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Author Topic: hard drives  (Read 14105 times)

woof75

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« on: April 08, 2008, 01:18:30 pm »

Maxtor, Lacie, Seagate, western digital?

First off, after looking at amazon reviews they all fail, I've had WD drives fail, my Lacies and Maxtors are fine and have never failed, many people's have. Some say Seagate, amazon reviews say they often fail.
They all fail, and none are great but I have to buy 2 new 500GB drives.
What to get, anyone know anything I should know?
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sniper

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« Reply #1 on: April 08, 2008, 01:26:21 pm »

Western digital and maxtor in my experience have both been pretty good, personally I wouldn't touch Lacie (heard to many bad things) As you say they can ALL fail, anything with moving parts has a finite lifespan, backup, backup, and backup again (then pray)  Wayne
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DarkPenguin

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« Reply #2 on: April 08, 2008, 02:08:04 pm »

Lacie packages hard drives.  They do not make them.

They all fail.  I've had warranty replacments on Seagate, Maxtor (owned by Seagate), IBM (division now owned by Hitachi), and Western Digital.  My samsungs have not failed me.  Haven't owned a deskstar since hitachi bought them.

I buy seagates but that has as much to do with the number of people I know who work there as it does the drives reliability.  (And the fact that my Seagate options made me a ton of $$ some years ago.)
« Last Edit: April 08, 2008, 02:14:11 pm by DarkPenguin »
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Farkled

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« Reply #3 on: April 08, 2008, 02:12:55 pm »

Since they all have to be made with cost competition in mind and knowing that all will fail, one option is to simply get the cheapest and plan for failure.
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woof75

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« Reply #4 on: April 08, 2008, 02:18:46 pm »

Quote
Since they all have to be made with cost competition in mind and knowing that all will fail, one option is to simply get the cheapest and plan for failure.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=188004\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

One thing I did learn is getting 2 different brands of drive each time. My two WD drives both failed in the same way after about a week at the most.
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pookipichu

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« Reply #5 on: April 08, 2008, 02:31:50 pm »

I've bought 5 LaCie drives the 250GB porcsche drives and 2 have outright died on me, 1 is dying and the rest... it's only a matter of time.  I bought them because they were cheap and I have been burned.  They have experienced very light use under optimal conditions.  Attempting to retrieve data has been an expensive and time consuming nightmare.  Needless to say, I tell everyone to avoid Lacie drives like the plague.  The quality control is horrific with less durability than dixie cups.

I've had good experiences with Seagate, Western Digital and Hitachi.  Knock on wood.  Now I have everything triple backed up on different manufacturers' drives.

Quote
Maxtor, Lacie, Seagate, western digital?

First off, after looking at amazon reviews they all fail, I've had WD drives fail, my Lacies and Maxtors are fine and have never failed, many people's have. Some say Seagate, amazon reviews say they often fail.
They all fail, and none are great but I have to buy 2 new 500GB drives.
What to get, anyone know anything I should know?
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=187988\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
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situgrrl

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« Reply #6 on: April 08, 2008, 02:38:59 pm »

I've had WD, Seagate and Maxtor fail on me.  I buy maxtors because it gave me plenty of warning!  I'm not sure there is so much a correct answer as a line of superstition to follow.

skibum187

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« Reply #7 on: April 08, 2008, 02:59:22 pm »

I had 2 WDs fail simultaneously in my RAID array.... a pain-in-the-ass to say the least.

I've also had two of the LaCie Porsche portable drives fail, but both were powerboard failures, so the drives were fine.

My one Maxtor portable has taken a beating and kept on going just fine
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Jack Varney

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« Reply #8 on: April 08, 2008, 07:20:12 pm »

Funny, I just ordered a 750GB Seagate today. My two year old Maxtor is failing while my IBM drive (manufacturer unknown, probably Hitachi) has been humming along for five years.

I went with the Seagate Barracuda on the basis of warranty (five years), MTBF numbers (750,000 hours - 50,000 contact events) and an annual failure rate quoted at 0.34% or 34 failures for every 10,000 drives.  

We'll see...
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Jack Varney

Digiteyesed

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« Reply #9 on: April 08, 2008, 08:01:02 pm »

Speaking as someone who runs a computer repair business as his day job, I have a large pile of failed hard drives in the back of my shop. I've been saving them so I can salvage the magnets from them. I'm planning to use the magnets for a wind generator I'm building this summer. Anyhow, here's the stats on the pile:

1 Seagate (killed by lightning strike on house)
3 Western Digitals (1 killed by power surge, I think)
17 Samsungs
68 Maxtors

This matches my own personal experience of Seagate drives being the most reliable and Maxtor being the least (if you're unfortunate enough to own a Maxtor, make plenty of backups). The only thing I'd buy with the Samsung name on it is a computer monitor -- I'd run as fast and as far as possible from anything else.

My 2 cents.
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jjj

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« Reply #10 on: April 08, 2008, 08:04:40 pm »

Quote
They all fail.  I've had warranty replacments on Seagate, Maxtor (owned by Seagate), IBM (division now owned by Hitachi), and Western Digital.  My samsungs have not failed me.  Haven't owned a deskstar since hitachi bought them.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=188001\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
Same here. Samsung are my choice these days. Very quiet too. And Fast.
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jmboss

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« Reply #11 on: April 08, 2008, 09:52:38 pm »

As a former long time employee of Circuit City Stores Inc. and as an owner and builder of many PC's and Macs over the last 20 years, I have to give my vote for the least amount of HD failures to Western Digital.

Joe Bossuyt
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woof75

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« Reply #12 on: April 09, 2008, 03:02:10 pm »

so here goes, I bought 2, Maxtor one touch 4 500GB and a WD home edition 500GB drive. I have my fingers crossed.
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kaelaria

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« Reply #13 on: April 09, 2008, 03:30:15 pm »

I have built/serviced/maintained/repaied hundreds of systems over the past 10 years.  I currently run 9 drives on my main system.

All are Western Digital.

I have had a smattering of brands fail over the years, but only a batch of older IBM drives (now Hitachi) were attributed directly to poor design.  They were eventually known as the Deathstar (Deskstar) drives, and I had over 15 fail within a few months.  

The number 1 killer of drives, no matter the brand, is heat.  I have an original 40GB LaCie ext. enclosure drive (maxtor drive in it) and it's still going, but I just sold it because it's too small to be useful anymore.  LaCie has a reputation like Apple - great looks, exotic design.  Unfortunately that exotic design - aluminum heatsink/enclosure is finiky.  It MUST have clearance all the way around for adaquate airflow.  It gets HOT.  Many people stacked them, put them under other equipment, etc. - and they will fail doing so.  The same is true of many external enclusures with no fan.

I recently killed two of my drives due to me being a dumbass, and not cleaning my drive fan intake filter.  It was packed with dust, and the two farthest drives cooked themselves.  Luckily they were not critical drives, and I didn't lose anything.

I also use the new GP drives in my 4TB array - they are specifically designed for low heat, spining at 5400 or 7200 on demand to save power.

Keep the drives cool, and you won't have problems, is the bottom line.
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jjj

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« Reply #14 on: April 09, 2008, 08:50:06 pm »

Quote
I have had a smattering of brands fail over the years, but only a batch of older IBM drives (now Hitachi) were attributed directly to poor design.  They were eventually known as the Deathstar (Deskstar) drives, and I had over 15 fail within a few months.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=188274\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
That wasn't bad design, it was a bad batch. Specifically ones made in the Hungary factory.
Unsurprisingly there isn't much poetry regard hard drives, however.....


I once bought a 75GXP,
made in the fair land of Hungary.
One morning, straight out of bed,
I wrote a file that could not be read.
I heard a weird noise, and scratched my head;
I said to myself, "This drive is DEAD!"
 
I mourned the loss of sundry data,
yet very soon (and not much later)
that doomsday theory I rejected,
as my other files were unaffected.
 
My OS and data I promptly withdrew
to a Samsung drive, brand spanking-new.
The IBM got a firmware upgrade--
I bought it a twin, and made it RAID!
for DVD rips and various trinkets
one often downloads from the "internets".
 
This week the old DeskStar did it again
I stamped my feet; I tore my mane.
But then I quickly recollected
the scandisk run that I'd neglected.
 
The surface error check took forever;
the heads scraped loudly throughout the endeavor.
But when it was done, it had placed a lock
on every bad sector and corrupted block.
 
I then took every known fix to heart:
ran DFT's "Clean Disk"; enabled SMART.
I wiped the drive and repartitioned it,
and ran a long stress-test to condition it.
 
All this it passed with flying color,
leaving me with a gnawing thing to mull o'er:
Will such "Deathstars", thus redeemed
continue to render service esteemed?
Or will they hew to their nomenclature
By living true to their fail-prone nature?
 
There's no certain answer to my query, hence
I thought I'd tap your collective experience.
Should these notorious drives fall within your ken,
then what say you, O newsgroup denizen?
 
Adam Cole
« Last Edit: April 09, 2008, 08:50:33 pm by jjj »
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kaelaria

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« Reply #15 on: April 09, 2008, 08:56:18 pm »

OK, that was just too dorky even for me.  
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woof75

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« Reply #16 on: April 10, 2008, 10:08:01 am »

Quote
That wasn't bad design, it was a bad batch. Specifically ones made in the Hungary factory.
Unsurprisingly there isn't much poetry regard hard drives, however.....
I once bought a 75GXP,
made in the fair land of Hungary.
One morning, straight out of bed,
I wrote a file that could not be read.
I heard a weird noise, and scratched my head;
I said to myself, "This drive is DEAD!"
 
I mourned the loss of sundry data,
yet very soon (and not much later)
that doomsday theory I rejected,
as my other files were unaffected.
 
My OS and data I promptly withdrew
to a Samsung drive, brand spanking-new.
The IBM got a firmware upgrade--
I bought it a twin, and made it RAID!
for DVD rips and various trinkets
one often downloads from the "internets".
 
This week the old DeskStar did it again
I stamped my feet; I tore my mane.
But then I quickly recollected
the scandisk run that I'd neglected.
 
The surface error check took forever;
the heads scraped loudly throughout the endeavor.
But when it was done, it had placed a lock
on every bad sector and corrupted block.
 
I then took every known fix to heart:
ran DFT's "Clean Disk"; enabled SMART.
I wiped the drive and repartitioned it,
and ran a long stress-test to condition it.
 
All this it passed with flying color,
leaving me with a gnawing thing to mull o'er:
Will such "Deathstars", thus redeemed
continue to render service esteemed?
Or will they hew to their nomenclature
By living true to their fail-prone nature?
 
There's no certain answer to my query, hence
I thought I'd tap your collective experience.
Should these notorious drives fall within your ken,
then what say you, O newsgroup denizen?
 
Adam Cole
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=188330\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Brilliance or insanity?
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Mike W

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« Reply #17 on: April 11, 2008, 11:34:21 am »

both, mixed with a pinch of nerd. :-)
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DarkPenguin

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« Reply #18 on: April 11, 2008, 12:16:35 pm »

Quote
both, mixed with a pinch of nerd. :-)
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=188734\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
I'd say there is a full cup of nerd in that.
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BenjaminJ

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« Reply #19 on: April 14, 2008, 07:35:31 am »

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