XPS 8930, Hard drive bad or good?

@garioch7 

Thanks for the reply and as for Support Assist Glitch yes I think that was it Support Assist seems to have a bunch of glitches. This has happened before on my M.2.

Something crazy about that is the tech I contacted said he needed the serial number off my keyboard in order to replace the drive. 

I am still puzzled why he needed the serial number off the keyboard. 

@CTG_8273 

I would download Seatools, which is Seagate's own HDD diagnostic program.  If all the data is backed up beforehand, try the Short Test; and if that passes, run the "Long" test.  If it passes both tests, I would conclude that it was a SupportAssist error or glitch of some kind.

The reason for making sure the data is all backed up first is that read/write intensive HDD diagnostic tests can tip a failing drive into the grave, so you want to ensure that you have everything that you want to keep backed up, before running those tests.

Good luck and have a great day.

Regards,
-Phil

Are you logged into an account with Administrator privileges?

Open Device Manager and check the driver version number for the Qualcomm WiFi+BT card. Compare that number with the version number currently offered on the site (12.0.0.953, A39).  If they're the same, you got "failed", instead of "up to date" because it tried to install the same version that's already installed.

As for Killer Ethernet, the driver version number shown in Device Manager should be 9.0.0.50, if you have the latest one. That won't match the version number shown on the support site for Killer Ethernet, but the version on the site will appear as v9.0.0.50 in Device Manager. 

If either/both of those drivers are out-of-date, download them onto your desktop and install them manually.

And IMO, forget about using SupportAssist...

@RoHe 

Driver issues is resolved now they all installed. And as for Support Assist yea I really should uninstall it.

@garioch7 

I ran sea tools long test and the test passed. I just don't know  about Support Assist. If Dell does not want to fix these glitches and keep sending out parts because of false reports and wasting money that is them.

I was not clear if the part was gonna be sent here or sent to a service tech. I am not letting anyone in my house like that right now. I will take the part and install myself. 

I am gonna go ahead and swap the part out just incase. I will also use Crystal Disk and see how many times the drive has been powered on ETC and compare it to what I have. Only thing that I am concerned  me is the funny sounds the drive makes.

@garioch7  and @RoHe 

I have uninstalled Support Assist and reinstalled. Ran the long test on the drive and it passed. IDK why I got the error in the first place. I might test the other drive even though it wasn't sent from Dell. I just don't know why Dell does not fix Support Assist.

@CTG_8273 

I would be concerned about "funny sounds" emanating from my hard drive as well!  Personally, I purchased two licences for Hard Disk Sentinel Pro for my Dell laptop and Dell desktop.  It provides real-time monitoring of the health of all SSD/HDDs connected to the computer.  Well worth the money, in my opinion.

DISCLOSURE: I have no affiliation with the company that sells Hard Disk Sentinel Pro, other than being a customer.

Good luck and have a great day.

Regards,
-Phil

Do you know it's actually noise from the HDD?

Could it be a fan, a case panel or a cable that rubs/vibrates? The PSU and case fans only run occasionally so if one of them is causing vibrations, the noise would come/go seemingly randomly. Some users have put electrical tape over the PSU metal locking "hooks" inside the case to stop vibrations.

There are also instances where the XPS 8930's removable side panel made funny noises that some foam or felt tape applied along the inside edges stopped.

@RoHe 

Yes it is for sure the hard drive. It is a Seagate drive and I am very aware that Seagate sometimes make strange noises. I have a 2 TB portable that all of a sudden failed and it was less than a year. Not the first Seagate I had to fail like that. 

@garioch7 

Hard drive Sentinel shows the drive is good. But if Dell sends the new drive I will send the old one back. 

I hope they send a WD drive. Warranty is a little useless when you loose data. I will also check and see how many hours the "new" drive has on it. Support Agent I contacted said the drive would be "Factory Imaged. I don't know why it would be imaged it's not the boot drive. Before when this happened I had a 4 TB I added myself and it failed and somehow Support Assist opened a request and a drive was sent. It was imaged also. But I sent it back because the drive from Dell at that time was not the one that failed. It just puzzles me all I did was saw the error in Support Assist Hardware Failure. I clicked the option 

Fix Now. And that opened the request. And the drive was sent. This time there seems to be a delay for some reason. I haven't been notified a drive was sent yet. But I am for sure swapping it out because of the noises. If the noises keep up then I will know it's probably the fan.

@CTG_8273 

I would be very surprised if Dell were to send you a WD drive.  They seem to be wedded to Seagate, probably because of the price differential.  Nonetheless, I hope that your wishes are fulfilled and you get a WD drive.  I won't purchase Seagate HDDs because some models have been hopelessly unreliable.

That said, the Seagate 500 GB drive in my old Dell XPS Studio 1645 lasted 11.5 years before packing it in completely, without warning, just after I had completed my weekly system image, and while it was running a Bitdefender System Scan.  I just replaced the laptop, and I now have a Dell XPS 15 7590.

In any event, if you get a new drive, I would certainly install it.  Loud, intermittent noises emanating from a hard drive are not a good sign.

Good luck and have a great day.

Regards,
-Phil

@garioch7 

This happened before I think I mentioned it. I put in a 4 TB WD Red drive it was external but I took it out of the case. I put in in this XPS 8930. Support Assist showed it was failing and it really is. I guess there are bad apples sometimes. 

But I accidently ordered a replacement drive through Support Assist. That was my fault but people at Dell should have saw it was 4 TB red drive and the XPS does not even have that option. 

So they sent a 1 TB WD Blue and it was imaged I am not sure why it was imaged because they should also see my boot drive was a M.2 SSD. 

I just don't know about techs at Dell they are pretty bad. I sent the WD 1 TB back even if they sent a 4 TB it would have been tempting but I would still would've it back. 

I should get the drive today and I am wiping the Seagate right now incase they decide to use it. 

@garioch7 

It is a WD Blue drive with 0 Hours and power on count 4. The drive is imaged, I backed the drive up with True Image. 

I may restore the image later but since my other 1 TB has room I will keep the image. Now I am booting the drive up. I want to see what version of Windows it is. I viewed the drive while booted to the M.2 and it showed the Windows folder was dated 2012. And one other crazy thing I saw I cannot remember. I still heard a whining sound so @RoHe it must be the fans. But there is no clicking sound or not yet anyway. 

@garioch7 

Also as far as Dell sending Seagate. My Inspiron 3000 laptop typing on it now. Once the drive was replaced and they sent a WD Black, And It came with a WD Blue. But now I am using an SSD in it hard drives are just behind the times. Hopefully one day my XPS will have a 1 TB SSD as storage.

I am gonna post pictures later I am booting up the replacement but it's running through some OEM oobe thing. I will post a picture.

@DELL-Jesse L 

Yes they sent a new drive and it was a Western Digital drive. It was imaged and I made a backup of the image just incase I ever need it. But soon that image will be out dated I know.

I also keep getting notified by Support Assist.

"Are you looking for details on 

and

"Are you looking for details on