. I bought a bike here in Boston though, a Ninja 250... Not the style of bike I'd really want, but its a good learner and there aren't many options in the 250 class here.

This time I'll be in China for 6 weeks, till the end of June. Mostly in Beijing, but I'm taking trips to Guilin, Hangzhou, and maybe Suzhou. I think we are planning on going to Shanghai on the next trip.

[ChinaV]

Apparently the Mac doesn't have a active bad-block searching program, but I'll have my friend with a PC run a few tests.

Open Disk Utility, select the disk, choose erase, click security options, select "Zero Out Data", click OK, Erase. This will zero every sector of the disk, if there is a bad block, it will map it out. If you have a lot of time, select 7-Pass erase, this will pretty much guarantee that every sector of the disk is performing correctly.

Tech Tool Pro, Drive 10, Disk Drill, Drive Genius are all OSX options if you have data on the disk and want to do a non-destructive block test. Some paid disk utility programs have free trials that let you test a drive and then you only have to pay if you want to recover data.

Cheers!
ChinaV

[euphonius]

...Tech Tool Pro, Drive 10, Disk Drill, Drive Genius are all OSX options if you have data on the disk and want to do a non-destructive block test. Some paid disk utility programs have free trials that let you test a drive and then you only have to pay if you want to recover data.
...

I think an earlier version of Tech Tool Pro even came bundled with one of my Macbooks in recent years.

cheers